FMOTP This release gets 4 1/2 out of 5 stars as one of the best in Trent Reznor's sizable discography. It's unusual to say that about this amount of music. However, its conciseness is its strongest selling point. NIN's next effort, "The Downward Spiral", is brilliant. However, over an hour's worth of angst can be draining.

"Broken" is definitely more aggressive than "Pretty Hate Machine". In my mind, that's a very good thing. At almost 30 minutes, "Broken" succeeds very well emotionally IMO. Favorite tracks are "Wish", "Help Me I Am In Hell', and "Happiness in Slavery" . However, everything here is worth listening to.

I've always thought that it was strange/funny that Trent was covering an Adam Ant song, of all things. However, injecting "Physical" with his own intensity in a typical NINE INCH NAILS arrangement works. I think the song points to what makes NIN's work successful; it's so musical. For all the rage in Trent's music, he can write strong melodies and lyrics. That's why "Broken" is NIN at their almost best, if not best.

FMOTP NINE INCH NAILS have achieved a level of success which is unusual for electronic music. Is it because Trent Reznor writes what most people would consider actual songs, with lyrics and melodies? I'm part of the band's large fan base. I rarely listen to any other bands who play electronically-based music, for lack of a better term.

Over all, I enjoyed Fixed quite a bit. This EP is almost as much the work of Trent's collaborators as it is Trent's. Their radical tweakings of his songs are mostly compelling. The nine minute version of "Wish", surprisingly, is probably my favorite. Unless you know the Broken EP very well, I wouldn't choose these remixes first. This certainly isn't metal. However, this is a very interesting 40 minutes of music.

voila_la_scorie Divorce can be a funny thing. Back in the 90’s, I was married to a woman who was into dance pop and Celtic folk music and I was into metal, hard rock, and alternative. The Celtic folk was nice but I could not be thrilled about dance pop. As our divorce proceedings were coming to an end, we met up just to discuss a few minor things. She told me she had gotten into Nine Inch Nails. What a coincidence since I had recently discovered them for myself. She liked NIN for the dance-like beats and aggression and I liked them for the heavy stuff and aggression. Probably we didn’t like the same albums or songs though.

“Broken” was my third and final NIN purchase. It sounded very different from what I had heard on “The Downward Spiral” and “Further Down the Spiral” but it was still obviously Nine Inch Nails. Around that time, there was a video for “Pinion” that I saw on Much Music (Canada’s music station). In the video, the camera followed a series of pipes running across the ceiling and down walls, through floors, in some building and the final scene brought us to a person tied up in black leather with the pipe terminating in his mouth and water spewing from his mouth out the sides. It’s just a short track and an instrumental at that. The volume slowly rises with a creepy chord sequence that repeats as effects come in. Then it abruptly ends as “Wish” begins with its quick percussion and heavy guitar. “Last” was and still is my favourite song on this album. The guitar riffs sound really like Black Sabbath to me, and Trent Reznor delivers his trademark paranoid/maniacal/obsessive style of vocals.

I hadn’t listened to the album for a long time but a few weeks ago I watched the Lock Horns (on YouTube) episode about early industrial metal albums and this one was mentioned, so I dug it out and put the disc into iTunes and on my phone. It’s better than I remembered. Now I find most of the album captures my attention. The production is clear, warm, and loud but not in the red. There is an excellent balance between heavy guitar rock band and electronic band. Some songs feature some great riffs that caught my ear while I was walking and listening, tracks like “Happiness is Slavery” and “Suck”. There’s enough variety on this album to keep it interesting, though “Help Me I Am In Hell” is another short instrumental that is simple and a little repetitive.

One comment to make here is about the two hidden tracks, “Physical (You’re So)” and “Suck”. A lot of hidden track albums will put the hidden track on as part of the final track with an intervening empty gap that can be anywhere from a couple of minutes to over ten minutes. I really despise those long pointless gaps of blankety-blank-blankness. However, on “Broken” all the empty space is filled with something like 91 1-second-long blank tracks. Why is this good? Because when putting the CD into an iTunes library, you can unselect all the blank tracks and save only the tracks with music. My iTunes folder now has only 8 music files for this album instead of eight plus 91-something blank tracks. Good thinking, guys! A huge blank gap in between two tracks that make up only one track on the CD is really the pits!

All in all, a very good bit of industrial metal. It's not every track that's a killer but there's a lot of great stuff here! On Lock Horns, by the way, the album made the list of ten essential early industrial metal albums.

aglasshouse Dark, brooding, and emotional, Trent Reznor broke onto the music scene with his 1989 album titled Pretty Hate Machine. he envisioned for a band that would, using metallic undertones to bring out a more righteous clang to his point, make points of sociopolitical commentary. This album was written and recorded to embody this spirit. Did Pretty Hate Machine accomplish what it was made for? ...No, I'd say it didn't.

The album overall achieved a good round of applause from most critics, although not all of them took well to Reznor's work. However most progressive rock fans that at the least call Reznor a 'prog' artist and his band a prog band would do well to stay away from this one. Instead of the usually dreary electronic use most commonly found in artists such as Stabbing Westward, Orgy, Ministry, and later NiN works, the album functions around a steady theme of catchy alternative rock beats and composition, albeit with some amateur technological use overlapping it.

Pretty Hate Machine brings to the table a large theme of anger, with blatantly spiteful lyrics and, as stated before, social commentary. But that doesn't excuse the fact that this album is annoying. I've seen many bands accomplish commentary such as this and do it well. A band that comes to mind are Porcupine Tree, which actually implies subtly the ideology of anti- systematical lyrics mixed in with their enjoyable music. Here, it's more along the lines of Reznor and his emo friends recording an album during their aggressive teenage phase. Other than that, the songs are just plain boring. The 'catchy' riffs used on the album are over repetitive and rely on a similar theme, giving the illusion that all of the songs are the same. The only track that I've found to stand out is the ever present 'Head Like a Hole', although even that song is just a casual listen and not material for a respectful intake of the album itself.

So, all in all, this is a skippable one. Mostly because any fan of Nine Inch Nails would enjoy their later works more than the earlier material, but even if your not a fan you would do well not to pick this one up. Alternative electronic rock? No thanks.

aglasshouse In the late 80's, Trent Reznor originally envisioned a band that made subtle social commentary which was conveyed via. industrial rock. Thus, Pretty Hate Machine was released in 1989 to average popularity. However, Reznor himself believed that he had overdone it, and implied too much shameless self pity. Feeling that his point was ruined from the release, he planned another release and gave the public the EP Broken a few years later.

Trent, my god, good job with this one. Taking a metal edge instead of the indulgent mainstream industrial rock that the antecedent release was full of, this EP evolves not only the Industrial metal scene but also the band's structure. If I were to say, my favorite industrial metal band has always been Stabbing Westward. However, after finding and buying this little gem at a thrift store, I decided that Nine Inch Nails had thoroughly earned my respect as a whole.

The album ranges from flat out slamming metal to more complex, albeit stranger songs. The future Nine Inch Nails sound is still there, but if you are interested in such a raw version of this band then this would be definitely something for you. 'Wish' is a simple little tune, undoubtedly the most recognized from it, which follows a quick tempo as well as sudden bursts of angry static-style riffing. 'Last' is an absolute slammer, with giant hunky metallic riffs making for a pure ball of anger hitting you over and over. Simply excellent, and perhaps my personal favorite from the album. 'Help Me I'm In Hell' is an interesting bridge to 'Happiness in Slavery', another scream-filled song which Reznor pours his soul into. 'Gave Up' is more of an fast, alternative hard rock song with fewer industrial elements than the others. However, Reznor's voice has been modified which sounds like he's speaking into a fan. However, it does add some more feeling to the song.

Now, 'Gave Up' is perhaps where we would end, for the rest of the EP is simple blank space. But no, hidden at the end are two covers of two different bands. The first being 'Physical (You're So)', a cover of the post-punk band Adam and the Ants, is actually quite enjoyable. The band souped up the original to add more metal as well as more electronic influences and sounds. The second is 'Suck', a cover of the industrial rock band Pigface. It isn't as enjoyable as the former but it's still okay. I would call it more undoubtedly hard-rockish than metallic. Nice casual listen, though.

So, in the end, NiN's Broken is a fantastic EP. I would go so far as to say that this little gem is what undoubtedly got the band rolling. I suggest if you are any particular metal fan or even a fan of the band, get it, it'll be worth it.