Oh man, Bad Witch is so much in a small amount of time. Lots to digest, the sound is so different.
Oh man, Bad Witch is so much in a small amount of time. Lots to digest, the sound is so different.
Over and Out is so beautiful. The synth fading out at the end is gorgeous. I wasn't sure if The Background World could be topped, but this song comes damn close. It has such a surreal, dreamlike feel to it.
Has anybody coined the term Industrial Jazz yet?
Beautiful, just beautiful. Have to listen a few more times to wrap my head around this.
Favorite Track (Thus Far): INFTW
I find my self appreciating GBDTD a lot more when I listen to the LP in order. Very cool LP.
'I'm Not From This World' could have made the cut for Quake 1. Cool track, I love atmospheric/ambient music.
Finally caved and listened. I’d say it’s pretty damn good but suffers from its short length. It needs like 2 more tracks or so to feel complete.
Shit Mirror is a great rocker, wish Trent’s voice was just like 20% less obscured but it’s a nice opener.
Ahead of Ourselves is fucking awesome, a killer tune. That noisy chorus is bone crushing in the best way.
Play the Goddamn Part is a great jazz industrial jam, i just wish it had a stronger climax or something. it kinda fizzles out when it should explode.
God Break Down the Door is the freshest NIN in years and probably ultimately my favorite track here. It’s a fucking beast in context of the album.
I’m Not From This World is a cool eerie instrumental but feels long winded and overall unnessacary. May listen to this one more to see if it grows on me.
Over and Out is incredible. Easily my second fav track here after GBDTD. Awesome groove and who knew Trent could sing like that? whoa.
Starting to think bringing Atticus in as an official member was one of the smartest things Trent has done. Maybe it gave him a kick in the ass after the NIN by numbers Slip/Hesitation Marks stuff...These 3 EPs are some of the most aggressive and sonically adventurous stuff he has done since Fragile era...Atticus did that awesome digital hardcore Error EP with Greg Puciato back in the day. I gotta think he has been an influence on Trent to push boundaries again
I absolutely love that Error EP. I think Trent and Atticus need to make their own Error type EP. Something completely abrasive and unsafe.
Last edited by neorev; 06-19-2018 at 02:39 PM.
@simonn - I legit asked that because it really does sound like Peter Murphy. I'm anxiously awaiting liner notes to confirm.
It sounds to me like TR finally breaking out into some strange Hydra where he has the heads of his favorite collaborators but, who knows. I'm curious to see if there's an actual duet happening if that's what other people are hearing.
As much as I like ALL of the soundtracks and Ghosts, the two Bad Witch instrumentals are the ones that haven’t immediately grabbed me…and that’s okay!! I like it when he challenges my ears and I LOVE it when a song eventually “clicks” with me. I wasn’t initially thrilled with Ghosts, but now it is one of my favorite NIN albums and I play it all the time. Still kicking my own ass for not shelling out the bucks for the Ultra-Mega-Super-Deluxe version the day it went on sale!!
Either way, I’m VERY happy with these EP’s!! Thank you, TR/AR!! Please NEVER stop!! Can’t wait for the Irving, TX shows in November!!
Okay, so I've finally had some time to digest this album and I think it's pretty damn awesome...my only complaint would be that almost half of it is instrumentals. Over and Out, to me, seems like an instrumental with lyrics added to it. Kinda like This isn't the place. Don't get me wrong, both of those songs are great, i just prefer more vocals than instrumentals. Otherwise, awesome album. Shit Mirror is my favorite song of the whole trilogy, but as far as my favorite EP, I would have to give a slight edge to AV. I would say though that BW is like NTAE and AV had a baby. And just for shits, I ranked all the songs from the trilogy in order of my preference:
Shit mirror
Less Than
The Background world
This isn't the place
Ahead of Ourselves
Burning Bright
God break down the door
Not anymore
Branches/bones
Idea of you
She's gone away
Play the goddamned part
Over and Out
Dear world
I'm not from this world
The Lovers
That was my fault. I was saying I get excited for NIN releases like some do Star Wars films; where they do that whole 'watch the entire saga in a day thing' which is exactly what I am going to do with the NTAE, AV and BW. Didn't think the comparison would send us down this road, but here we are.
That said, Friday cannot get here soon enough. Watch the darn record show up at like 8 PM.
Shit Mirror: I definitely expected Bad Witch to be noisy and dense, but I was still taken aback by that blast of noise to start the album. Someone in this thread said it best when they described this song as one that feels as if it were written during the WT era, but recorded during the Broken/TDS era. It's very easily the most straightforward rocker here, but a lot of cool shit is buried under the noisy, lo-fi production. It felt a little too messy and overwhelming at first listen, but I am completely digging it at this point. The way the guitar comes in during the last rendition of the chorus is fantastic and memorable. Will be very good live. Fits in with NtAE pretty well (not radically different than Branches/Bones, but quite a bit more going on). Not so much in line with AV.
Ahead of Ourselves: Top tier NIN. I heard it for the first time while out on my bike, and I actually had to pull over due to how excited I was. Was shivering all over my body; I had no idea music could still do that to me. The percussion is incredible and propulsive, and the chorus is absolutely crushing. An absolute beast of a track. This might be the first song since TDS (seriously) that demands to be played live, each and every NIN show. It belongs in that unimpeachable space alongside with Head Like a Hole, Wish, March of the Pigs, Closer, Hurt, etc. It felt pretty obvious that Bad Witch was its own entity after hearing this.
Play the Goddamn Part: While this completely works as a standalone track (it has all the depth and nuance to hold one's attention on its own merits), I love thinking about it as an extended intro to God Break Down the Door. The most obvious reasons for that are the sax and the marimba (!) but GBDtD really bursts out of this one. It's like GBDtD is the song that constructs itself from the more free-form style found here. I hear this really demonic, twisted circus spinning inside its guts, with the sax floating over the top, pulling it along. Very, very Lynchian.
God Break Down the Door: An excellent single that, by no surprise, becomes even better in the context of the album. I can't get enough of the outro; "Remove the pain and push it back in" has to be one of my favorite NIN lines ever.
I'm Not From this World: This song is about the conception of Donald Trump. It's the disgusting soundtrack to his parents rutting. Papa Trump shoots his creepy, crawly load and we're all fucked.
Over and Out: I barely even have words for this one. It's the sound of the album slowly uncoiling from its hold on you, finally giving you room to breathe, and eventually releasing you from its grip. Trent delivers incredible vocals after a very sprawling instrumental lead in. The bassline grooves throughout and, at times, I can see stars shimmering against the blackness of everything I just heard. Incredible.
It seems kind of strange to compare such a short album to TDS and TF, but it's the same genius at work in Bad Witch. This 'trilogy' has been a really incredible experience.
As noisy as Broken is, it doesn't have that "musical noise" quality that the TDS era has, so the 94-97 era (Quake, TPD and Driver Down included) becomes the best reference point for a lot of this, with The Fragile becoming an appropriate reference for its atmospherics. But it still feels new, with 2000s NIN being weaved in among all of it.
This trilogy is definitely the harshest and weirdest NIN album/release series since the TDS remix albums. I really didn't think they were still interested in that side of the catalog for studio work, but they really pulled it off without it feeling like a retread or some kind of sad nostalgia. BW feels like it fulfills the promise of NTAE's "uncompromising" sound.
It's amazing. I've already heard it eight times and it's only been out a day.
While I'm obviously not NIN camp and have no way to confirm or disprove, i'll say that it's really really unlikely. I say that because Peter has been having visa troubles for the last two years trying to get into the US for a residency, which he's had to keep postponing and refunding tickets for. Something to do with him being in Turkey and his visa application being "in process" (i.e. stuck in US administrative hell). I'm not sure Trent is the type to have another vocalist essentially "phone in" a vocal recording for such an important release. This is all purely speculation though.
Listening to the very first occurrence of "Time is running out" repeatedly, I feel pretty safe in saying it's just TR really trying to experiment with different delivery. The first half of the phrase - "Time is", is the only part that really sounds like it could be Peter or Bowie, but "running out" listened to in isolation is plainly Trent. If it's anyone else it's been blended with Trent's voice expertly.
Per Discogs, Ian Astbury (The Cult) and Mariqueen are on Shit Mirror: https://www.discogs.com/Nine-Inch-Na...lease/12156667