Nine Inch Nails – Year Zero

unofficial import reissue on colored vinyl – Year Zero comes virtually on the heels of 2005’s With Teeth, and is a virtual sprint for Reznor who is known to take notoriously long breaks between recordings. A large portion of the album’s rough tracks were recorded with a laptop setup while on tour, and it feels like it. There are hidden sounds, textures, shadings, passages, and more in virtually every cut where heavy metal, industrial , ambient, hip-hop, post-futurist balladry and strings rub up against each other and punch one another in a glorious rawk din. Melodies are asserted and turned inside out, added onto with other segments, and either returned to or not. And yet, the sound of Year Zero is cohesive, adventurous, full of dynamics, tension and character. The songs sound like songs. There are discernible hooks in “The Beginning of the End,” “Survivalism,” “The Greater Good,” and the utterly moving and brilliant “Zero-Sum,” which closes the disc. While many of the Nine Inch Nails recordings after Downward Spiral relied on sheer force to bludgeon listeners into submission, the atmospheres on Year Zero are far more seductive and and inviting. – Thom Jurek

A1 Hyperpower!
A2 The Beginning Of The End
A3 Survivalism
A4 The Good Soldier
A5 Vessel
A6 Me, I’m Not
B1 Capital G
B2 My Violent Heart
B3 The Warning
B4 God Given
B5 Meet Your Master
C1 The Greater Good
C2 The Great Destroyer
C3 Another Version Of The Truth
C4 In This Twilight
C5 Zero-Sum