Nine Inch Nails is an industrial rock band founded by Trent Reznor. The frontman produces the band, sings, writes lyrics, and also plays various musical instruments. In addition, the leader of the group writes tracks for popular films.
Trent Reznor is the only permanent member of Nine Inch Nails. The band's music covers a fairly wide range of genres. At the same time, the musicians manage to convey a characteristic sound to the fans. It is achieved through the use of electronic instruments and sound processing facilities.
The release of each album is accompanied by a tour. To do this, Trent, as a rule, attracts musicians. The live line-up exists separately from the Nine Inch Nails band in the studio. The performances of the team are enchanting and most impressive. Musicians use various visual elements.
The history of the creation and composition of the Nine Inch Nails group
Nine Inch Nails was founded in 1988 in Cleveland, Ohio. NIN is the brainchild of multi-instrumental musician Trent Reznor. The rest of the line-up changed from time to time.
Trent Reznor began his creative career as part of the Exotic Birds collective. Having gained experience, the guy is ripe in order to create his own project. During the formation of the Nine Inch Nails group, he worked as an assistant sound engineer, as well as a cleaner at a recording studio.
One day, the musician asked his boss, Bart Koster, for permission to use the equipment for free, in his spare time from clients. Bart agreed, not suspecting that very soon America would be talking about Nine Inch Nail.
Trent played almost every musical instrument on his own. Reznor has been looking for like-minded people for a long time. The search dragged on indefinitely.
However, after the formation of the composition, the project of the young musician became not only a studio one. Reznor gave the band the original name in the hope that it would interest potential fans.
Designer Gary Talpas designed the band's popular logo. Already in 1988, Trent signed the first contract with TVT Records to record his debut single.
Music by Nine Inch Nails
In 1989, the band's discography was opened with the Pretty Hate Machine album. The record was self-recorded by Reznor. The collection was produced by Mark Ellis and Adrian Sherwood. The album was warmly received by the fans, who appreciated the songs in the style of alternative and industrial rock.
The presented collection of leading positions in the popular Billboard 200 chart did not take. But this did not stop him from staying on the chart for more than two years. This is the first album released on an independent label and certified platinum.
In 1990, the group went on a massive tour of the United States of America. The musicians performed "on the warm-up" of alternative bands.
The Trent Reznor band startled and captured the attention of the audience with one interesting stunt. Each appearance of musicians on stage was accompanied by the fact that they broke professional equipment.
Then the band appeared at the popular Lollapalooza festival, organized by Perry Farrell. After returning home, the organizers of the label demanded that the musicians prepare materials for recording a new album. Due to the fact that the Nine Inch Nails frontman did not listen to the requests of his superiors, his relationship with TVT Records finally deteriorated.
Reznor realized that all new and old creations would not belong to his band, but to the organizers of the label. Then the musician began to release compositions under various fictitious names.
After some time, the group moved under the wing of Interscope Records. Trent was not very happy with this position. But he did not leave the new leadership, because he considered his bosses to be more liberal. They gave Reznor a choice.
New album release by Nine Inch Nails
Soon the musicians presented the mini-record Broken. The presentation of the collection took place on Reznor's personal label Nothing Records, which was part of Interscope Records.
The new album differed from the debut album in the predominance of the guitar tracks. In 1993, the song Wish was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance. Thanks to the live performance of the track Happiness in Slavery from the Woodstock festival, the musicians received another award.
In 1994, the band's discography was replenished with another musical novelty, The Downward Spiral. The presented collection took the 2nd position of the Billboard 200 rating. The final sales of the disc exceeded 9 million copies. Thus, the album became the most commercial album of the band's discography. The album came out as a concept album, the musicians tried to convey to the fans about the decay of the human soul.
Composition Hurt deserves special attention. The track was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Song. The song Closer from the same album became the most commercial single.
The following year, the musicians presented a collection of remixes Further Down the Spiral. Soon the guys went on another tour, in which they took part in the Woodstock festival again.
In the late 1990s, the double disc The Fragile was released. The album became the leader of the Billboard 200 hit parade. In the first week of sales alone, fans dismantled over 200 thousand copies of The Fragile. The album cannot be called commercially successful. As a result, Reznor even had to finance the band's next tour on his own.
Creativity group Nine Inch Nails in the early 2000s
Almost before the presentation of the new album, Nine Inch Nails gave fans a satirical composition Starfuckers, Inc. A bright video clip was released for the song, in which Marilyn Manson played the main role.
In early 2000, the guys presented the album And All That Could Have Been. This period cannot be called prosperous. The fact is that the frontman of the team used drugs and alcohol. As a result, the musicians were forced to suspend their creative activities.
The public saw the next album With Teeth only in 2005. Interestingly, the collection was illegally placed on the Internet. Despite this, the album took the lead on the Billboard 200 music chart.
Critics reacted ambiguously to the novelty. Someone said that the group has completely outlived its usefulness. Following the presentation of the record, there were tours designed to support the collection. Performances took place until 2006. Soon the musicians presented the DVD-ROM Beside You in Time, which was recorded on that very tour.
In 2007, the group's discography was replenished with the concept album Year Zero. Among other tracks, fans singled out the song Survivalism. The work was also warmly received by music critics. True, this did not help the composition get into the country's music charts.
The presentation of the studio album is not the last novelty of 2007. A little later, the musicians released a compilation of remixes, Year Zero Remixed. This is the latest work released on Interscope. The contract was not further extended.
Then the band's frontman published two releases on the band's official website - The Slip and Ghosts I-IV. Both collections were released as limited editions on CD. After the presentation of the record, the musicians went on tour.
Temporary cessation of activities of the Nine Inch Nails group
In 2009, Reznor interacted with fans. The Nine Inch Nails frontman has revealed that he is temporarily putting the project on hold. The band played their last gig and Trent disbanded the lineup. He started making music on his own. Now Reznor Trent wrote soundtracks for popular movies.
Four years later, it became known that the team was resuming activities. The band has released three studio albums, the latest of which is in 2019. The new records were named: Hesitation Marks, Bad Witch, Strobe Light.
The Nine Inch Nails Collective Today
2019 pleased fans with the release of new video clips. In addition, in support of the latest album, the musicians decided to travel to different continents of the planet. True, in 2020 a number of concerts still had to be canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In 2020, the discography of the Nine Inch Nails group was replenished with two records at once. The most interesting thing is that the albums are available for free download.
The latest records are called GHOSTS V: TOGETHER (8 tracks) and GHOSTS VI: LOCUSTS (15 tracks).
