NIN creates fantasy world with new album

by Caroline Basile, sports editor

A mythological world in the year 2022 is what “Year Zero” is to Trent Reznor, the one-man music machine behind industrial favorite Nine Inch Nails.

The impending apocalypse is one of the constant themes that Reznor displays on “Zero,” which was released on April 17.

With synthetic sounds similar to NIN’s previous releases, Reznor uses the album as his outlet to express the nihilistic, church-led fantasy world of 2022 that he created, where religious atrocities are abundant and people are being controlled by drugs that are poisoning the water supply.

Throughout the display of this fictitious society facing the end of the world, Reznor is content with it, being shown in song titles such as “The Greater Good,” “The Great Destroyer,” and “”Meet your Master.”

The album is chock full of political metaphors, such as “My God…. signs his name with a Capital G,” on the song “Capital G,”   along with the many tones of the religious takeover mentioned throughout the concept album.

Leaking tracks by leaving them on USB ports in public restrooms, the NIN street team made promoting this album a maze, because no one knew what would be next. Several mythical websites popped up as well.

Perhaps Reznor’s most ambitious effort in NIN’s 19-year existence, the 16-track concept album brought forward the start of hidden websites and a game that some of the most devout NIN fans may have trouble keeping up with.

Before “Zero’s” release, clues from tour t-shirts led fans and others to these alternate-reality websites that described an "Orwellian picture of the United States, circa the year 2022."

While it’s not the most matchless dystopian tale, it seems like a mix of similar ideas portrayed in other no-future tales such as George Orwell’s “1984,” Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” and “The Matrix.” But, nonetheless, it’s all Reznor. The NIN mastermind has released an album with the same sonic industrial sound that they are known for. Songs such as “Me, I’m Not,” and “The Greater Good” are full of their standard synthetic beats, alluring piano interludes and funky trip-hop synchronizations. These elements in the song smoothly collide with the image of an invented future not far from our current time that is afflicted by multiple calamities.

“The United States Bureau of Morality” is Reznor’s invented watchdog of this era of government control, with a stamp on the back of the album’s CD packaging that tells the listener to “Be a patriot - be an informer!” There is also a number for the bureau that you can call, and it will give you an automated message from the bureau.

Songs look at this era of nihilism through the eyes of different characters. The first single off the album, "Survivalism," discloses the inner thoughts of a leader in the resistance movement of the time. "Vessel” displays the same, but for a religious extremist, and "The Good Soldier” depicts the reluctance of a soldier to fight battles in this resistance toward the religion-controlled government.  

Mixing a variety of sounds really brings NIN’s effort together and unified. I give this 4 ½ out of 5 stars.