NINE INCH NAILS HAMMER ONE HOME
RATING: 4 1/2 STARS OUT OF FIVE
By Nick Lewis for The Calgary Herald on May 7, 2005
Trent Reznor's best release since 1994's brilliant The Downward Spiral, With Teeth finds our favourite industrial genious in more than just fighting shape: he's in championship form. Some 16 years since Pretty Hate Machine, there's still innovation in his work that will prove influential for years. While Reznor brings his familiar blend of vitriol and pop sensibility to songs such as The Hand That Feeds, it's the slower, brooding tracks, in the same vein as Hurt, that work best. The haunting, twinkling pianoon All The Love In The World leads into a bumping house loop as Reznor coos in his urgent falsetto. Every Day Is Exactly The Same starts off with a shuddering Nitzer Ebb synth and proves to be the catchiest song on With Teeth. And the drone-heavy Beside You In Time and closer Right Where It Belongs leave you anxious to start it all over again. Today with mainstream rock as bland as cold cucumber soup, With Teeth is the gift you never knew you wanted. Imitators, start your engines.