Pretty Hate Machine - Nine Inch Nails

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I really like this album. I just picked it up actually. I've listened to other NIN works before such as TDS, WT, YZ, and Broken but I really like some of the songs on this album, such as Head like a Hole, Down in it, The only time, ringfinger and more!

Anyone else like this album?

i honestly think it's NIN's best album. "The Only Time" is my favorite.

Dude! Its my favorite too! I'm listening too it right now actually.

Personally I think Year Zero is a masterpiece.

However pretty hate machine got me into mixing electronic music in the first place, I thought all electronic music had to involve annoying drum machines and had to be singing about how a certain person is so wonderful until I heard NIN.

Ringfinger is one of the greatest songs.

The Warning off year zero is absolutely amazing though.

WAY better than that Fragile and Year Zero (Year Zero I can't even listen to, good synth sounds but the lyrical style and mood is complete garbage IMO). I think my first NIN cd though was Broken; the Fixed cd (Broken remixes) is sick bizness as well as is Further Down The Spiral (the Mr. Self Destruct remix is tops).

I agree it's one of his best albums. Maybe the music doesn't have as many layers as TDS and others, but it's still excellent. Something I can Never Have is the best track, IMo!

I LOVE THAT ALBUM!! ! Although I cannot say with certainty that I think it's their best one cause that's the only NIN album that I have now. I should probably buy Year Zero next.

Yeh I found year zero pretty gross at first, but I think I'm addicted to music that fools me into thinking its dirty and dark but is full of hope. I like music in which my first impression was negative a lot of the time.

Yeah, for me it wasn't that at all. The beat, the tempo, the lyrics, the choice of lyrics, just seemed real...well.....goofy, like dumb-angsty. Maybe I haven't listened to it enough but I tend to go energy first and the rest after and I couldn't get past that part of my perception. As for dirty and dark - I love dirty and dark as long as its all out, deep, intelligent, and really getting there emotionally. Its also why I prefer stuff like Alice In Chains, Tool, Skinny Puppy, etc. to hardcore metal bands - the whole Metalacalypse "All hail the norse gods!! UUahhh!", its cheesy, its catchy, its easy listening because its not serious, but being it just feels like geek rock it looses any appeal to me aside from something to jam out to on Guitar Hero with my friends when we're drunk. I like stuff that existentially epic and urgent, feels like a bad dream, or really expounds on the depths of someones own emotional hell. Regardless, even when its euphemistically positive - like you see with Sublime, its the cohesiveness of the intellect and the groove that drives me. A lot of bands start off real good, real solid, knowing what they want out of themselves, but then after the fire burns out they keep going just to jam and because the fans want them to - that's where I think things like Year Zero, Tool's 10000 Days, Skinny Puppy's new stuff, and any of that generally comes from. I tend to like the bands mostly when they've still got the fire in their gut.

BTW, if you dig this cd no doubt your hearing it from a different emotional standpoint, I respect that you like it for good reason. This is just how it still works for me though and how music still hits me emotionally. Yeah, I've widened out my tastes a lot but still - I tend to be a bigtime emotional energy snob when it comes to music.

Yes, awesome. I can't decide between Pretty Hate Machine and The Downward Spiral.

seconded

I'd say downward spiral out of those two (pretty hate + TDS), its just so emotional.

I do listen to some very extreme stuff, but generally the whole gamut of emotion is what I'm trying to find.

If anyone hasn't heard of Devin Townsend I recommend checking him out, I guess he's heavy/progressive though trust me he doesn't stick within the realms of so called metal.

I love Tool, they got me playing guitar in the first place, but once I really started learning, Devin Townsend is the one that showed me people could actually feel something beautiful so much it hurt, it was a new way of thinking for me.

If you like Alice in chains too you may dig the rock we're currently writing!

Back around 1990 I heard this album all over college radio, had never heard of NIN, liked it a lot so bought the tape. Listened to it over & over & over, and this was almost my favorite track-I spent hours trying to figure out the lyrics, writing them down in my journal, and being a mournful drunken teenager contemplating the words. No disrespect to anyone else-I'm allowed to use those terms to describe self at time.
Quite like hypnotic smooth (and the rough frenzy near end of song) in "Ringfinger", also. Great album. Haven't any other NIN works, only know of isolated tracks from subsequent releases-"Burn", "Ruiner", etc.

Down in it, Hand that feeds, Perfect Drug, Purest feeling, Ringfinger, Snactified, Wish, Terrible lie, Sin, Head like a hole.

Only ones I don’t care for are the very mellow ones, I got ABBA for that or just the straight musical songs with no voice. I also just got into Skinny Puppy and like VNV
Nation a bunch. Thanks for the tips on Alicein chanins and Tool will check ‘em out .

NIN has been an ongoing obsession with me for about 90 days now, I was a diehard classic rock fan who’s main stay was Led Zeppelin, Stones & The Who. But NIN just grabbed by the socks and WONT LET GO /smiles.

I initially had never tried NIN before but saw it specified in so many profiles around here I just had to try them out.

Cheers

F.

Try Massive Attack next

I could never get past the 80's sound to it. I just hate how synth sounded in the 80's. DX I'm sure the songs themselves are great but the only one I can stomach is "Something I Can Never Have."