What is NIN all about?

by "The Avatar"

    I did not begin to interpret Nine Inch Nails until I "bought" Further Down The Spiral and heard a whole bunch of synth generated techno ripping apart my favorite songs. Then I realized why. In my oppinion, NIN has, since the beginning, slowly attempted to climax to a certain theme. The loss of humanity into the creation of an emotionless, unfeeling machine. If you listen to the core CDs (Pretty Hate Machine, Broken, Downward Spiral, Further Down The Spiral) in order from begginning to end, you will notice the slow evolution of that machine. The theme seems to be the crusade of a man in this misarable, bully of a world, and how he slowly devolves to alleve his pain. A futile journey to say the least.
    When I noticed this, I returned to my favorite Artist, once a close friend of Trent Reznor, Marilyn Manson. It made me wonder if Trent had somehow divulged his secret to Brian and that Brian had stole it to create his own close theme. Such does not seem to be the case, however. Where Marilyn Manson's theme is of a sole crusader attempting to shield himself from this heartless world full of pain and suffering and hate and in so doing let his own emotions turn him into a horrrible beast, Trent speaks a theme of a sole cruseder masochistically attempting to thrive in the damnable world, getting stepped on and knocked down by both outside forces and his own inner turmoil and in so doing, becomes so calloused that he becomes a broken and heartless machine. Still, the question remains, did Brian take Trent's theme, revise it and speak it a little more subtly?
    Now, I believed I was on to something, I believed I had pinpointed the meanings behind my two favorite artists, which was very complicated in the case of Nine Inch Nails. I wondered further if there had been an influence in the past that worked on a theme like this. I listened to many groups from the 70's and 80's and found some. Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars...aka...David Bowie is now running a close third on my musical hit list, and Led Zepplin hangs in fourth.
    In conclusion, I am now wary of everyone and everything, something will always be close by to beat me down, maybe myself. I also question the integrity of Brian Warner, and wonder if Trent was influenced by David Bowie. And finally, I may not be right, but I believe that the whole climatic evolution of Nine Inch Nails was for one reason, The Becoming. We are close to the machine, fans. He might already be among us (who here has heard March Of The Pigs), or he will appear soon in a burst of stars and smoke. And when that happens, I'll be there to "buy" the CD, wary of the department store pigs.

"The Avatar" Bass Player For Angel Dust and The Long Holloween

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