The Student Playlist

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REVIEW: Nine Inch Nails – ‘Bad Witch’ (The Null Corporation)

  • 7/10
    - 7/10
7/10

Summary

Trent Reznor caps off a recent flurry of Nine Inch Nails output with the diverse, bizarre but often brilliant mini-album ‘Bad Witch’.

Bad Witch, originally to be the final EP in the trilogy following the 2016 release Not The Actual Events and the following year’s Add Violence, is now being posited as a full album – albeit the shortest Nine Inch Nails record by some distance. You can call it whatever you want, but Bad Witch is certainly something new in Trent Reznor’s wheelhouse.

‘Shit Mirror’ unchains whatever anger was left from the previous two EPs, as aggression shoots at us in the form of distorted vocals and guitar. A heart stopping pause 1:54 minutes into the song throws you off balance, only to push you back in three seconds later. This fuzzy fury of a track kicks down the door and welcomes Nine Inch Nails back to the kind of music with which they’re most closely associated.

‘Ahead Of Ourselves’ is cut from a similar fabric, with Reznor’s distorted vocals on this track are at times slightly reminiscent of a Dalek alongside a fast paced beat that grips your focus. On ‘Play The Goddamned Part’ and the tingling krautrock of lead single ‘God Break Down The Door’, Reznor decides to incorporate a saxophone into the mix stopping everyone in their steps. “All this time [the sax] had been just sitting in my studio staring at me. Taunting me,” Reznor recently explained to Entertainment Weekly. These tracks still encompass the same eerie robotic pulsing of the previous songs, though the sax is evocative to the work of Donny McCaslin on David Bowie’s Blackstar, it really sheds new light and gives them their own standout spot on this LP.

‘I’m Not From This World’ begins like a throbbing heavy breath in your ear. It is nightmarish, harboring interesting qualities of the static fuzz variety and, at times, what sounds like an alien screaming. Upon first listen these unnerving six minutes feel like an eternity, but are worth sticking around for as the track looms over you and a swell of gloomy air shifts in. ‘Over And Out’ closes Bad Witch with what can only be described as the least bizarre moment of the LP. Though this does not exclude it from merit, Reznor croons with new drive “time is running out” over a typhoon of different echoes, hammering beats and glitches.

Bad Witch is a storm, an uproar of industrial rock and warbling commotion, both bizarre and brilliant. It keeps you on your toes throughout with an unpredictable manner, reflecting Reznor’s solid approach to getting back in the game. (7/10) (Rebecca Corbett)

Listen to Bad Witch by Nine Inch Nails here via Spotify, and tell us what you think below!

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