Equal parts violent and horny. There's something really compelling here despite some admittedly quite scenery-chewing lyrics on some tracks. The instrumentation has some great balance between the industrial sound that NIN are known for, but I was surprised at some more reserved moments as well. There's an element of ambience under most of these tracks that makes it easy to understand Reznor's fork into soundtracking for film and video games. A good toothy listen.

Really weird album. The best way I can express my thought process is that I just really didn't click with it. I can't express how much I disliked some of the unsubtlety in the lyrics. Felt like an interesting album but just not enough to feel like I don't want to wash out my ears after listening.

Hearing this feels like finding a key to a locked door who's contents have always intrigued you. I've never particularly clicked with industrial music before, but this album felt like it laid the blueprint for the genre out plainly. It's dark and gritty, but the looming sense of dread it creates never stops it being an entertaining listen. The oddities in it's composition, strange sounds and unusual timings, only serve to elucidate the listener upon the fractured mental state of the album's protagonist. That central figure might have had a terrible time, but as a listener I sure didn't. Shame Trent Reznor is one of the all-time worst names.