Over the course of 2019, here at Ginger Nuts of Horror and as part of the ongoing ‘Devil’s Music’ project, I’ll be leading on a retrospective of the musical career of Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails.
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And what better place to start than at the beginning?

Pretty Hate Machine was released from TVT Records on October 20th 1989, and would serve to be a tumultuous beginning to what was often a dark and rocky start to things for Nine Inch Nails. Despite its success – being the first independently released album to be certified platinum – Reznor fell out with TVT records, whom he believed were impinging upon his creative freedom. None of that stopped this album achieving incredible success, with an 80’s inspired synth feeling that would rarely be replicated again for the band. In fact in listening to every NIN album it’s telling just how different this one feels – it might sound reductive to say it as the only album the band released in the 80s, but much if it still feels really 80s. The follow-up EP, Broken, almost sounds like it could have been made by an entirely different band and is suffused with a bleakness and rage that’s rarely found here.

It’s easy to see why Pretty Hate Machine made an impression on release, as it captures some of the best of the synth-pop and industrial music of the 80s with a slightly angstier, uneasier edge. Launching with a track like Head Like a Hole doesn’t hurt – it’s a real statement opener that has remained a live staple of the band over the years, and is likely the band’s most covered song to date. My other standout track on a personal level is Something I Can Never Have, a much more melancholic and softer track that feels like a significantly better fit with much more of the band’s later work. By paring back so much of the electronic sound and zooming in on a key piano ‘riff’, this one leaps out a mile stylistically as well as in bottling a slightly different mood to many of the other tracks. It’s stunningly reproduced on Still, even more pared down than this already sparse original.

There are plenty of other great tracks on this one too – at its best Pretty Hate Machine has a wonderful energy to it, best epitomised by songs such as Terrible Lie, Sin and That’s What I Get. Sin of course comes with a notorious music video, not even played at the time due to some of its adult content and only emerging into the public eye far later on. With that said, there are a few tracks that rather blend into one for me, and Sanctified, The Only Time and Ringfinger are not songs that live especially long in the memory. However I think the album as a whole is a rewarding and powerful experience, but looking back with thirty years of perspective I’d say this was very much a starting point for significantly better to come. You could argue this was a process of the very strong 80’s sound being ‘exorcised’ from the band, and while elements of that would remain in later releases I feel like this is the one album that doesn’t sound very current when you listen to it in 2019. Many people in their artistic bents seem to lean towards the early work of a band, author or filmmaker, and I often go the opposite way – which is also the case here.

Pretty Hate Machine is a very fine album in its own right, and would provide the foundation and stepping stone for the mega-successes of albums like The Downward Spiral and The Fragile. It’s not my favourite, but it is an album I turn to when I feel like I need some retro, synth-driven industrial tracks in my life. Strangely enough, I’m probably more of a fan of many of these songs performed live – the opening salve of Terrible Lie and Sin on All That Could Have Been is incredible, and maybe it’s just a matter that and added musical maturity has leaked into the more recent renditions.

Next time around we’ll be leaping a few years forward to look at 1992’s Broken EP.

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In 1989, Nine Inch Nails – Trent Reznor's unique industrial music project – smashed onto the scene with Pretty Hate Machine. Thirty years on, NIN retain a cult following and a reputation as one of the fiercest and most singular bands out there, and throughout 2019 Ginger Nuts of Horror will be celebrating this landmark anniversary with a host of album, EP and live reviews and articles.

I've been a huge fan of the band for many years, although I can't claim to have been around from the very get-go – I was eight when Pretty Hate Machine hit, and came to the band as a teenager with one of NIN's most famous releases, The Downward Spiral. It's hard to describe the effect an album like that can have on a fourteen year old, but it was incredibly formative for me musically and creatively, seeming to capture so much of my feelings around that time of my life.
 
Over the years, the music of Nine Inch Nails has been a constant companion, and something that I have turned to at times both good and bad. The absolute fury of Broken has provided a catharsis in times of frustration, the energy of With Teeth has offered up motivation when the impetus was sorely lacking, and the darkness of the best-known tracks such as Hurt and The Day The World Went Away have emerged with a thread of understanding in bleaker times. One of the things that has always amazed me is that across the length of one album there can be incredible beauty, deep sadness and raw anger, with all of those moods somehow blended perfectly and seamlessly to create the whole. The Fragile remains one of the best albums ever to listen to in its entirety, truly taking you on a journey through a host of emotions.

It's also very notable that Trent Reznor, the band's creator, has always done things his own way, never compromising musically or creatively. That's taken in releasing full albums for free online, unexpectedly putting out acoustic or 'quiet' albums such as the brilliant Still and Ghosts I-IV, developing one of the most exciting live shows around – in fact their scintillating Woodstock performance was one of the things that brought the band too light for many people – and also developing a host of movie soundtracks, even landing an Oscar in the process. I've always said whether you like the band or not, it's hard not to give Reznor respect for his output and his approach to his music.


Every two weeks through 2019, I'll be joined by some of Ginger Nuts' regular contributors in celebrating three decades of incredible music from a band that has truly gone its own path and produced some of the best alternative music since its inception. We'll be kicking off in a fortnight's time with the debut album, Pretty Hate Machine, before working through the full NIN discography, as well as looking at some notable live shows and Trent Reznor side projects.

We hope you'll join us on the journey!