Nine Inch Nails - Not The Actual Events (Album Review)
Thursday, 05 January 2017
Written by Alec Chillingworth
“New NIN coming in 2016. Other stuff, too.”
Trent Reznor, Nine Inch Nails’ mastermind, tweeted that on December 18, 2015. So we waited. And waited. And waited. If you’re a Tool fan then you’ll be used to this, but at least Reznor delivered. On December 23, 2016 he released a new EP, ‘Not The Actual Events’, following just a week’s notice. It was a Christmas fuckin’ miracle, as Run The Jewels might tell you.
Given the EP’s brevity and Reznor’s promise that it was “an unfriendly, fairly impenetrable record that we needed to make”, we were all expecting something in line with the crunching industrial masterpiece ‘Broken’.
Admit it. Raise your hand. You were, weren’t you? But that came out in 1992. That’s 24 years ago. It’s hard to imagine a middle-aged, Oscar-winning millionaire recording another track as imbued with rage as Wish.
And, duly, we don’t get that here. What we do get, mind, is closing track Burning Bright (Field On Fire), which grinds like the dirtiest Godflesh or Swans dirge. Its sludgy tempo combines with spoken-word passages where Reznor resembles a level-headed Al Jourgensen. Its “Break through the surface and breathe” hook is an example of Reznor’s sublime simplicity and the manner in which his quest for sonic discombobulation is never hampered by a swift melody or two.
Burning Bright (Field On Fire) is the EP’s apex; five minutes of noise rock that could maybe sit on ‘The Fragile’. Dave Navarro of Jane’s Addiction also releases some squealing background effects throughout the track, giving weight to Reznor’s ‘impenetrable’ tag and making the whole thing incredibly jarring. In the best possible way, mind.
Elsewhere, ‘Not The Actual Events’ is far more penetrable than one would expect from Reznor and long-time collaborator Atticus Ross, with the EP representing the latter’s first official stab at being a member of Nine Inch Nails. Given that the pair have crafted multiple blockbuster scores together, you’d think that’d seep into the EP in some way. Not really. Branches/Bones’ scuzzy guitar and Reznor’s high-rising vocal intonation on its chorus are more reminiscent of the trigger-happy Survivalism from ‘Year Zero’ smashing against the relative minimalism of 2013’s ‘Hesitation Marks’ than anything from The Social Network.
You might feel obliged to compare She’s Gone Away’s dissonant rumble to Piggy from ‘The Downward Spiral’, but you’d be mad to do so. It’s sinister, yes, but only in the context of this EP. When compared to ‘The Downward Spiral’, it sounds like All Time Low. Meanwhile, Reznor’s further stab at spoken-word on Dear World is a tasty addition to an otherwise ‘segue’ song. Maybe it would’ve worked better on a full-length, but due to the EP’s limited lifespan Dear World comes off like a misplaced transitional track that would’ve fortified ‘Hesitation Marks’.
So no, it’s not the throwback to Nine Inch Nails’ peak that you wanted. And you haven’t got a sprawling epic to match ‘The Fragile’ either. What you have instead are two great bookend pieces and a certified live number in The Idea Of You, where Dave Grohl’s drums underpin a ‘With Teeth’-style industrial rocker that takes a twist thanks to some haunting piano. ‘Not The Actual Events’ is a decent follow-up to ‘Hesitation Marks’ and, given the disparate directions explored in just 21 minutes, it leaves us with absolutely no clue as to where Reznor will go next. And that’s a wonderful thing.
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