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Years before Richard Patrick launched Filter in 1993 with Brian Liesegang, and decades before forming Army of Anyone with brothers Robert and Dean DeLeo of Stone Temple Pilots fame, he was a wiry kid in Cleveland who was just beginning to find himself creatively. And Patrick wasn’t alone: Another Cleveland kid by the name of Trent Reznor was looking to make his mark, ultimately doing so with Nine...
Most records have some sort of a low point, a moment that may see even hardcore fans quickly advancing to the next track—a bass line that just didn’t work, a section that dragged on for a little too long, a cringeworthy lyric. Perfect albums are a rarity, but even more unusual is when a musician’s first studio offering ends up nearly flawless. Nine Inch Nails’ Pretty Hate Machine, released...
It would be blatant oversimplification to label Nine Inch Nails mastermind Trent Reznor a musical genius. It’s tantamount to calling Kim Jong-un a "bad dude" or Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson an "actor." The fact is, there has never before been a musician quite like the industrial-rock nihilist. Often imitated but never replicated, Nine Inch Nails seemingly came out of nowhere in the late 1980s and...
