The force behind industrial-rock revolutionary band Nine Inch Nails, Reznor has growled and screamed through three studio albums, ten remix albums, several EPs, and a truly angsty live album ever since the band hit the mainstream in 1989 with its first studio album, “Pretty Hate Machine.”

	Nine Inch Nails Entertainment Art "With Teeth" (Interscope)

The majority of the songs are guitar-heavy rock anthems, very similar in style to the band’s EP “Broken” (1992) and the more heavy offerings of “The Downward Spiral” (1994). Most fans will feel pleased by this musical direction; the band’s last full-length studio album, “The Fragile,” took the band’s sound into a more atmospheric, sublime realm, alienating fans of the band’s earlier work.

Reznor went on the record saying that “With Teeth” would be more “song-orientated,” unlike “The Fragile” (1999), which showed more of a focus on dreamy instrumentals spread out between two illustrious disks. The goal for “With Teeth” was for each song to sound different than each other, but the album falls short of this goal in the middle stretch. After “The Hand That Feeds” each song blends into each other, one large mish-mash of gloomy guitar riffs and percussion. Luckily, the amazing quality of the album’s industrial sound sampling helps the album sound much different than your average rock album, to the benefit of music listeners everywhere.

Though there are similarities between this album and other Nine Inch Nails efforts, the ‘feel’ of the album is completely different, as it normally is between Nine Inch Nails studio albums. Each song feels much more dense and lyric-heavy than the band’s other albums - both a good and a bad thing. Density equates to the fact that singing accompanies almost every part of each song, and the instrumentals seems to be more focused on servicing the melody. Sadly, this eliminates some of the sincerity of earlier songs in the band’s catalogue; none of the songs reach the sonic majesty of “Into the Void’s” solemn opening or the aching desolation of “The Frail.”

Luckily, starting with the second-to-last track “Beside You in Time,” the album enters a much more musically dynamic ‘zone,’ focusing on interesting instrumentals and dreamy vocal looping. The album ends with “Right Where it Belongs”, an epic personal confessional that ends with a staged live performance.

Even though “With Teeth” may not be as dynamic as the band’s earlier entries, this is a no-brainer for Nine Inch Nails fans and fans of music from any genre. If you’re looking for a more artistically interesting Nine Inch Nails album, any of the other studio albums are sure bets. But, more than any of the other albums in the band’s discography, “With Teeth” is deadly consistent from beginning to end. The journey might not go to as many interesting places as before, but that doesn’t mean the journey is any less enjoyable.

DUALDISC EXTRAS

“With Teeth” has been given the Dualdisc treatment just like “The Downward Spiral” did last year. The best feature of the Dualdisc content is a complete discography (or ‘halography’) for Nine Inch Nails, with selected video/song samples. This is a great bonus for Nine Inch Nails newbies, but pretty useless for the hardcore fans (except for the exert from the extra-rare “Closure” VHS, Halo 12).

Also included is the video for “The Hand That Feeds,” which gives fans a glimpse of the post-rehab Trent Reznor rocking with his new band members. Otherwise, this Dualdisc leaves much to be desired. With it only costing a couple dollars extra than the standard version, though, the Dualdisc version should be the way to go. Unless you’re like me and you feel weird about handling dual-sided disks.

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