Review: Year Zero

Year Zero

Nine Inch Nails

2007

I remember Year Zero came out when I was in my last year of high school. I remember hearing someone remark about how amazed he was that "[he] heard [Survivalism] on the radio so soon after [With Teeth had been released]" In this context, it doesn't make sense at first glance but what he meant was that it's shocking to hear new Nine Inch Nails material less than 5 years after the last album had been released. The good kind of shocking, mind you. When I got my hands on it, I was fascinated not only by the album cover but by the fact that the CD changed colors in temperature and this is where my review starts.

What has always fascinated me about Year Zero, apart from the fact that the CD changes color in temperature was what I barely remember reading about its production and the image I have of Trent Reznor playing keyboards in a cramped van to record the album, as he probably did while on tour. Remember, he recorded Year Zero while still on tour for support for With Teeth. What also fascinated me was how different it sounded from stuff I had heard, especially with the extensive marketing campaign behind it. Not necessarily bad but just different.

I understand that it's Nine Inch Nails but is it Nine Inch Nails in name only? There is no denying that Year Zero definitely has a political slant to it, as the term Year Zero refers to- what can in a nutshell be described as, a purge of ideas and history. Everything prior to the year zero is destroyed (physically or metaphorically) and considered irrelevant, and everything after replaces the old way of life. It's not the most difficult thing to understand.

That being said, the same traits that make Nine Inch Nails are still present but something different looms above all things. It's not necessarily the presumably rushed nature of the project because that's never hindered anyone before (Led Zeppelin's Presence was recorded in 18 days, pretty rushed when you think about it), or the sound which for all intents and purposes is NIN- screwing with the definition of industrial, or even the tone because there is still aggression in the lyrics, violence in the delivery, and that same connection between NIN and the listener is still there. I really think the "different" is the political slant.

Up to this point, I had never really thought of NIN as a medium for any sort of political discourse but that's the way it was back in 2007. Frustrations over a government led by what many people believe to be a jackass (I try my best to stay out of politics so I never offer an opinion unless I know the facts), and the ceaseless war that cost a seemingly endless amount of lives and money. Everybody was pissed in some way, shape, or form.

With all that being said, Trent continues his tradition of articulating the (political or otherwise) listener's frustrations and mess that dwells inside their heads. The album opens strong with Hyperpower!- one of my favorite tracks on this album and goes right into The Beginning of the End which makes the paranoia and mistrust of any gubernatorial entity very vivid. Subsequent tracks like Survivalism, The Good Soldier, Capital G, only serve to make the political slant far more obvious than before. Speaking of which, in 2008 I attended my first Nine Inch Nails concert. During one of the songs, I believe it was Capital G, they displayed an image of John McCain (Republican presidential candidate) and as they performed the image morphed into that of George W. Bush. The crowd went fucking nuts.

While, Year Zero is a Nine Inch Nails album, it doesn't particularly feel like one because it's less personal, more detached and more political. That doesn't mean it's bad only different than what we're used to.

8/10