Nine Inch Nails
Not the Actual Events
Originally released
12/23/2016
Listening format: CD
**This is technically an EP, but I’m going to review it
anyway. Deal with it.**
Trent Reznor, front man and creative wizard behind Nine Inch
Nails (NIN), has a way of surprising fans with new music which is exactly what
he did with Not the Actual Events. This
EP dropped in fans’ laps late December 2016, unannounced after a few days of
hype. This was the first new music from NIN
since 2013’s full length LP Hesitation Marks.
This is the first release after naming long time NIN contributor & collaborator
Atticus Ross as a full-time member of the band.
I found this announcement odd, considering Robin Finck has pretty much
been Trent’s live guitarist since 1994.
The question is, does naming Ross a full-time member even matter? Does it affect the music or the sound of NIN?
Supposedly the first of three EP’s to be released over a two-year
period, Not the Actual Events left me very excited for more NIN upon first
listen. Let’s dive in to each track.
1 Branches/Bones
The opening track on the EP starts out with a quick,
surging, programmed drum line. Reznor’s
voice drifts in “Still can make out pieces with the opening sewed shut”
immediately tells me, yes, I’m in for an angry NIN track. The first verse
explodes into a highly distorted vocal track with loads of distorted
guitars. Trent screams “Feels like I’ve
been here before, yeah I don’t know anymore, And I don’t care anymore.” It’s loud, it’s aggressive, it is classic NIN. It reminds me of sounds heard on 1994’s The
Downward Spiral. Clocking in at under 2
minutes, this song does quite well as an intro.
2 Dear World,
This track opens with a slowed down voice saying “Yes, everyone
seems to be asleep”. Maybe a nod to our
current society of not paying attention to anything that is happening around
us. Lots of atmospheric noises on this
track; Atticus Ross at play for sure. He
paints such lovely sounds that transport the listener to a whole new
world. There are lots of blips and
bloops throughout this song and a general tension that never seems to
crescendo, but makes you uneasy. Trent’s
vocals shift from ear to ear, whispering lines like “And we become obsolete a
frame at a time”. It is bleak at best.
Maybe a reference to a dream? I dig it.
3 She’s Gone Away
Opening with atmosphere once again, I feel as if I’m in a
deserted, foggy, dark and haunting forest.
A slow tribal drum beat comes in and cuts the tension, only to build it
back up again. The chorus is a long
drawn out drone, repeating “She’s gone, she’s gone, she’s gone away” with
maniacal laughing towards the end of each refrain. Throughout each verse and chorus, more and
more noises start to creep in as well, building the tension with no breaking
point. Whoever plays guitar on this one
has an easy job, but the feedback filled buzz during the verses is very
effective. The layers and layers of
sound that build throughout this song are awesome. I highly recommend you sit as close to the
speakers as you can or listen to this very loudly on a good pair of
headphones. There is a lot to digest. “We keep licking while the skin turns black.
Cut along the length but you can’t get the feeling back”. Wow, what the hell does that mean? I like to think this song is about some sort
of horrible abuse that’s being done, likely mental torture, despite the directness
of the lyrics. This song could be the
soundtrack to an insane asylum and I really like it. What does that say about me?
4 The Idea of You
For the first time on this EP there are live drums with no
major processing or manipulation. Yes, 4th
song, live drums, no manipulation. That’s
NIN. Am I surprised? Not one bit. The first verse kicks in, nearly
unintelligible whispering vocals by Reznor buried underneath a repeating buzz,
likely a guitar with some keys sprinkled in.
The keys move things forward while the drums continue to surge. All of sudden the chorus breaks in with not
much warning and is loud, fast, and on a completely different beat than the
verse. Reznor chants “None of this is
happening” in a bit of a round with “Wait, wake, breathe, believe”. Back to the dream again, a bit of a call back
to Dear World,. There’s a breakdown in
the track with screeches that could have been in an 80’s Nintendo game, then we
are right back in the action. The song
ends with Reznor yelling “Hey! Can you hear? It gets so lonely in here”. Is the narrator trapped in this dream? Quite
possibly.
5 Burning Bright
(Field on Fire)
The conclusion of Not the Actual Events starts with a dirge
symphony of distorted guitar, buried keys and Reznor kicking off the action
with the line “I’m going back”. His
voice sounds like it is going through a megaphone, and in the background, I
swear I hear chanting, like a massive crowd of people buried in the mix. There are unsettling guitar riffs streaming
in and out of the mix during each verse.
Just total chaos. It really
sounds like a rally, a really fucked up rally of angry people taking something
back. It is really tough to make out the
vocals again, but they seem to suggest some sort of dissatisfaction with
something or someone. This unrest however, has fueled and reignited a feeling that
the narrator has been missing. “…oh my
God I have missed you…And I am stronger now than I have ever been in my decline…burn
motherfucker…like an end, like the end.”
Very dark again. It could be the
narrator finally waking up from this awful dream, realizing it wasn’t a dream
at all and is now going to take action.
Hence the name of the EP, Not the Actual Events. This last track is easily my favorite. It is loud as hell, angry and just completely bad-ass.
Conclusion
5 songs running about 25 minutes total makes for a very
short record, but there is an awful lot of meat here. This EP has sounds that could fit on any NIN
record, but especially The Downward Spiral and Year Zero. This release is loud, aggressive and is
instantly classic NIN in my opinion.
Atticus Ross has added so many layers to each song that you literally
cannot keep track of the instruments being played or what on earth made a
particular noise. I really dig this
release.
Song to drop
Dear World,. I do
like this track, but compared to the other 4, it lacks the power that the other
songs have. This is a pretty tough
decision to make because there isn’t a bad song on this EP.
Rating
4/5 records
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