Album Review: How To Destroy Angels, self-titled EP

Album Review:

How To Destroy Angels, self-titled EP

The Null Corporation 2010

How To Destroy Angels And Confuse Nine Inch Nails Fans

How To Destroy Angels is ex-Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor's new music project, available for free digital download through their website. (An HD option for $2 is also available) Nine Inch Nails called it quits last summer with their much-publicized "Wave Goodbye" tour. Having regretfully missed my last opportunity to see them due to financial hardships, I found myself wondering what our friend Trent was up to in the meantime. Although I am more a fan of Nine Inch Nails' work from the 90's than later, when I heard he had a new group, I decided to check it out; after all, he's a talented guy.

First of all, it is indeed named after the Coil single of the same name, for which I have to give them props. Second of all, the group brought art director Rob Sheridan on board, who was previously responsible for the stunning artwork behind Nine Inch Nails releases Things Falling Apart and Year Zero. We also have Atticus Ross onboard, who has worked with Tim Simenon of Bomb The Bass, Barry Adamson formerly of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and also fronted his own project on Nothing Records, 12 Rounds. How To Destroy Angels is undoubtedly an endless roster of talent and a vast array of musical influence. It's little wonder that when I first clicked on the download, my expectations were high....and thus, they were not met.

While I am not completely disappointed, I'm also not impressed; as a die-hard NIN fan, I hate to say it, but I expected better from someone who was responsible for the 1994 masterpiece The Downward Spiral. The opening track, "Fur-Lined," kicks off without ado into a surprisingly canned-sounding drum beat and distorted female vocals courtesy of Reznor's wife, Mariqueen Maandig, formerly of West Indian Girl. The last minute of the song meanders into vaguely NIN-esque guitar work, but lacks the layers that made Reznor's previous work so spectacular.

By the second track, "Parasite," I can vaguely draw a parallel to post-Fragile Nine Inch Nails, and almost expect to hear Reznor's familiar growling vocals over lurching synths. The buildup crashes into minimal drums and female vocals but I found myself already getting it confused with the first track. "BBB" has a little more promise and texture to it; it turns into a lilting, down-tempo groove with synths that almost sound like they came from the original session files for The Downward Spiral. Unfortunately, the only thing that kills it for me is the title of the song and the vocal hook, "Listen to the sound of my big black boots." "Head Like A Hole" it is not. I could see it as a club remix in the right hands, but would Trent really want that for himself? Would he have wanted it back in NIN's heyday? I'm not so sure.

"The Believers" is one of two tracks off this album which really makes me believe that How To Destroy Angels might allow Trent Reznor and his collaborators the creative freedom to take risks as a musician instead of just picking up where Nine Inch Nails left off. It moves forward in a way that the other tracks do not, in a manner reminiscent of NIN classics like "The Becoming" and "The Perfect Drug." The vocals are less processed, although I still found myself, upon first listen, wishing Trent Reznor would sing, and feel that it ended before we could really be led in further. I was amused to note that the next track, "The Space In Between," starts out with a drum beat reminiscent of a faster "Eraser," but the similarities end there. By the time I formed an opinion about the song, it had ended on an uncertain cadence, leaving me wondering if I missed anything.

The album finishes off with "A Drowning." This is the only track where if you didn't tell me who had done it, I would speculate that perhaps you-know-who had been involved, and thus, the second track that I feel is a worthwhile "Where Are They Now?" chapter for him. Sure enough, it was touched by familiar hands, those of Alan Moulder, who worked with Reznor extensively on Broken and The Downward Spiral among others, and has also worked with Atticus Ross in producing Jane's Addiction, another 1990's heavy-hitter. Even the lyrics sound somewhat familiar to me, an often-visited theme of self-destruction and attempts at salvation from it. Clocking in at just over seven minutes long, it's an interesting end to an album which seems to leave its listeners constantly hanging. Instrumentally and lyrically, I would consider it to be the most developed, especially the last minute, which fades into goosebump-inducing piano and synths, finally recognizable as being borne of Trent Reznor's talents.

It's a shame that this album is mostly full of false starts and, in comparison to Reznor's previous work, undeveloped musical ideas. Maybe it's too soon, or maybe The Downward Spiral was just that good. I applaud the decision to release the album as a free download, which I feel is always a risk (albeit a generous one) given the music industry these days and the hordes of listeners who refuse to pay a dime for any musician's blood, sweat, and tears. I'm glad to see that Trent Reznor is still working on music instead of just sitting around watching football and letting all his musical gifts go to waste. However, I was expecting something more innovative, more epic, more proof that he needed to move beyond Nine Inch Nails in order to do something better. Fifteen years ago (how time flies...), he first raised the bar for himself with an album that I still consider to be one of the greatest examples of electronic music since Kraftwerk's Autobahn. The production of this album was truly a magnum opus for both Flood and Reznor and I knew at age thirteen, upon first listening, that nothing would ever be better. I played that album so incessantly that I went through two copies because the first one got so scratched.

However, that's no excuse to sell yourself short in your later years; there is always new ground to be broken. I think the most surreal and anticlimactic thing about this album is the strange feeling that if I didn't know who was behind it, I might think, "This sounds kinda like Nine Inch Nails." By all means, it should at least be as good as Nine Inch Nails, given the guy behind the curtain. But it's just not. Is it worth $2 for an HD lossless download and a cool JPEG of the album artwork for your iPod? Sure, and if you like down-tempo electronic music, you'll appreciate it. Is it a true indication of Trent Reznor's brilliance? No. As long as you don't expect it to be, by all means, give it a listen.