The last Nine Inch Nails album, With Teeth, was a tentative and fragile step back into music by a man who'd been to the depths of drug and booze hell and lost a lot of money along the way. No wonder Trent Reznor, who took industrial music tothe mainstream in 1989 with NIN's Pretty Hate Machine, was a little bitter and out of sorts. Even so, there were some great songs on that album, like the uptight and seething title track and the scornful single The Hand that Feeds, and it was a more cohesive album than 1999's difficult The Fragile.
On new album Year Zero it's clear from the opening rage of HYPERPOWER! that Reznor is back in business and - arguably - better than ever. And it's not just because that song title is written in capitals either.
Year Zero is more self-assured, and while at 16 tracks it's probably too long, it's perfectly constructed and Reznor's trademark nihilism is back to it's menacing best.
You've got the glitchy unease of The Warning, The Greater Good and My Violent Heart (which spasms into big rumbling beats without warning); then there's the beautiful haze of electronic industrial noise on In This Twilight; the camp and bleepy Capital G, which bops along until it gets progressively darker; the industrial funk of The Good Soldier; and finally the dark keyboard refrain of Another Version of the Truth, the quietest song on the album.
This is gloriously mangled music - check out the nasty sonic squelch midway through the otherwise tuneful Greater Destroyer - put together as a bunch of songs by the master.
Reznor has lightened up, too, not that he looks it in this photo. The matey way he says, "Come on, sing along, everybody now," on album highlight, God Given, is almost joyous. Then again, it's quickly countered by the sneering and distorted punchline of the title.
Year Zero is less grunty but better than 1994's The Downward Spiral, and given time it could even eclipse Pretty Hate Machine.
Verdict: Industrial music trailblazer is back with more bite than he's had in years
