Nine Inch Nails Continues to Bare Its 'Teeth'

"Abandon hope, all ye who enter here."

Those words at the gates of hell in Dante's masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, capture the essence of Nine Inch Nails' new album, With Teeth, a 13-song tour de force of brooding industrial despair. This is the group's first effort since 1999's The Fragile, which failed to stir the imagination of NIN's faithful followers as Pretty Hate Machine and The Downward Spiral (both multi-platinum releases) had done. But this time, critics are hailing the triumphant return of industrial rock's founding father and the band's driving force, Trent Reznor. And fans are responding—the disc debuted at No. 1.

Perfect Dark
Nine Inch Nails' electronic grind returns intact with distorted soundscapes and atmospheric echoes that sound as if they've been sampled from a manufacturing plant (hence the "industrial" label). Reznor chants hypnotic phrases repeatedly, creating a decidedly disconcerting effect.

But then, I'm pretty sure Reznor wants us to feel disconcerted. After all, if ever an artist deserved the title tortured, Trent Reznor is that man. His bouts with depression and his angst-filled perspective have been well publicized. By his own testimony, though, Reznor seems to have turned some significant corners in his personal life of late, and he claims to have tamed his twin demons: alcohol and cocaine.

In a recent interview, Reznor detailed his addictions, then admits, "I realized I wasn't in control. The price wasn't just feeling bad the next day. I was starting to hate myself. ... It's one thing to talk about hitting bottom, to flirt with it, this romantic notion of a dark side. Embracing it and getting really deep into it? I don't ever want to go there again. I've been there, and it was not good."

So what of his music? Does it bear any significant evidence of positive change? In a word, no. Nihilism—the belief that life is meaningless—is still the name of the game for Nine Inch Nails. "You Know What You Are?" sets the album's tone: "Don't you f---ing know what you are?/Come on, get back to where you belong." The song bespeaks thoroughgoing fatalism: "You can dress it up, you can try to pretend/But you can't change anything in the end."

Powerlessness is the inevitable fruit of this philosophy. "I'm becoming less to find as days go by/Fading away/Well, you might say I'm losing focus," Reznor mouths. "Sometimes I think I can see right through myself." Isolation and rage follow: "There is no you/There is only me/There is no f---ing you/There is only me" ("Only").

He also growls, darkly, "Now I am somewhere I am not supposed to be/And I can see things I knew I really shouldn't see/And now I know why things aren't as pretty on the inside." Thus, it's not surprising that three other songs refer obliquely to suicide ("Every Day Is Exactly the Same," "The Line Begins to Blur" and "Beside You in Time").

Imperfect Light
Amid such despair, the singer has occasional moments of self awareness. Perhaps in these stray lyrics, we do catch glimpses of the growth Reznor has talked about. "Love Is Not Enough" asks, "Have you got anything left to show?/No, no, I didn't think so/The sooner we realize/We cover ourselves with lies/But underneath we're not so tough." It seems that he does recognize how his identity struggles sometimes lead him to hide behind his angry image.

"With Teeth" describes addiction's ravenous appetite (personified as a woman), and concludes with, "I cannot go through this again." Likewise, "The Line Begins to Blur" reveals the artist's clarity about his emptiness: "My soul is too sick, and it's too little, too late/And myself? I have grown too weary to hate/The more I stay in here/The more it's not so clear ... The more I disappear."

A Lost Soul
Though Trent Reznor recognizes the vacuum residing in his soul, he's determined to hold onto a philosophy that denies any possibility of lasting purpose or meaning. He's a lost soul, and he knows it, abandoning hope of ever being found—whether you define that word in psychological or spiritual terms.

For industrial aficionados, With Teeth could prove an engrossing experience, as Reznor brings his ethereal genius to bear on the genre he helped create. And those tempted to set up camp in the isolated and melancholy land he envisions may at first find a temporary balm. After all, Reznor does tell the hard truth about how empty life can be. Anyone who's ever felt disenfranchised or marginalized will likely connect.

But I can't help but think that anyone who takes up long-term residence in this shadowy sphere will become more despairing for doing so. Reznor's incisive critique of a disappointing world is brutally accurate at times. Unfortunately, he offers nothing to those seeking relief or searching for hope.