'year zero' preview

ok so i'm seriously late on this one but i have to tell you but cleveland, ohio's bad boys of industrial rock nin (nine inch nails) have released a preview of 'year zero' on their myspace page - presumably until the album comes out in five days.

i have to say that i've always had a mixed reaction to their work - trent is sort of all over the map and when nin first came on the scene i was a hardcore industrial musical fan. 'mind: the perpetual intercourse' by canadian rockers skinny puppy still ranks as one of the most amazing albums i've ever heard.

if you haven't heard it - and you like stuff that doesn't sound like it was compiled from recording screams from vivisected animals along with rusty scrapes along open wires then you should probably avoid them. and probably industrial music in general - it's always been a music that reminded me of dancing to the sounds of the apocalypse. truely at times, the electronic version of the music that nero must have played while rome was torn down to the very bits.

i will say that i'm listening while i type this and it's trent at his finest - going from soft mutterings to screams - from blips and burps to screeching guitar solos that echo out into nothing and then come back with distored banshee fury and it makes me remember what i liked about this music in the first place.

only this time, instead of being the pre-eminate proto 'emo', he's come up with a concept album and it's nicely done i have to say. full of voices talking about a post apocalyptic earth torn between war mongering and finally a higher power steps in to 'sort it out'.

this album will probably be the fodder of many secondary school essays on the symbolic meanings and subtext but hey - it's an industrial album full of context that you can dance too!

:D

oh yeah - trent also tweaks all the pre web 2.0 folks out there by releasing the tracks to 'survivalism' on the nin.com website so that anyone and everyone can remix them - any old way they want.

of course - tons of artists have been doing that for a while - public enemy's 'revolverlution' was comprised of remixes of selected songs that chuck d released on the publicenemy.com website so that the listeners/remixers could do their own mashups.

now trent has joined the crowd and i for one am happy. good show.

i wonder how far that particular meme will go? i mean letting the 'audience' in on the fun.