Reznor recorded the band's debut album, Pretty Hate Machine (1989), while working overnight as a janitor at a Cleveland recording studio. After feuding with the label TVT Records about promotion, Reznor signed with Interscope Records and released the EP Broken (1992). The following albums, The Downward Spiral (1994) and The Fragile (1999), were released to critical acclaim and commercial success.
Reznor chose the name "Nine Inch Nails" because it "abbreviated easily" rather than for "any literal meaning". Other rumored explanations have circulated, alleging that Reznor chose to reference Jesus' crucifixion with nine-inch spikes, or Freddy Krueger's nine-inch fingernails. The English letters NIN are also noted for their resemblance to the modern Hebrew characters of the Tetragrammaton. The Nine Inch Nails logo first appeared on the music video for their debut single, "Down in It". The logo was designed by Reznor and Gary Talpas, inspired by Tibor Kalman's typography on the Talking Heads album Remain in Light. Talpas, a native of Cleveland, continued to design Nine Inch Nails packaging until 1997.
Following a hiatus, Nine Inch Nails resumed touring in 2005 and released their fourth album, With Teeth (2005). Following the release of Year Zero (2007), Reznor left Interscope after a feud. Nine Inch Nails continued touring and independently released Ghosts I–IV (2008) and The Slip (2008) before a second hiatus. Their eighth album, Hesitation Marks (2013), was followed by a trilogy consisting of the EPs Not the Actual Events (2016) and Add Violence (2017) and their ninth album Bad Witch (2018). In 2020, Nine Inch Nails released two further installments in the Ghosts series, Ghosts V: Together and Ghosts VI: Locusts.
Reznor and Ross typically assemble a live band to perform with them. Not including sporadic band hiatuses, the band has varied over the decades, with the most recent lineup consisting of Robin Finck (initially joined in 1994), Alessandro Cortini (initially joined in 2005), and Ilan Rubin (initially joined in 2009). Nine Inch Nails concerts since 2005 often employ thematic visual elements, extensive use of special effects, and elaborate light shows; songs are often rearranged for performance, and elements of songs that are not scheduled to be performed in their entirety are occasionally assimilated into other songs.
Nine Inch Nails have sold over 20 million records and have been nominated for 13 Grammy Awards, winning for the songs "Wish" (1992) and "Happiness in Slavery" (1996). In 1997, Time named Reznor one of the most influential people, and Spin has described him as "the most vital artist in music". In 2004, Rolling Stone placed Nine Inch Nails at No. 94 on its list of the 100 greatest artists of all time. They were nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014 (their first year of eligibility), nominated again in 2015, and were inducted in 2020.
Nine Inch Nails has issued eight major albums, which have generally received both critical and commercial acclaim. Historically, NIN releases have been assigned a "Halo" index number. For example, the album 'With Teeth' is also known as Halo 19. With the inclusion of the 'Broken' EP, the band's primary releases are:
1. 'Pretty Hate Machine' (1989)
2. 'Broken' EP (1992)
3. 'The Downward Spiral' (1994)
4. 'The Fragile (Left)' / ''The Fragile (Right)' (1999)
5. 'With Teeth' (2005)
6. 'Year Zero' (2007)
7. 'Ghosts I-IV' (2008)
8. 'The Slip' (2008)
9. 'Hesitation Marks' (2013)
10. 'Not the Actual Events' EP (2016)
11. 'Add Violence' EP (2017)
12. 'Bad Witch' (2018)
13. 'Ghosts V: Together' (2020)
14. 'Ghosts VI: Locusts' (2020)
Nine Inch Nails has also produced a number of EP's, remixes, and provided contributions to various movie soundtracks, including 'Lara Croft: Tomb Raider', 'The Crow', 'Natural Born Killers', 'Lost Highway', and 'Tetsuo: The Bullet Man'. Trent Reznor additionally provided the soundtrack for the massively popular id Software game Quake, a release inspired by ambient music. His team up with Atticus Ross resulted in the critically praised soundtrack to the film 'The Social Network', with the Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross duo winning an Oscar for Best Original Score at the 83rd Academy Awards
In 2002, a live album (their second live release, the first being the video 'Closure Documentary') entitled 'And All That Could Have Been' was released on DVD & CD. The Deluxe version of the CD came packaged with a mini album called 'Still'. That release featured several previously released songs in a stripped down, near-acoustic format along with several other new compositions.
Nine Inch Nails as a live band is generally understood to be a separate entity from its recording studio-based component. Occasionally, past band members are invited to participate in the process when not directly involved with recording new material, Nine Inch Nails' lineup tends to change drastically between major tours. Aside from Trent Reznor remaining on lead vocals, nothing about the live band has remained constant since its inception. Reznor cited the long gestation period between studio albums as part of the reason for these frequent personnel changes.
Beginning in late 2005, the live band featured Aaron North on guitar, Jeordie White on bass guitar, Alessandro Cortini on keyboards, and Josh Freese on drums, though all occasionally performed with different instruments. This lineup toured Europe, Asia, Australia, and America through 2007. Trent Reznor reported that he would disband the "rock band configuration" of his touring lineup after their concert in Honolulu, Hawaii on September 18, 2007, and would explore other means to perform Nine Inch Nails material on subsequent tours. Despite this claim he has regained the rock group lineup for the 'Lights In The Sky Over...' tours with Robin Finck returning on guitar and Justin Meldal-Johnsen of Beck and other projects accompanying Cortini and Freese.
Past live band members include (listed chronologically):
* Ron Musarra: Drums, Samplers
* Chris Vrenna: Keyboards, Samplers, Drums
* Richard Patrick: Guitar
* Jeff Ward: Drums
* David Haymes: Keyboards
* Nick Rushe: Keyboards
* Lee Mars: Keyboards
* James Woolley: Keyboards
* Robin Finck: Guitar, Synthesizer
* Danny Lohner: Bass, Guitar, Synthesizer
* Charlie Clouser: Synthesizer, Drums on 5 songs during the Dissonance side of David Bowie's Outside tour, Theremin
* Sean Beavan: Soundboard, Backing vocals on 5 songs
* Jerome Dillon: Drums
* Alex Carapetis: Drums
* Ilan Rubin: Drums
The September 14, 2007 edition of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin reported that the September 18 show in Honolulu, Hawaii would be the last performance of the current incarnation of the Nine Inch Nails live band. Trent Reznor was quoted as stating, "at this point, I want to switch things around a bit. Nine Inch Nails as a rock band configuration, we've done it and we've done it again. I see other ways I can present the material in concert, more challenging, something new. I don't want it to go stale."
A DVD/Blu-Ray/HD-DVD of live material from the 2006 With Teeth tour was released in late February 2007 entitled Nine Inch Nails Live: Beside You In Time. All three formats include 24 songs from the summer and winter 2006 tours, plus bonus material.
Information about Nine Inch Nails concerts can be found on the NIN website.
Ghosts I-IV was released on March 2, 2008. It contains 36 instrumental tracks and was recorded in ten weeks of fall 2007. Initially intended to be a five-track EP, the album is presented in the form of four nine-track EPs. The tracks do not have names, and are only identified by their track listing and position on the EPs. Ghosts I-IV also adds to the recent experimentation with digital distribution; the album is available in many different ways, including a digital download, for purchase or (partially) free, a CD set, and a deluxe edition set.
The eighth album called "The Slip" was officially released on May 5, 2008. The whole album can be downloaded for free from this website: Nine Inch Nails - The Slip
On February 16th 2009, Trent announced that he would begin his last tour. Nine Inch Nails would indefinitely end. However, it is not likely that this is the end of his music career. In his letter, he hinted that he may do something with Jane's Addiction. In addition, Reznor has said outright in an interview on the official website that he is not done making music as Nine Inch Nails, but that he is done touring.
Trivia:
* Trent Reznor has worked with several big names in musical collaboration outside of NIN in recent years, including time rocker artist David Bowie, Maynard James Keenan of Tool, Zach de La Rocha of Rage Against the Machine, Peter Murphy of Bauhaus, Josh Wink, Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, slam poet Saul Williams, hip-hop producer Puff Daddy & The Family, Peter Gabriel, Henry Rollins and more recently, hip-hop producer El-P and Queens of the Stone Age.
* Contrary to popular belief, Suck is technically a cover and not an original. The song was originally performed by the band Pigface on the album Gub (1991), a band which Trent worked with in the past. Trent is given vocal and writing credits and the song was later re-recorded for the Broken EP (1992) as a hidden track .
* Legendary country star Johnny Cash covered Hurt on the album The Man Comes Around.
* NIN along with Marilyn Manson, Maynard James Keenan, Phil Anselmo and other artists worked together to produce the Tapeworm Project, a side project that existed from the mid-1990s through to 2004.
Various Methods of Escape
Nine Inch Nails Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The pieces of a plan
Construction of the highest quality
The blood from my own hand
A line of lyric looping in my head
Nobody listening
It doesn't really matter anymore
Guess it doesn't mean a thing
I've got to let go
I've got to get straight
Why'd you have to make it so hard?
Let me get away
An effigy so wondrous to behold
A statement so profound
A place to bury everything I did
And burn it to the ground
The fire illuminates the final scene
The past repeats itself
I cannot tell the difference anymore
I cannot trust myself
I've got to let go
I've got to get straight
Why'd you have to make it so hard?
Let me get away
I've got to let go
I've got to get straight
Why'd you have to make it so hard?
Let me get away
I think I could lose myself in here
I think I could lose myself in here
I think I could lose myself in here
I think I could lose myself in here
I've got to let go
I've got to get straight
Why'd you have to make it so hard?
Let me get away
Got to let him go
Find another way
Why'd you have to make it so hard?
Let me get away
The song "Various Methods of Escape" by Nine Inch Nails is a representation of a person's struggle to find freedom from themselves. The opening line talks about hallucinating in high fidelity, possibly suggesting a state of heightened awareness or a disconnect from reality. The following lines talk about constructing a plan to escape their current situation, but despite the high-quality plan, the person ends up using their own blood as a sacrifice. The refrain that says "I've got to let go, I've got to get straight, why'd you have to make it so hard?" directly speaks to the struggle of trying to free oneself from negative thoughts or habits.
Further, the lyrics "An effigy so wondrous to behold, A statement so profound, A place to bury everything I did, And burn it to the ground" highlights the desire to start afresh but not knowing how. The person builds a new identity, a wondrous effigy, but must bury their past, set it on fire, and watch it burn. Here, fire represents a symbol of purification as the person seeks to leave behind their past for something new. The final chorus ends with the person feeling lost but hopeful, suggesting that even though it's tough, they have to let go and try to find another way.
Overall the song illustrates the mental battle of trying to escape from oneself and the frustration that comes with it. Through the lyrics, Trent Reznor, the songwriter, expresses the struggle of wanting to make a change but not knowing how or where to start.
Line by Line Meaning
Hallucinate in high fidelity
Experience intense and vivid hallucinations
The pieces of a plan
The different parts of a plan
Construction of the highest quality
The plan was well thought-out and carefully constructed
The blood from my own hand
The actions taken were the result of the artist's own doing
A line of lyric looping in my head
A repeating line of a song stuck in the artist's mind
Nobody listening
No one is paying attention to the singer
It doesn't really matter anymore
The outcome is no longer important to the singer
Guess it doesn't mean a thing
It no longer has any significance to the artist
An effigy so wondrous to behold
A representation of something remarkable and inspiring
A statement so profound
A declaration with great depth and meaning
A place to bury everything I did
A location to hide and forget about the past deeds of the singer
And burn it to the ground
To destroy everything completely
The fire illuminates the final scene
The blaze exposes the last moment of the past
The past repeats itself
The same mistakes are made again and again
I cannot tell the difference anymore
The lines between reality and fantasy have become blurred for the singer
I cannot trust myself
The artist lacks self-confidence and doubts their own judgment
I think I could lose myself in here
The artist feels so comfortable in their current surroundings that they could become lost in them
Got to let him go
The singer must let go of someone important to them
Find another way
The singer must discover an alternative solution
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: Trent Reznor
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
junker154
Most powerful song on the entire album. Such a great piece of music.
Adam Blister
This whole album is so underrated. It's a fucking masterpiece.
Benjamin Cant
+Pete Agassi Whats your top 5 (or so) albums?
Benjamin Cant
+Pete Agassi I'll love Hesitation Marks till I drop dead but always looking for new music.
AgentdethProductions
+Benjamin Cant I would say this is my top 5 more NIN. Note the order changes depoending on my mood:
1. The Fragile
2. Hesitation Marks
3. The Downward Spiral
4. [With_Teeth]
5. Broken
AgentdethProductions
Patrick Lynn Too popy and not dark enough for my taste. Good album though!
Adam Blister
Benjamin Cant They would all be NIN albums: TDS, TF, Broken, and WT would be in the top 4; HM would be number one for me right now.
Adriana
This song reminds me why Nine Inch Nails is my favorite band. Whenever I feel hopeless their music makes me feel alive again. It may seem ironic since this is not a particulary "happy" song but I always feel better after listening to it. Thank you Trent Reznor.
Reznor Tetrault
No I think you're. While lyrically the song sounds somewhat depressing it's the music and the big end to the song that instills motivations in one. My parents always felt it was weird I'd listen to nin because of how saddening some of the songs are but for me; inadvertently or not, it makes me happy. Even ( all that could of been)
The Bolt Thrower
It happens to me as well.