Review by Shadowdoom9 (Andi) for Nine Inch Nails - Broken (1992)
Trent Reznor has been active for nearly 4 decades now, with his popularity growing with every release. He can be considered the industrial music king! His project Nine Inch Nails is the reason for his success and has changed their sound quite a lot. The 80s debut Pretty Hate Machine was known for its cheesy synths and beats, and torture-themed lyrics where vocal distortion dominates. Now what was the 90s like?...
Drastic new changes come aboard including higher prominence of guitar, screams, and a beautiful blend of orchestration/piano/synths in contrast to the hideously great heaviness. Those can be found in the dark Downward Spiral and the melodic Fragile. The bridge of pleasure and pain continues to extend beyond, though some gaps between albums, such as between Pretty Hate Machine and The Downward Spiral last as long as 5 to 6 years. Fortunately, to prevent any stagnation, the band has cooked up an EP, Broken, an over half-hour industrial metal EP essential for Nine Inch Nails fans! This cauldron of catchy riff crunch marked the beginning of a dark decade.
"Pinion" is a decent distorted intro with a riff building up to the end. Then it drops into "Wish" with a programmed beat and spaced-out vocals making room for metal riffing. The catchy metal chorus spices up that mundane verse-chorus pattern with metal guitar and synths, the latter foreshadowing what they would have in The Downward Spiral. "Last" adds a slower twist into the riffing that's like a more distorted metal take on Pretty Hate Machine, and then crossing over to a hint at The Downward Spiral. Good one!
"Help Me I Am in Hell" is a melodic interlude that would foreshadow even further into the instrumentals of The Fragile. It's a nice highlight to let you breathe before the rest of the album socks it to ya. "Happiness in Slavery" is pretty bad, not having any melody at all, as Reznor screams "Slave screams!!" It mellows out for a little while with a bit of melody in the verses. Sick yet bearable... After a minute of programmed drumming and Reznor's whispers, "Gave Up" has good riff-blast before quieting down for the verses, while keeping the pounding drums, screamed vocals, and guitar blasts. The pre-chorus gradually grows louder until the chorus with loud metal riff repetition until fading out.
In many versions of the EP, there are 91 one-second silent tracks that lead into tracks 98 and 99, which are two covers, one awesome and the other horrible, starting with "Physical", originally by Adam and the Ants, an awesome catchy tune with a sexual-sounding chorus that you desperately try to resist singing out loud, "You're too physical to me". The Pigface cover "Suck" sucks as an ending track, having some of the worst 90s techno-metal sh*t I've heard. They should've ended the EP with the "Physical" cover.
Most of the tracks would serve as the basis for one of the sickest, most disturbing short films you would ever find. The content is why that film never had a commercial release, that and they don't want it to overshadow the music. If the film is too much for you, just stick with the music. And definitely ditch that sucky Pigface cover....
Favorites: "Wish", "Help Me I Am In Hell", "Gave Up", "Physical"