9 Nine Inch Nails Favorites for Trent Reznor’s Birthday

I love Nine Inch Nails. As I’m typing this, it’s Trent Reznor‘s birthday. So I’m taking full advantage of the celebration.

 

I’d love to say I’m a NIN OG, but I can’t make that claim. When the band debuted with Pretty Hate Machine in October of 1989, for whatever reason, it didn’t land on my radar. Maybe it’s because I was still obsessed with Cheap Trick, my first real favorite rock band. Or maybe I was still stuck on Living Colour‘s Vivid, which was my favorite album from the year prior. Actually, the most likely scenario was that my 12-year-old self was obsessed with hip-hop at the time. De La Soul, 3rd Bass, and Public Enemy, in particular.

 

It wasn’t until the Broken EP, released in September of 1992, that I got wise to Trent Reznor. I had just started my sophomore year of high school, I was always on the lookout for new sounds, and the video for the EP’s lead single, “Wish,” was all over MTV. It was nothing like my 15-year-old ears had ever seen or heard. This music was loud and aggressive, the lyrics and imagery were violent. Welcome to the world of industrial, young Adam. It wasn’t long for me before Nine Inch Nails led to Ministry and the like.

 

9 Nine Inch Nails Favorites for Trent Reznor’s Birthday

From Broken, I worked in reverse to discover Pretty Hate Machine. “Ah, “Head Like A Hole,” right. I remember this video.” And then in 1994, when Trent dropped The Downward Spiral on the same day as Soundgarden released Superunknown? You know I bought ’em both on the day they came out. And they became my go-to’s on the back half of 1994. So Happy Birthday, Mr. Reznor. Thanks for the soundtrack to my teenage catharsis, much of which is contained in the songs below.

• "Wish"

  This was the song that started it all for me. It was a different kind of heavy. Different that punk, different than metal.

• "Gave Up"

  There were a few videos for this one back in the day. This one was filmed at the Tate House. That whole Broken EP is still my favorite single NIN release to this day.

• "Something I Can Never Have"

  Wait, you can do an industrial BALLAD? Trent can. I played with a band called Big Orange for a hot minute when I was in high school and college and we covered this one.

• "March Of The Pigs"

  As far as I was concerned, The Downward Spiral had picked up where Broken had left off. This one would’ve fit right in on the EP. My favorite track on the album.

• "Hurt"

  I saw Nine Inch Nails at the Garden in ’94. When they played “Hurt,” they projected time-lapse photos of animal decomposing on the big screen. Still sticks with me to this day.

• "The Day The World Went Away"

  NIN fans had to wait five years for The Fragile. An eternity. It was a celebration when the double album finally dropped in ’99. I was working at WFNX at the time, and I hosted a live broadcast at Tower Records on the corner of Mass Ave. and Newbury St. The line to get into the store and buy the album at midnight stretched over a block.

• "The Hand That Feeds"

  With Teeth is, dare I say, underrated. And I mean that in the context of alternative rock in general. NIN fans know how damn good it is.

• "Survivalism"

  I’m running out of songs here. Gotta keep it to 9 for the theme. This one’s my fave from 2007’s Year Zero.

• "Came Back Haunted"

  Almost two decades after seeing NIN at the Garden, I was able to see them again. The lighting rig–suspended directly over the band–changed configuration with every song, giving an almost claustrophobic feel. It was jarring. And amazing.