Doubting "Hesitation Marks"

Cover art for NIN's new album, Tortured by Tuxedos.

In just three years, Trent Reznor went from being weirder than the emo kid who sat in the back of your high school calculus class to a semi-serious, distinctive, tuxedo-sporting adult.  Known for being the head of the experimental industrial band Nine Inch Nails, the only hardware he's been sampling these days has been his Grammy, Golden Globe, and Oscar awards for his work with The Social Network and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.  After nailing the coffin shut on Nine Inch Nails in 2009, Reznor had a small stint forming a less successful band with his wife, How to Destroy Your Marriage – err – How to Destroy Angels, releasing two EP's and an LP.  Though recently, Reznor has announced the reincarnation of Nine Inch Nails with a new tour and album, Hesitation Marks, and judging by its artwork, Reznor hasn't lost his artistic style – nor has David Fincher's influence rubbed off on him too hard.

Nine Inch Nails' albums have always reflected their sound – industrial drums, walloping bass, layers and layers of various noises, the occasional gunshot – so there's no doubt fans don't have to worry about Hesitation Marks sounding like anything they've never heard before.  This kind of consistency traces all the way back to their first album, Pretty Hate Machine.

In 1989, the rock scene was still being dominated by glam bands like Motley Crüe, Posion, and Twisted Sister.  But a new sound was being born on the alternative music scene thanks to bands like Soundgarden, Nirvana, and Alice in Chains who experimented with droned guitars, fast percussion, and numerous layers.  In this mix was Nine Inch Nails' Pretty Hate Machine.  The cover does a great job forcing you to ask yourself, "what is this that I'm looking at?  Is this 'experimental'?  Is that some type of robotic ribcage?" when in reality, people were asking themselves, "why is my sister's hairclip on the front cover of an album for some weird clinically depressed guy's band?"  But the questions didn't stop there.

In 1994, Trent took a jump from heavy synthesizers, or "bee-boop-bo-bee-bee-boops," on Pretty Hate Machine to loud, industrial, hollowed percussions, or "boom-boom-ba-boom-ba-bo's," on The Downward Spiral.

NIN loves "Putin" you in a downward spiral.

Arguably their most well known album featuring that song about fucking like an animal ("Closer") or the one that Johnny Cash covered even though everyone thinks he wrote it and always seems to be played when a famous person with a drug addiction dies ("Hurt"), The Downward Spiral established NIN's everlasting image as a gritty, industrial band.  The album cover epitomize's this with its depiction of what seems to be a close up of a leper's skin with a silhouetted Russia on it.  The biggest message The Downward Spiral displays is that if 1994 had a yearbook, Trent Reznor would have been voted "Least Likely Musician to Win a Golden Globe AND an Oscar."

After returning to his former electronic-influenced artwork on 2005's With Teeth, featuring a pixel-bleeding NIN logo into a pile of...bloody pixels (am I right?) and 2008's The Slip showing some guy's head with pixels cratering into it, Trent has yet again ventured to the land of obscure, rusty, leper-skin-like album covers.  Tired of destroying angels and his reputation, Trent revealed the cover for NIN's upcoming Hesitation Marks.  Initial reactions to the artwork have fans reminiscing about The Downward Spiral.  Yet after a second look, many are wondering if his newfound relationship with David Fincher is starting to take a toll on his artistic output.  Here, we see a rusted, highly saturated blue and orange wall with cracks of red coursing through the bottom.  So far, vintage NIN.  Then we make our way to the top of the cover.  When observing any Nine Inch Nails album, Trent wants to preemptively plant the question in our minds, "what do you think of when you think of highly-layered, industrial rock music?"  Answer: FISHING.  Nothing says Nine Inch Nails like fishing lines so why not put them at the most focally-important part of the album cover: at the top.  Has Trent's hiatus from NIN been so long that he's lost any and all ability to make sense, or did he just spend too much time watching Deadliest Catch?  Either way, NIN is back and this is one angel he won't ever destroy.