YEAR ZERO

Nine Inch Nails is on ProgArchives? I honestly would have never seen that coming. Sure, I've always felt that Trent Reznor and his industrial revolution brought upon the world a new style of music that nobody had quite heard before, but I know a lot of prog junkies would be hesitant to group them together with groups like Pink Floyd, Genesis, and Yes.

I figured I'd commemorate this event by reviewing my favorite Nine Inch Nails album. It's quite different in comparison to a lot of my other all-time favorites. The music isn't particularly complex, and the album is made up of a series of rather short songs. You won't find any epics here, though a lot of the songs on this album transition into one another.

However, what Trent lacks in technical skill and complexity, he has always managed to make up for with his layering and noise manipulation. Sure, the backbone holding up most of these tracks can be pretty basic at times, but once you dive deep into the music, you'll begin to notice the many, many intricacies buried deep within. Year Zero is actually a bit less layered than, say, The Downward Spiral for instance, but I've found myself astounded by some of the cool stuff he pulls off with noise alone. The brutal noise assault at the end of "The Great Destroyer" gets me every time I hear it.

I also have to hand it to the promotion campaign that went behind this album. It's astounding how successful the Year Zero "alternate reality" game was. It helped to get fans involved and interested in the album in ways I've never seen before.

So what can you expect from Year Zero? For one, there isn't really a whole lot in the way of traditional rock instruments throughout the album. For the most part Year Zero feels more like an electronic album, with traditional guitar and bass taking the backseat and letting the noise and electronics take center stage. And yes, this is a VERY noisy album, but I think it is to great effect.

I can not recommend this album enough, and I don't hesitate in listing it among other progressive rock masterpieces.