The only NIN song that everybody loves but I don't is The Great Below. For some reason I always forget about it, hear it on the Fragile, remember that it's great, but then forget about it immediately after.
The only NIN song that everybody loves but I don't is The Great Below. For some reason I always forget about it, hear it on the Fragile, remember that it's great, but then forget about it immediately after.
Similar to Xen, I first heard of Nine Inch Nails when I was playing Rock Band with my family when I was a small child; "The Hand That Feeds" was a playable song. Then later on when I was playing Midnight Club 3, I noticed that The Hand That Feeds was one of the songs that was a part of that game's Radio feature. I felt a relation to that song as it was the only one in the game I heard before.
Also, funny enough, Rock Is Dead by MM was also in that game.
It took me roughly five years of listening to NIN to truly appreciate “Heresy” and “Ruiner.”
I got into NIN with Further Down The Spiral (UK, so v2 with Heresy and Ruiner versions). This was probably around late 1995 up to mid-1996.
It was several years later that I picked up The Downward Spiral. Listening to the original versions of the songs was a very odd, uncomfortable, exhilarating experience. It felt like I was listening to the best remix album I'd ever heard.
With all the discussion concerning the trilogy, I wanted to somehow finally admit that I still sometimes like to see Pretty Hate Machine, Broken and The Downward Spiral, as well as The Fragile, And All That Could Have Been (Still) and With Teeth as epic/colossal trilogies with Broken and AATCHB (Still) being the bridges between all 4 albums.
However, it shouldn't be a surprise anyway, since all of his works are connected in one way or another, but the trilogy of Not The Actual Events, Add Violence and Bad Witch has reminded me of this particular thought big-time. Perhaps Trent had trilogies in mind much longer than I thought?
Last edited by Halo Infinity; 09-11-2018 at 09:24 PM.
I have been to hundreds of concerts, and Nine Inch Nails was the most beautiful life experience ever. When the closing song "hurt" was being performed, I was crying tears of positivity. I will also confess that I was under the influence of the hallucinogen 25-i
This is yet one of the many things in life that's very hard for me to explain, but I actually was that way when it came to The Great Below until I listened to it on And All That Could Have Been (Live). After that, I began to appreciate it so much more.
In a way, I could also say that same thing about The Becoming. While I loved that song instantly, I actually always skipped it to listen to I Do Not Want This instead. However, when I listened to it on And All That Could Have Been (Still), it somehow helped me appreciate it in a different way that I wouldn't have considered at all.
Interestingly enough, it was already the reverse for Something I Can Never Have and The Day The World Went Away, as the album versions were already favorites.
Anyway, now that the trilogy is finally complete, I am very contented, happy and just relieved to know and have Not The Actual Events, Add Violence and Bad Witch on CDs. When it was just NTAE, I was worried that there was going to be no CD at all. (I would've accepted it anyway, but as of right now this is one of those cases where I'm also just glad to be wrong.) I've always loved Nine Inch Nails on CD, (Even in spite of what Trent thought of CDs. But as far as album art, I totally get him when I saw how The Downward Spiral's album art looked on vinyl unfolded.) even though I can appreciate and respect vinyl. Then again, all of the physical mediums concerning albums have always interested me anyway, as I have also enjoyed cassettes. I somehow just forgot to mention that altogether.
And perhaps this is just the 1990s child/2000s teenager in me speaking as well. Anyway, overall it's still just great to see how nicely the 2010s are getting wrapped up so far as far as the world of all things NIN go.
I've cried the last 4 times I've seen Hurt live for no fucking reason.
I wish "Deep" would be played live again. I'm one of the few people that wants that and that's ok.
Absolutely nothing wrong with Deep. People tend to facepalm at the lyrics, but I honestly don't think they're more embarrassing than most of The Fragile. The With Teeth-era rehearsal recording is awesome.
When I was 20, I used to listen to The Great Below on repeat.
At this point in my life, I was absolutely planning on being dead by 25 and was trying to make that happen via needle drugs and alcohol.
And SO, I made sure that a few of my closest friends knew that my one funeral request was that TGB was played in lieu of amazing grace or whatever.
Eighteen years later, I look back on this and cringe intensely: the slow suicide is cringeworthy enough, but the TGB thing is what REALLY embarrasses pushing-forty-and-still-alive me.
It's SO fucking silly and speaks to how ridiculously self absorbed I was, as well as how I romanticized death and suicide in an absurd, delusional manner.
I actually used to think that The Fragile was the first ever Nine Inch Nails album to cause controversial divisions/opinions and debates among the fan-base until I learned that was already happening since Broken came out.
I thought everything from Pretty Hate Machine to The Downward Spiral was just accepted in unison with absolutely no questions/arguments and dissension. Looking back at it now though, I actually can't believe that I ever thought that. There will always be some disagreements among fans here and there, no matter what. Even mild ones.
Last edited by Halo Infinity; 09-28-2018 at 06:30 PM. Reason: I also might've posted this before if my memory has failed me again. However, it still blows my mind.
When I saw NIN for the first and only time (so far) back in 2014 TDTWWA made me feel really sentimental. It was weird. Once he started the lyrics I just got this weird, emotional, positive feeling. Trent was there singing emotional lyrics with a lone spotlight and I'm just like "Dude" and then Hurt came on and I wasn't emotional over that but for some reason TDTWWA almost made me fall apart. Infact, I personally think that TDTWWA and Right Where It Belongs V2 might be the saddest NIN songs to me. Hurt is definitely a powerful and emotional song but the ones I mentioned just get to me in a way.
Also, Deep owns.
Last edited by nooneimportant; 09-25-2018 at 07:56 AM.
I pretty much stopped listening to NIN entirely in 2011 until about 2017. I couldn't any longer. 2007-2009 was a very dark time in my life and being that all I wanted to or could bring myself to listen to was NIN, the memories associated with basically every song took me back to that place. I stopped interacting here as well for pretty much the same reason. I kept in touch outside of the boards via AIM, Xbox Live, Facebook etc., with a few people I was friendly with but even let those friendships wither and die. I saw NIN in Broomfield in 2013 but that was about the extent of what I could take until last year when I happened to stumble across a new NIN song on Spotify, went to the store and saw the DEs were announced and made available for pre-purchase. I didn't really start listening with any enthusiasm again until the Cold and Black and Infinite tour was announced this year and am fully obsessed again.
Seeing them at Red Rocks was incredibly cathartic as well as awesome and helped me put all of that negative shit behind me. I wish I'd never fallen out of this community.
i still haven’t listened to bad witch in it’s entirety. i’ve heard most of gbdtd and “shit mirror.” it’s the only halo i haven’t purchased one way or another.
Last edited by kel; 09-26-2018 at 02:35 PM.
Out of curiosity, what is holding you back? You can easily stream this album on youtube and in other ways without actually purchasing. Just my opinion, but you are missing out on a few great tracks outside of the 2 that you mentioned! Over and out is up there as one of my favorite NIN tracks of all time
i don’t know. maybe age, maybe that it’s been a rough year and i can’t really get hyped about something like this right now, even as a distraction. it’s puzzling to me, too.
Last edited by kel; 09-26-2018 at 04:26 PM.
i’m not being (a) contrarian. honest. when ntae came out i was going through an ugly divorce of sorts and now i can’t listen to it at all. maybe i’m avoiding it because i don’t want it to latch onto this general malaise. i really don’t know. as i said, my reluctance to hear it puzzles me, but for whatever reason i am. we all handle things differently, dude.
edit: @BRoswell my condolences. and i’m glad you’re still here.
Last edited by kel; 09-28-2018 at 10:24 PM.
Just let people enjoy/listen to music how they want to listen to it.
Deep is also one of my favorite songs and I also certainly hope to see it live as well. I was just reminded about that when I read this page again. Perhaps my enjoyment of the actual music video also helped.
I wonder if Deep's general reception in the community would be any different if it wasn't latched onto a soundtrack and if we never learned about Trent's opinion on the video. The video, which is beyond cool, if you ask me.
I think it's possible. I'm sure Trent doesn't hate the actual song (hence why it got played live way before The Perfect Drug despite not being as popular with fans), but I've always found the hate towards it kind of baffling. The video is cheesy as hell, sure, but the actual track is pretty good.
I always confused Deep with Reptile when I was younger, Maybe was the green of the video of Deep