Nine Inch Nails

Back when I was really starting to sort myself out, I would definitely lean on good, solid advice for music. Many times it would come in the form of being able to find something/someone (that in turn, amazingly has grown with you through thick times that it has grown unique, singular to your own tastes and loves for specifically personal reasons) through a great tip. In high school I would get shelter and aid from many people through my times there – living twenty minutes away from school – I could probably share stories about so many different friends. There was one who loved Nine Inch Nails and really was the kind of fan Trent Reznor would be proud of. I remember two distinctive times driving with him.

There was one time when we were driving and he had just made a cassette copy of The Downward Spiral. At this point most of Nine Inch Nails’ material was foreign to me: strange and spectral for sure. We got to “Closer” and I remember being in awe of the massive beats blasting through his modest stereo. Later, after exploding gun shots came “A Warm Place.” I still remember sitting there in awe of how carefully constructed every passing note was. We discussed the softness, the gentleness and it was something extraordinary for me. It’s downright stunning music, yes, it’s very short too. It’s almost classical in both its delivery and composition and yet, it’s this resting spot towards the end of Reznor’s breakthrough album. It’s melodically beautiful and gorgeous in every aspect of the word – it’s one of my top ten songs of all time probably. The spiral spins down and it gets further depressive but on “A Warm Place” everything is flawless for three minutes and change.


And then I remember another time driving home and hearing the opening strands of “Somewhat Damaged” through the much more advanced stereo system; a different vehicle of course. Here the focus was on the addition of layers and layers. I remember hearing the overcoming layers and getting lost in the bliss of sound. As the beginning to The Fragile (it is here where my love for the word begins), it starts with a trickling guitar part and a higher octave pickling before the stomping beat rears through. There’s the hi-hat in the form of a shaking synthesizer and the actual synthesizer that comes blaring in from above before Reznor sings “Tried so hard to be like you…lost my faith in everything” (taking out of context). As his voice gets shrouded by his forceful singing the music continues to rise and rise before it swells into massive guitar riffs and his shouting of the wretched damaged. This song is such a stark difference from the previous one for myriad ways of style and demeanor but each highlights his skill at precise compositions that shake and rattle and roll through entirety. – Bryan