Ghosts I-IV [Digipak] - Nine Inch Nails

Of all the Nine Inch Nails albums this one is probably the most difficult one to review since Trent Reznor's music has changed so much over the years. He has quietened down so much since his groundbreaking industrial metal release The Downward Spiral. I still consider The Downward Spiral to be his best album as the music was so intense and angry, yet felt very personal. The next album The Fragile was another great release, as Trent ventured into ...
...was gone, and in it's place was a feeling of focus and direction, and also beauty, as some of the tracks have some really tranquil moments. With Teeth didn't receive too many great reviews, although I thought it was a fairly good release. The concept album Year Zero received much better praise than With Teeth, and was a very good album that was entertaining, interesting and dark. Then Trent decided it was time for him to leave the Universal record ... more

Of all the Nine Inch Nails albums this one is probably the most difficult one to review since Trent Reznor's music has changed so much over the years. He has quietened down so much since his groundbreaking industrial metal release The Downward Spiral. I still consider The Downward Spiral to be his best album as the music was so intense and angry, yet felt very personal. The next album The Fragile was another great release, as Trent ventured into experimental territory. Most of the anger that was displayed was gone, and in it's place was a feeling of focus and direction, and also beauty, as some of the tracks have some really tranquil moments. With Teeth didn't receive too many great reviews, although I thought it was a fairly good release. The concept album Year Zero received much better praise than With Teeth, and was a very good album that was entertaining, interesting and dark. Then Trent decided it was time for him to leave the Universal record company, a lot of his fans, including me, thinking that perhaps that would be the end. How wrong I was as only a year on from Year Zero, Trent sneakily releases this album on the web for download!!

I immediately went onto the official Nine Inch Nails website and downloaded the album for $5, for me that is only £2.5. (The album is still available to download on the official Nine Inch Nails Website). I thought for £2.5 even if the album was not any good I would only have spent £2.5. The mp3's are all at 320 format which is the highest quality, and you get a pdf file which has some beautiful photographs. I must admit I was very impressed...but is the music any good?

Firstly I would like to say that his album is a challenging listen. The album is 36 tracks long, all of them being instrumental. It is definitely not an album you can really casually listen too, it does require a lot of attention. It is not an album you can bang your head too, or jump up and down to, it is an album for times when you want to chill out and be on your own.

The music has been totally stripped down, and reminds me so much of The Fragile yet without the lyrics. Boring you might say...that is what the pdf file is for. On the pdf file there are photographs, each photograph representing each track on the album. What Trent has done is created an album of total ambience, instead of lyrics he has used photographs so you can visualise the mood, pace and overall feel of each individual track. And it actually works exceptionally well. When I first listened to the whole album I was sitting by my computer and looking at the photographs while listening to the music. It was great as I could see how the music ties in with the photograph. It would actually be safe to say that the music and the photographs are a whole, something that I have never seen done before by any band (stand to be corrected). The photographs display some images of beauty (ocean waves, birds flying, a lonely dusty road etc), and some from the recording studio. This never comes across as being cheesy, or pretentious but really grasps your interest.

The music is multi-layered, combining keyboards, tribal drums, violin, industrial blast beats, some good guitar work, ripping bass lines and more. The overall mood of the album is once again very personal, and ambient, creating light and dark textures throughout. All I can say that what Trent has released is completely different to anything that you will listen to. Trent is a master at creating a certain mood in his albums, my one gripe with this album is that I have to be in a certain mood to listen to it. Most times I find myself struggling to listen to the whole album. I am not slamming the quality of the music, because Trent has created a masterpiece of ambience, it's just that it is not an album that I will repeatedly listen to. My personal view on this album is that this is a starting point of more great things to come from Trent. The album being visual rather than lyrical is a fantastic concept, that I think is very interesting and fresh, yet next time I think he should release a shorter album, although you never know with Trent.

Overall I think this is a superb album, that will definitely be talked about in years to come. It is good to know that Trent is focussed and wants to release music that is experimental and different, although I would love to see an album that has the same intensity of The Downward Spiral. Trent has changed so much, it is highly unlikely he will release anything like The Downward Spiral again, but as I said before you never know with Trent.

Unfortunately I cannot give this album 5 stars at the moment, as I still consider The Downward Spiral as a genre defining album in industrial metal, and The Fragile as a very close second place. However I will dedicate more time listening time to this album, and who knows I may give it 5 stars in the near future. 

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