Herald rating: * * * *
Most believe 1994's The Downward Spiral was done in Trent Reznor's heyday. Tracks such as Closer and Hurt highlighted what he did best, moving between gritty beasts of songs to beautiful dark ballads.
But it was Nine Inch Nail's 1989 debut Pretty Hate Machine
when he was at his innovative best - hell, no one else was doing noisy industrial pop music. There are many of those late-80s, early-90s influences on With Teeth, such as the glitchy beats and house anthem keyboard of All the Love In the World and industrial dance segments on Only. In 2000 Reznor had to get his life back on track after drug and booze addiction nearly ended it. Some would say he had also lost the musical plot after releasing 1999's long and difficult The Fragile. On With Teeth he's back with some fine - vintage even - Nine Inch Nails moments. The title track comes across like a spidery Cure-like lullaby with Reznor seething and sniping on the chorus, "Wwwith-a Teeth-a". It's a chilling song, and one of the best, along with the aggressive rage of first single, The Hand That Feeds, the uppity Getting Smaller, and the piano on The Collector, which somehow sounds like trickling blood, is one of the best effects on the album.
Lyrically, Reznor isn't over the top on the woe-is-me lines, which is surprising considering he never was scared to vent his personal traumas. Although, every now and then, the "sometimes I forget I'm alive" moments creep in.
But its With Teeth's solemn songs (Home, Right Where It Belongs etc) that some Nine Inch Nails nonbelievers may find hard-going.
That's a shame because when Reznor ups the beats and distorts things, such as the dirgey The Line Begins To Blur, he sounds as fresh as he did in his heyday.
Label: Nothing/Interscope
