Broken - Nine Inch Nails > Reviews > Fragments of sound

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Standard
Quality and consistency of tracks	Flawless
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Good
Value for Money

Advantages:	Supreme Electro Thrash
Disadvantages:	Too short

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

With Broken, Nine Inch Nails finally showed the full power of the early live shows. I can remember catching Mr Reznor and his merry band of men (Then featuring Richard Patrick who went onto form Filter) on the Pretty Hate Machine Tour and being blown over by the sheer concentrated weight of their performance. This was a complete shock after not being overly impressed by Pretty Hate Machine.

It begins with the low volume grind of pinion, which lurks you into thinking the album had been poorly mastered. A fatal mistake as after the short intro Broken fully kicks into the electro hardcore fury of Wish. Combined a heavy electronic backing with thrashing Ministryesque guitars riding over the surface.Iit sets the standard which the rest of the album maintains.

The vicious attack on the senses continues with Last. Again the song brinks on the edge of chaos, but Mr Reznor manages to keep the whole thing in check perfectly balancing noise and structure. What follows next is as equally bewildering the slow spacey Goth/Cowboy twang of Help me I am in hell , calming the battered senses. Again this leads one in a short beguiling calm before all of heaven and hell is let loose.

The track which kicks off this descent into the sonic maelstrom is Happiness in Slavery , the closest Nine Inch Nails have come to delivered straight up hard beat dance floor action. A storming assault on the feet as well as the mind. The album is ended (or is it ?) by a return to electro thrash of Gave up, Trent's vocals so heavily distorted at the beginning it sounds like he is sinking into quicksand.

You think it's all over but at the end (or on a separate 7" on Vinyl) there are two extra tracks, both cover versions , one a glam slam mauling of Adam Ant's Physical the other an updated version of Suck a track Trent Reznor originally recorded for the Pigface Gub album.

Broken has to rate as one of the most staggeringly powerful mini albums released. A must buy for all fans of heavily demented music.