Just How Deep Do You Believe?
Trent Reznor Brings Nine Inch Nails To The Next Level
By Danh Hoang for Get Out on May 8, 2005
Trent Reznor is back stronger then ever. After 5 years since his last release, May 3rd will mark the release of his latest CD 'With Teeth' backed with a full fledge summer tour that sold out within' minutes of sales.
'With Teeth' is the first CD released since the apathetic "The Fragile" in 1999. This time, sober and reenergized to make "ass kicking music", Reznor has found a way to reinvent himself once more. Instead of making perfect music, he has been focusing on making imperfect music. Music that can be played by his new live band that includes Jerome Dillon (drums) Jeordie White (bass), Aaron North (guitar) and Alessandro Cortini (keyboard).
The CD starts off with a slow, bass heavy song called "All The Love In The World". It's not a song that makes you jump out of your couch and beat down your grandma, but the next track "You Know What You Are" is a authoritative song that proves that Reznor still has the potency of a bomb ready to explode. With pounding drum beat that David Grohl (from the Foo Fighters) help support, it's definitely a track you want to get down with. "Getting Smaller" is also a track you can easily be destructive with Reznor screaming "I'm just a face in the crowd, (with) nothing to worry about" with his trademark guitar rifts.
There are some tracks on the CD that could easily make it into a radio station rotation such as 'The Lines Begins To Blur' and 'The Collector' where lyrics such as "They won't let me stay they won't let me leave -- There are so many of them it gets hard to breath" can make you sense the hardship of Reznor's emotional battle with drugs and alcohol. A track that already hit airwaves is 'The Hand That Feeds', the first single released from the album and has been well received by alternative rock stations across the U.S.
There are two tracks that stands out to me especially "Only" and 'Sunspot'. These tracks can be placed on loop and still be refreshing. 'Only' has a 'Billie Jean' type beat that reminds me of the ol' NIN tracks from his first LP "Pretty Hate Machine". I have encountered many of NIN's fans saying something like "I like his old stuff better". With tracks like these, maybe this will bring some of them back. As for "Sunspot", the song has a combination of relief and easy flowing sound that makes you wonder how the hell you are grooving to a Nine Inch Nails song. There will be no moshing to this track.
The CD closes out with 'Besides You In Time' where Reznor's voice is low and mellow. In the final minutes of the track, an orgasmic release from the guitar rips into your ears along with euphoric beats of the drums . Finally 'Right Where it Belongs' is a perfect ending track to a stellar CD. I'm not going to compare this track to his popular 'Hurt' from "The Downward Spiral" but I can say that after ten years from 'Hurt's release, from being in so much pain, you can now hear him being set free from all his demons.
I don't have to many complaints about the CD. There's a theme of "Love" going on with two of his tracks with 'All The Love In The World' and 'Love Is Not Enough'. It makes you wonder which one is it going to be? A lot of love? Is it too much? I think it may have been over done. It's like he's talking crap to somebody but you don't know exactly who.
It's been a long battle for Trent Reznor from confusion and depression to an optimistic approach to recreate his life that way he wants it. "With Teeth" is a stepping stone for him and a reward to all his fans and music lovers that want to see him succeed.