Nine Inch Nails – “Not the Actual Events”
Album Reviews | Jan 16th, 2017
Record Label: The Null Corporation
Genre: Industrial Rock
Website: www.nin.com
Buy on Amazon.com
Nine Inch Nails surprised fans 2 days before Christmas with this somewhat self-released EP ‘Not the Actual Events’. This album marks the debut of long time collaborator Atticus Ross, whom had collaborated on numerous soundtrack work with Trent with fantastic results, which makes sense that he’d be brought into the NIN fold.
It’s been said that Trent went back and listened to a lot of earlier NIN Material which served as inspiration here. It’s very clear a lot of this EP lends itself to the earlier discography, where as “Branches/Bones” and “The Idea of You” sound very much along the lines of that raw primal energy of such earlier songs like “Wish” and “March of the Pigs”. The more electronic side of NIN is represented by “Dear World,” and “She’s Gone Away”.
The tone of the EP is pretty cool, however it tends to drag a bit on the 2 more electronic tracks, but the beauty of this being an EP is you don’t feel too cheated. The better tracks on this are the more rock feeling tunes like “The Idea of You” and “Burning Bright (Field on Fire).” The latter tends to have more of a post hardcore feel similar to the likes of the band Jesu. The production overall of course is seamless and perfect, but while the more rocking tracks sound perfect, they managed to have some perfect imperfections with a nod to NIN’s more punky side. Dave Grohl guests on “The Idea of You” which is the best track on the album.
Bottom Line: Overall, you can’t go wrong with an EP; the format is easy to dive into and it gives you a nice taste of what can possibly come in the future from other NIN projects.
Notable Tracks: The Idea of You, Burning Bright (Field on Fire)
Overall Rating:
