Pretty Hate Machine was a stunning break-through, arriving at the end of the eighties and sounding like a hardcore Gary Newman, awash with menacing synths, pulsing rhythms and a refreshing new sound; this was a glimmer of the greater works yet to come. The powerfully acerbic Broken EP harnessed this raw energy, churned it up and spat out something as vile and hateful as music gets: tracks such as "Wish" and "Happiness In Slavery" are now regarded by many fans as favourites in the NIN catalogue. The Downward Spiral was somewhat eclectic yet coherent, stringing together heavily complex and sparser numbers like a bloody tooth necklace; perhaps the most accomplished album, certainly the one with most bite. The Fragile was a much grander effort, a sweeping epic of dark, futuristic electronics, mixing new tracks with faultlessly-crafted instrumentals.
Now comes With Teeth, the latest offering from Trent and Co. It opens like a timid pulse, with "All the Love in the World." The electronic drum flutters in hypnotic momentum, gradually gaining clutter and menace before breaking away and a piano melts through, layered over thumping drums and crashing guitar. The first thing to hit you about this track is that it feels disconcertingly vacuous, void of the dark and complex song structure we’ve come to expect from NIN. Whereas previous outings felt like scorching hot screams shot from the throat of insanity, With Teeth starts off sounding far too smooth around the edges, each track a piece of glittering machinery slathered in Vasoline. The album launches into a fist-thrusting rush of sheer energy half-way through, diminishes into some slow-burning anthems before tapering off into some sparse ballads. It may at first startle with its clarity and renewed strength, but in retrospect the album feels far too clean when set against earlier efforts. This is not the Nine Inch Nails we recognise.
Perhaps the biggest difference in With Teeth is the shift in attitude. The main focus of Trent’s music has always been the rage boiling through, a pervading sense of things breaking down: his mentality, his will to carry on, his sanity ripped apart like limbs from an insect. On tracks such as "Mr Self Destruct" from The Downward Spiral, razor-sharp distorted guitars reflect the inner turbulence of a very tortured man. By the final track on the album, "Hurt," we hear Trent crushed, a ruin left discarded on the shore, solemnly pouring his heart out in a fragile broken whisper to anyone who will listen. It’s the soundtrack to an individual worn away by the cruelties of life, both heartbreaking and incredibly aggressive. On the new album there is a sense of a man willing to fight back. This is perhaps most evident on the first single to be released, "The Hand That Feeds," as Trent’s iron will shines through in his commanding vocals. To call this upbeat may be stretching it too far, but there’s no doubt the songs sound more positive, even if their content is not.
Even as a trace of anger and self-loathing is still present in this most recent work, it’s obvious Trent has become more commercially viable. His latest appearance on Saturday morning kid’s show CD:UK is a prime example of this. Previous singles such as "Closer" were startlingly radio un-friendly, boasting lyrics such as “I want to fuck you like an animal.” His earlier work was less compromising, the sound of a man with a vision, a vision not to be altered by worries of mainstream success. Now it seems Trent has forced this latest piece, injected each track with false anger in an attempt to appear as edgy as his past albums. It falls short, with tracks sounding empty of any real soul, lacking depth and complexity and therefore failing to elicit any true interest. The lyrics, too, are weaker. What we have is poor rhyming techniques voiced by a man who sounds bored. Nine Inch Nails: sans enthusiasm. The problem with wanting to appeal to a wider audience while still trying to appear edgy is that neither party is truly satisfied, and the work ends up sounding lost in the middle, unable to make up its mind on what it wants to be.
However, can Nine Inch Nails ever be deemed as “commercial?” The fact that the most recent singles are gaining decent airplay, the appearances on early morning TV; do these issues hold more substance than the current work itself? Surely we must overlook the packaging and selling techniques when it comes to music and focus on what is important: the music itself. Although it may be cleaner, no longer “dirty rock,” With Teeth still aims to present us with a darker world view and achieves it with relative success and flair. Few people come close to the technical ability Trent seems to hold in abundance; the album is stunningly well-produced, the attention to detail still breathtaking. It could have benefited from being a little more rough around the edges, but perhaps this is not what Trent intended. Following an intense period of self-exploration, he has re-emerged a different character -- as has been said earlier -- someone stronger. If he’d simply presented us with yet another catalogue of self-pitying grievances bathed in the same sounding gritty melodies, would we not have complained even then of his work sounding recyled?
With Teeth is a step in a new direction, a little chink of light penetrating the gloom Nine Inch Nails have gathered about themselves like a shroud. It's an opening, a doorway to something new. Gone is the unrelenting anger; instead we have a more mature Trent, driven by an ability and a desire to change.