Trent Reznor's Uneasy Virtue: Looking Back on The Downward Spiral
Published May 02, 2005
Best of all? It was theater. If Reznor was St. Sebastian onstage, he was also the geeky computer genius with a long enough attention span to spend months cooking this shit up all by his lonesome. If he was a ferocious, screaming beast on his record, he was soft-spoken, articulate and thoughtful in interviews. In an era marked by entire rock shows of shoe-gazing gas station attendants and audiences who never looked at the stage, Reznor's high drama, pure competence, and sharply focused intention was like an oasis of cool, clear water in an endless desert of the bone dry earnest authenticity of virtuous, by-the-numbers guitar rock.
At his best, Trent Reznor's got a laser eye for structures that house diseased meaning, a rage for what's real and worthy, and the sheer force of will to break everything that isn't strong enough to withstand him. The sharp intelligence of the record alongside the violence of Reznor's aesthetic fearlessness made the emotional rasp in his very human voice all the more excruciating. Reznor was often compared, in those days, to alt-rock's undisputed heavyweight champion of angst, Kurt Cobain, but where Cobain's words were often chaotically imagistic and difficult to pin down, Reznor's were simple, unabashedly linear, and absolutely lacking in a single shred of hip ironic detachment. By the end of the last song, on The Downward Spiral, one had the unmistakable sense of teetering on the brink of the nihilist void with Reznor's narrative "i", now reduced to a stripped down, elemental consciousness that had eviscerated itself of moral and emotional certainty, but whose mind was still terrifyingly and unflinchingly engaged. It was a dreadful prospect, but one which felt like a kind of extreme, if uneasy, virtue.
If The Downward Spiral was a work of destruction, it was also an incredible creative accomplishment. As eviscerating as it was, it more thrilling than depressing, because Reznor had set the bar so high: ultimately, The Downward Spiral held the promise - in fact, could be adequately followed by nothing less - than an almost alchemical transformation. Either that, or death, and Reznor seemed too purposeful for death. It thrilled me beyond expression how little I could imagine what that process could possibly consist of, and I was on the edge of my seat as to what would happen next.
- Trent Reznor's Uneasy Virtue: Looking Back on The Downward Spiral
- Published: May 02, 2005
- Type: Opinion
- Section: Music
- Writer: Jaime Nichols
- Jaime Nichols's BC Writer page
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I really enjoyed this article, especially as a lead up to finally hearing his new opus - "With Teeth" (not like he didn't have any BEFORE this). Often artists like Trent are not looked at by the masses as the figures they actually are. They are frequented by culty fans, banging heads and lifestyle copycats that are in it for the emotional rush and the communication that their less than happy lives have a powerful companion. And he has given them all those things and a good show to boot. Like Dylan, Trent's a (techie) "song and dance man." However, those who can lay down something truly unique, with great style and substance, and find a way to keep that up over time and distance by actually GROWING and MORPHING into a better artist and a better self (through the obvious ups and downs of an actual human life)are few and far between. The question is always "do they have it in them to actually jump into the crucible and come back out unscathed?" The weight you give in this piece to his previous work is well worth the read, and entertaining to boot. I can't wait for the next review from you of his new effort. Thanks.
The Ultimate Object = God? Or, Cock?
Stop using fucked up long confusing words..just get to the fucking point...god....u ppl,i was sitting here reading this huge long babbling lecture sounding like u detest againsed the guy,then at the end u like it?
like seriously...i dont get you!!...ugh your blogs suck the bone!!
ps:Trent is amazing at what he does,and he if extermely gifted ^.^(see now thats getting to the point, not your blog thinger that is making everyone in it look like complete jack offs...like MANSON!)
Steff(the one who gets to the point)
Steff..it seems as if the sequipedalian tendencies of some writes irks you due to what you perceive as a lack of elucidation and clarity
nonetheless, some find a distinction as well as a rareified sense fo satisfaction from placing persnickity prose in paragraphs
now..go to fucking dictionary.com and look shit up to add to yer feeble branipan before ya open yer pie-hole, twink...
Excelsior!
Steff, I thought I made it pretty clear in the first paragraph that this article was totally an appreciation of the way Trent Reznor is awesome at what he does.
Sorry I lost you like that...
Hopefully after Steff graduates from junior high school, she will like be able to like comprehend what Jaime is like saying. To me, it didn't seem like Jaime was "sounding like [she] detest againsed the guy" when she spoke of Trent Reznor, but was wondering why she was so fascinated with his music and lyrics.
Steph, if you think this is a "huge long babbling lecture," wait until you get to college (of course, I'm not holding my breath for that).
Sorry, I just have a low tolerance for ppl who cant spell or use punktuation an right in all lowercase and fucking use "fucking" all the fucking time cuz they cant find another fucking word in theyre vocabularry, so I guess I shouldn't spend that much time on the internet, right?
Anyway, in response to Jaime's post, I thought it was very interesting to read a review of this album from her perspective rather than the same-old "it wuz a dark heavy depressing CD that wuz really kool an made me want to slit my rists to feel trents pain" perspective. I'm curious to hear what you think about "With Teeth," so I'll head over to read your post that I just found on that.
I agree with u Steff. I thought your comment was very honest, trent reznor is amazing at what he does.
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Some very interesting perspectives in here... The performance element has always been a vital part of Nine Inch Nails' power and ability to connect with people beyond those traditionally suited to "that kind" of music, that to have the power roles happening within that Audience/Performer symobiosis broken down is some fascinating stuff.
Even more exciting is the notion that Reznor himself -- obvioiusly no stranger to Master/Slave relationships -- may have been on some level knowingly orchestrating this dynamic. I think there's definitely some evidence for this in his body of work, and the famed precision with which he designs and executes every single element of the presentation of NIN.
Now that Reznor seems to be in a healthier mental state then before, I would gather the parasitic flavor of that performance relationship would not exist in the "With Teeth" era. So what does he have in store next?