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Album Review
by SashaS
2-2-2002
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| NIN |
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Nine Inch Nails: 'And All That Could Have Been'
(Nothing/Universal)
Nine Inch Nails’ live album is a document to one of the best tours, ever!
Five individual light-rigs make the Nine Inch Nail’s stage set look like a huge room 101 (of the book ‘1984’ by George Orwell) by making members appear like being in the spotlight of interrogation. The twist is that they are also being ‘interrogated’. Such duality - monochrome versus technicolour, sonic and visual, minimalist and complex, clear and distorted, sounds from hell and choons from paradise, good versus evil, dark and, er, a little lighter – balances the show throughout. The band is also a bunch of executioners of the ‘sentence’ who are being scrutinised, as well.
Welcome to the Trent Reznor court where he is making us accept his judgement, which is purely muso-visual. Trent manages to utter, “Thank you very much” before starting encores but he’s never been a great talker. He lets his songs speak for themselves and they do volumes: taking us to the edge of metal, dropping us in the subterrania of industrial, alien echoing soundarama to punk-out, a scream opposed by undertones...
It gets hypnotic, Gothic, loud, aggressive, attacking with quiet breaks... These calmer moments, the quasi-classical instances included on ‘The Fragile’ album, are met with a bit of natives’ opposition, as they get visibly restless. There is an uneasy shuffle, a murmur anticipating the sonic storm to recur in their pleasure-domain. The public appreciates the visual side but appears to be taken a wee back when the screen is lowered in front of the stage for projections during ‘La Mer’ to provide more sense of surrealism.
With screen removed the band resumes delivering songs all of epic sounding proportions. Trent might doubt himself but not on stage where he is a master who is leaning forward in an urge-like state of pressing the points upon us but hardly anybody needed convincing tonight. Here are only the believers, the 4 thousand people tonight (and as many the day after) simply glad to be in this ‘jury’ that is listening to the evidence from the sonic laboratory.
The current crop of songs is balanced with a several choice cuts from the past, bringing us closer to an ecstasy. It all sets a high standard with its sonic and showmanship excellence causing a lot of other artists to simply pale in comparison... At one point Reznor yells “I Hate Myself” and the question arises - Why do we love him?
For the simple reason that he addresses our anxieties, let us face our fears and darkness, our angst... He might be pretty on the outside but there is a dazzling depth! This is music for the Generation C, as in cyber, songs for the future and of it, as well. If music can be colour-coded, then the NIN’s kind is of the starless and bible black tone. And it is that gloom, industrial bleakness, the gloomy-side regularly bringing rock music out of its dozing-off periods that strangely appear to coincide with the lack of NIN album releases.
Exiting ‘The Court of King Reznor’ we ponder whether he could be the last Rock’s saviour? Unknown but he certainly is the most serious contender. Grade A minus, because of the record company that provided a review ticket of an impaired vantage point!
These impressions date from the London show on 29 November 1999; I can watch it now from the best seat in the house (DVD) and/or hear/listen to properly and as many times… Bliss, man, as wicked as a kinkster in black.
8.6/10
SashaS
7-2-2005
Nine Inch Nails’ album ‘And All That Could Have Been’ is issued 04 February 2002 on Nothing/Universal
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