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With Teeth: What's the Score?

Originally published in Kerrang! on March 23, 2005

All The Love in the World - Skittering beats, icy synths and a pulsing bassline make for an understated intro, before a mammoth riff kicks in at the 4 minute mark, shattering the calm.

You Know Who You Are - Starts with a pounding drum intro that recalls GnR's "You Could Be Mine". Builds into a clattering industrial cacophony as Trent screams "Dont you fucking know what you are?". Terrifying.

The Collector - Another thunderous drum intro leading into the gargantaun chorus hook "I'm trying not to choke!". An explosive anthem thats up there with the classic "Head like a hole".

The Hand That Feeds - The lead-off single and the most commercial song Reznor has ever writed. Propelled by a fuzzed-up bassline and another magnificent choruse its a guaranteed rock club floor filler.

Love is Not Enough - Builds to a thrilling instrumental conclusion featuring - unusually for Trent - a rising wah-wah lead guitar figure: "I've gone all this way just to end up back at the start"

Every Day is Exactly the Same - More epic melancholy as Trent croons the line "I used to have a voice, now I never make a sound". A stately hymn for depressives everywhere.

With Teeth - Either about sexual obsession or drug addiction, depending on how you read it "She comes on strong, ske makes you feel better than anything you've tried" whispers Trent, before the whole thing explodes in a hail of glorious distortion.

Only - Loose limbed yet intense this upbeat stomp (There is no you, there is only me) boasts an insistant, poppy keyboard line that recalls "Closer"

Getting Smaller - A frantic, blazing eyed howl of despair and self-loathing "I think I'm losing my grip, but I can still make a fist/still got one good arm so I can beat myself up". Clearly age has not blunted Reznor's rage.

Sunsports - Dark, Depeche Mode-style atmospherics as Trent declares a wish to "fuck in fire" just to "spin the ashes round". Disturbing.

The Line Begins to Blur - Another scarily intense track. The bass here is used almost as a percussion instrument with a single fathom-deep bass note pounding like a kick drum throughout the song.

Besides You In Time - The album's most explicitly druggy moment. A beatific synth drone created a mood of ecstatic stillness. At the four minute point Trents redemptive coda (we will never die) arrives like the sun breaking through clouds. Astonishing.

Right Where It Belongs - Over a glacial keyboard backdrop reminiscent of Radioheads "Kid A" Trent sings the heartbreaking line "When you look at your reflection, is that all you want to be?". A desolate masterpiece that will make friends with anyone who loves "Hurt".

Transcribed by Richard Payne

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