Nine Inch Nails
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Every time I prepare to listen to a new work by Trent Reznor for the first time, I am always enveloped in a whirlwind of different emotions and anxieties.

The figure of Reznor has always fascinated and intrigued me greatly, for better or worse. A child who at 6 was already studying and playing Mozart's "third phase" on the piano; who at 10 was already a multi-instrumentalist playing violin and saxophone; who as a teenager turned to synths, keyboards, bass, guitar, and finally singing. In short, a complete musician, who reaches 23 after studying sounds applied to the PC, and the decision to destroy music. He falls in love with industrial, perhaps the least melodic of all facets of pop music. Even if he didn't invent it, because I leave the palm to Ministry, he certainly had the merit of bringing it to the masses. After the beginnings with his first 7 CDs, already much appreciated, he places two masterpieces; two milestones such as "THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL" and "THE FRAGILE." Then he disappears, crystallized like Young Solo in anthracite. Drug problems, sporadic participations in soundtracks for very demanding films, some background music for console games, and nothing more for over 6 years. He reappears with "WITH TEETH" in 2005, followed by "YEAR ZERO" in early 2007.

"Only" 5 studio albums out of a discography of 25 "Halo," the name by which he chronologically identifies each of his releases, including singles, remixes, and covers. The first more rock, the second more electronic, both much more melodic than the previous production of the '90s and for this, of course, much criticized. However, to be clear, we are not facing a drift in the style of "LOAD" and "RE-LOAD," so to speak. Simply, our phenomenon turns 40, and instead of sitting in an armchair and writing songs that mimic his great successes of the past, he dives ambitiously into a new challenge without losing his style. Namely, meticulous care of sounds, recordings, and mixing, searching for new brilliant "mercenaries" for his live shows, of which magnificent reports were read in the last two years spent on the road. As an eyewitness of his performance in Milan last year, I'm still in shock! Exceptional. He returns to the song form, after having violated it for years. He rediscovers in some pieces the drums instead of the sampled ones, using the excellent Freese. He releases 2 albums for a total of 30 tracks, a bit too many. Personally, I believe that if he had compressed the two albums into just one, with the best 12, he would have produced the best album of the 2000s. Instead, he spoils it with foolishly lyrical tracks like "CAPITOL G" (also a single), which reveal its limit. His vanity.

He also finds time to produce the new Soul Williams album, who becomes his new "apprentice" after leaving Marilyn Manson, whom he molded in silicone (and produced for Antichrist and Mechanical) to his sad decline without the supervision of the Jedi master. He takes part in writing "ERA VULGARIS" with QUEEN OF THE STONE AGE, it's said he often dines with friends David Bowie and Martin L. Gore in London, and he embarks on a journalistic war against the record labels, terminating all his contracts and deciding to self-produce. He announces a new album in 2008, a follow-up to "Year Zero," which he describes as "the soundtrack of his first film that will come and doesn't yet exist." To top it all off, since he was bored, he serves me this "HALO 25", the old vice of remixing his last album, which was thought to have been abandoned, as he hadn't produced it after releasing "WITH TEETH," breaking a decades-long tradition. In short, another theatrical coup by an egocentric, immodest, twisted, diabolical mind but undoubtedly very powerful.

The dance opens with "GUNSHOTS BY COMPUTER", which is exactly the already excellent opening of "YEAR ZERO" in the background (hyperpower, a piece in pure industrial style of the '90s) with Soul Williams' rap over it. A mix that creates a piece aimed directly at the heart. "The GREAT DESTROYER", re-sung with a simple acoustic guitar underneath, very grunge in Seattle style, smoothly transitions to electronic input so that you almost don't notice it. Do not download this CD for free from the internet, please. It is an anthem to the perfection of background sounds, you would kill it. Who this 34-year-old modwheelmood singing with him is, I honestly don't know. But she's good, maybe even in his bed? "MY VIOLENT HEART" with piraterobotmidget is remixed in a very acid style. The piece suits this style and benefits from it, resulting in being more beautiful than the original. I like LADYTRON a lot, and I also enjoyed them very much in Milan as an opening act. In this piece no.4 "THE BEGINNING OF THE END" they seem to take a bit too much of some typically DAFT PUNK sounds at the beginning of the track. Too robotic, not to seem copied. However, the agony in dissonance of the rest of the piece is remarkable. Soul Williams returns in the remix of "SURVIVALISM" (the original is a masterpiece), which is a continuum with the previous track without solution. Notable. It comes in under the chorus slitheringly, as if coming out of an old radio, then another mini daft punk reference, and finally the almost disco explosion in a chemical brothers' sauce. And I find myself dancing on the chair like a kid! At that point, I say, if the whole album is like this, I spent my money well. Expectation immediately mortified by the next track, unfortunately. While it didn't take much to raise the quotations of the original "CAPITOL G" (which remains a mess not worthy of him), the remix remains a piece worthy only of some lap dance bar in Eastern Europe, like in the last Britney Spears video. Do as you please...

For the remix of "VESSEL", I find none other than the good Bill Laswell. Finally returning to the planet of sadness, the basic condition for good bedroom music. However, despite creating a gothic atmosphere of absinthe and bondage lovemaking, it doesn't quite take off. Too decadent, although decadence is never a limitation. "THE WARNING" is perhaps already my favorite piece on "YEAR ZERO." Here it is elevated to a masterpiece. An intro evocative of a Dario Argento film opens the way to the singing with tribal sounds worthy of a Zulu death dance. All of it is glued together by dark bass loops. The track thus becomes a very deep and haunting slow piece, orphaned of the guitars from Aaron North, which also gave the original that punk touch that I so appreciated. As for who Stefan Goodchild is, sorry but here too I admit my ignorance. "MEET YOUR MASTER (The Faint)" is very easy listening. Maybe too much. This CD disorients me, I move from absolute peaks to peaks of boring, crummy new electrobit. Bah? In "GOD GIVEN", Stephen Morris & wife give a touch of mediocre English countryside to a piece made in Hollywood. A depressing, boring, and tiring mix. Oops, I think I've been too kind so far. I thought it was love, but instead it was a... but wait... "ME I'M NOT" begins well. However, when I see that it lasts over 14 minutes of pure electronic music, I skip it. Come on, I'm still an ex-metaller, and you can't ask too much of ears accustomed to the saturation of valve Marshalls for too many years.

"ANOTHER VERSION OF THE TRUTH" is a deliberately theatrical and minimalist piece. The violin that enters immediately reminds me of Frau Blucher in Young Frankenstein, and a grin lights up on my face. It then heads toward a drift of dissonant strings and violas, which I already know will be the nirvana of many ex-conservatories, but honestly, it brings me back to the sad end of the good Morgan post-Bluvertigo. It may also be superior art, but I'm not yet ready. I'm also waiting for my third phase (the orchitis one) to be able to appreciate it. "IN THIS TWILIGHT" (which I adore in its original version) is also for a drip/pear/blue fairy time. In front of my PC and sober, it doesn't hit the mark. It closes with a very touching "ZERO SUM", which seems to have been written for the finale of a colossal. Only the phrase is missing: "and everything will fade, like tears in the rain" and then we are there.

For those who have made it this far with me, I say: summing it all up, it is a CD that I like a lot, but out of 14 tracks, 5/6 should be eliminated. However, the heights of the successful remixes are really very high. For this reason, I continue my passionate search of the Reznor's mind, striving to grasp the secret of his so eclectic soul. Listen to it in its original version, with an excellent stereo and headphones.