Nine Inch Nails- Not The Actual Events (2016) Review

Nine Inch Nails- Not The Actual Events (2016) Review

By: Ghost Writer

After the blinding pop glow of 2013's record Hesitation Marks, which honestly I didn’t liked a lot,  2016's Not the Actual Events is actually a sonic blessing and the best thing Reznor and company have done in years, possible named in reference to the current “Post truth age” we are actually livening in, and a return of sorts the abrasive musical roots and direction displayed by Trent Reznor circa the now classic The Downward Spiral, with opener Branches/Bones as a clear sonic reference to the post punk madness of Mark Stewart and his legendary Pop Group, Reznor displays here an almost punkish attack with vibrant vocals and an attack that is concise, brief and to the point before going into a less abrasive exercise on Dear World, a perfect place to let Reznor show us his much valuable production skills, that uncanny ability to transmit angst, rage, despair and anxiety through the soul of the machine, bringing immediate memories of the mighty Throbbing Gristle´s dark melodies.

She's Gone is a slow painful dirge that sounds just like an inside out postmodern version of U2's Numb, that quirky song included in Zooropa, by the way, one of my favorite records, here, Nine Inch Nails put forward industrial strength beats and grinding atmospheric guitars, welcome to the post Donald Trump after world, in which we will sigh for a while! All this while The Idea of You appears as a winning, blasting conjugation of biting metallic guitars, spare atmospheric pianos, Aphex Twin volatile techno attack and Dave Grohl´s always massive drumming (always better as a drummer than as singer-guitarist on the lame Foo Fighters), the kind of stuff that we all know Reznor is capable of doing and that we all celebrate so much every time he leads his efforts and energy towards it, the most hard hitting and dynamic song of the record and a welcomed noisy celebration of sorts, and then last but not least comes Burning Bright (Field on Fire), featuring the massive and monstrous Black Sabbath like riffing of ex Jane's Addiction wild guitar terrorist Dave Navarro, who gets really primitive and brutally noisy here just enough to live up to his legendary reputation.

Not the Actual Facts might not qualify as a full-fledged album by Nine Inch Nails, in fact it is just an experimental EP a curious throw away from a band that has Great throw aways by the way, and the one that marks the formal introduction of longtime collaborator Atticus Ross (with whom Reznor has made some truly mind blowing soundtracks recently, into the band, if this is a sign of things to come, it's a good sign and a welcomed return from Reznor and company to the field of ear crushing, mind blowing and daring experimental music, an almost perfect closing for a tumultuous year that demands fiery musical outputs like this one.