Best New Music
How to Destroy Angels: How to Destroy Angels
Self-Released
Available as a Free Download Here
Rating: 8.8
I am of the opinion that Trent Reznor is and remains a genius. At the same time, I believe him to be an auteur, an artist with a highly developed aesthetic that essentially defines his work.
Reznor is an enigma. At one time he was essentially a recluse, hiding himself from the world, supposedly tortured by the art that makes him so brilliant. Five years between Pretty Hate Machine and The Downward Spiral. Another five years between The Downward Spiral and The Fragile. Six years between The Fragile and With Teeth. Then Trent Reznor found an enemy.
His record label, Interscope Records, stopped putting the force behind Trent Reznor that they had in his glory days. Records like The Fragile, a dual-disc concept record was essentially unmarketable. Someone made the mistake in thinking that Reznor’s best days were behind him. They heard a freindlier Reznor on Nine Inch Nails’ With Teeth and mistook that as Reznor going soft. They suggested that he work with hip-hop producers, probably under poor assumptions that Reznor had lost his edge. What they didn’t know was that they made themselves fodder for Reznor’s creative genius.
In 2008, Reznor released The Slip free over the internet. The album proved to bring a vitality to Reznor that he hadn’t had in previous incarnations of Nine Inch Nails on a major label. He released the record, which sounded surprisingly commercial, on a slick pricing model that provided free and pay versions of the record in the digital realm. This was Reznor’s version of DIY, and the record had all the enthusiasm of an early punk rock release.
Then Reznor sold it all. He disbanded Nine Inch Nails as a touring entity and started work on a project with his wife, Mariqueen Maandig, called How to Destroy Angels. This release is signature Reznor.
How to Destroy Angels isn’t terribly different from a Nine Inch Nails record. There is the requisite dark, sexual energy that is found on previous releases on “BBB.” There are the long instrumental songs that meander between ambient and industrial on “A Drowning.” There’s loud, animalistic texture on “Parasite.”
That isn’t saying that there isn’t anything here that doesn’t sound fresh. Reznor has, by far and away, been an artist that is too underrated for his own good. The Downward Spiral feels as fresh as anything on any dubstep or grime playlist. Reznor, along with the Dust Brothers, helped to create an audio aesthetic that was both highly produced and highly confrontational in the use of texture and rhythm against melody. He departs from the Dust Brothers in his continual refinement of that palette.
So hearing How to Destroy Angels shouldn’t be a surprise for anyone listening to it. But perhaps one ought to listen to it with new ears. Even Reznor’s most arduous moments, his explorations into the ambient subgenre, have yielded incredibly exciting results. The release’s final track, “A Drowning,” leaves the listener in this exploration between ambient and pop, creating a kind of magic that was never revealed in Nine Inch Nails. Maandig’s vocals are both haunting and warm, inviting you to feel the destruction that Reznor flirts with on every release.
It is here that the auteur reveals his craft: work that has all the serenity of the Mona Lisa’s smile and all of the destruction of a nuclear winter.
Cover and Mp3s via How to Destroy Angels
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Louis Korom IV is a writer and designer living in Denton, Texas.
I didn’t even know about this EP until reading your review. I’m downloading it as I’m writing this comment and can’t wait to listen.
My favorite Nine Inch Nails is The Fragile, Ghosts, and the Still EP (basically his more ambient/experimental stuff). Seems like this might fit right in with those projects.
I love how Reznor is always trying new things when it comes to distributing and marketing his music. He was doing the pay what you want thing before “In Rainbows” and he always seemed to be one of the first mainstream artists to embrace the downfall of the traditional music industry. Certainly deserves a lot more credit than I think he receives most the time.