Nine Inch Nails: The Slip

Nine Inch Nails released their newest album, The Slip this week and once again we are given a chance to engage with Trent Reznor's wonderfully twisted mind.

This album was not released in a traditional manner. On May fifth, Reznor posted a blog entry on the Nine Inch Nails website with the message that the new album is finished and that "this one's on" him. Following a quick registration, fans are capable of downloading the entire album in various format including the high quality .OGG and .FLAC file types along with the more mainstream (but still high quality) .MP3 format. This marks a change for the band whose work has increasingly appeared online for download, but never for free.

Of course, one can naturally make the argument "you get what you pay for" and assume that this album is not being sold simply because it is not of commercial quality. However, this delusion quickly falls away upon first listening to The Slip. Reznor retains the original hard rock industrial sound that has been found on all Nine Inch Nails work and once again creates a wonderful album. From the charging dark beginning of "1,000,000" to the thrilling evil of "Head Down", Reznor gives us an album full of bleak macabre art.

Of course, this album is far from perfect. There is a drop off in quality between the two highlights of the album, "Lights in the Sky" and "Demon Seed", wherein we are given an extended instrumental track. This is not so much a bad song as a wasted opportunity. However, the main criticism that could be leveled at this, the seventh Nine Inch Nails album, is in relation to originality. Reznor has not moved far from his comfortable genre in this new work. Yet when one looks at the actual quality of this production, coupled with the maturing songwriting and vocal skills of Reznor, we quickly find that while this album is not entirely original, it is almost certainly the best example of what Nine Inch Nails are renowned for.

Overall, The Slip relies on the heavily used canvas of former Nine Inch Nails material. However, the brilliance of this particular iteration highlights the true nature of Trent Reznor - an artistic genius.

-The English Student