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Pretty Hate Machine by: Nine Inch Nails

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Rating: - Nailgasm

I wish i didn't already have this album so i could buy it again and experience it all from fresh.

For new comers..this is some very interesting music, i suggest you give it a try..and if you don't like it..you cant really do wrong at Amazons prices!

Trents music has matured a lot over the years, this album is very 80's industrial rock pop with a dirty twist.

Rating: - pop for rockers

this is where industrial music first entered the mainstream....yes it is a dark and nasty piece of pop music but it is still effectively an 80's electro pop record with a dark heart beating away at its core.
the depeche mode references abound all over the album except instead of dave gahan's pained croon you have trents anguished screams.
its a very good album that cannot be denied..the guitars are low in the mix and seem to serve only to flesh out the angry bits.the real secret to this album are the beats and the goove of the album..its very dancable and very very catchy....quite possibly the most catchy depressing album ever made!!!
the stand outs are head like a hole..a great song that still gets aired in rock clubs to this day and the mighty sin...a much faster up beat song and then quite possibly one of the most depressing songs ever written something i can never have...a beautiful and haunting song!!!
overall a very good album..a few dull songs that can get a bit repetitive but the stand out songs outnumber the poor

Rating: - A great but flawed debut

Released at the height of the Hair Metal years of rock, and even supported by a tour with Guns n' Roses, Nine Inch Nails' debut opus Pretty Hate Machine was an unlikely success.
But has it stood the test of time? Yes, and in some ways, no.
On the opening track, 'Head Like A Hole' Trent Reznor sets out his stall, combining heavy guitar riffs with an infectious dance beat, to create what is still, a rock dance hall favourite. The lyrics point towards the mindset that Trent Reznor was in at the time - angry, lost, heartbroken and confused at the world around him. These feelings are propagated by tracks such as 'Terrible Lie', 'Something I Can Never Have' 'Sin' and 'Ringfinger'. However.... the album at times can sound 'of its time' with the almost comedy rap of 'Down In It' and 'Thats What I Get' showing the albums age.

Dont let that put you off though - this is a powerful work, that even in its lowest points, shines through unlike so many late 80's rock albums have managed to do.

Rating: - Pretty Great Machine!

Released in 1989, this is the debut from Trent Reznor, the man called the "Gothic Reincarnation of Mozart".
It is a landmark album for industrial as it bought the genre out of being an underground music into what nearly became the mainstream.
Those unfamiliar with the genre branded "industrial", should kick them selves- it is a mix of synths and sampled beats to metal with its live instruments.
This album in particular leans toward the Techno side of industrial unlike the metalish "Broken"
In a sentence this album is a mix of subversive lyrics married with funky beats and washed with synth, then married to a guitar and bass, finally layering it with a paranoid and beautuful sound.
Soulful melodies combine together with the screching synths to make a sound that will instantly hook you. Buy now and use it to judge all NIN's and other industrialists albums. A fantastic album!
A recomended follow up purchase would be the sublime "Broken" by NIN

(features the singles "Sin" and "Head Like A Hole")

Rating: - Pretty "Hate"

Woe. Pain. Anger. Rejection. And some very catchy industrial beats.

Trent Reznor has become legendary for the sound he perfected in "Pretty Hate Machine," his exceptional debut album. Wrapped in catchy industrial beats and sizzling basslines, he exposes all the rage and pain from being betrayed. Like a bad breakup, it's raw and rough and painful, but there's a strange catharsis once it's over.

It opens on a high note with the ear-blowing "Head Like A Hole," which alternates between dark techno and explosive hard-rock. "Bow down before the one you serve/you're gonna get what you deserve... Head like a hole, black as your soul/I'd rather DIE than give you control!" Reznor snarls. And he sounds like he means it, too.

That mix of rage and bitterness permeate the songs that follow. Not every song is a rockin' ragefest: "Something I Can Never Have" is a sweeping, haunted ballad with Reznor lamenting that "I'm starting to scare myself." It's one of the most powerful songs on a hard-hitting record, and shows Reznor's anguished vocals at their best.

But the majority are harder, angrier songs with Reznor's rough industrial-pop, raw singing and sparse electronic beats. The second half does drag a bit, but is pulled back up by the explosive "Sin" ("You give me the reason/you give me control/I gave you my purity/and my purity you stole!") and hauntingly out-there "Ringfinger."

"Pretty Hate Machine" could, in a sense, be seen as a concept album -- a mapping of the painful emotions in a breakup. Okay, painful breakups are not a big deal in the musical world -- every cheesy popstar does them. The difference is, Trent Reznor does them with passion, genuine anger, and explosive music that mirrors the betrayed feelings.

Reznor gets much flack for his angsty songwriting and accompanying vocal style. But it has to be admitted that even when the songwriting is sub-par -- the rather whiny, it's-God's-fault "Terrible Lie" -- Reznor's rough vocals bring them to life in all their painful glory.

This is also Nine Inch Nails' most minimalist album -- no soundscapes, just the guitars and electronics. The instrumentation matches the theme of inverted love -- Reznor throws in some poppy industrial beats, which manage to be darkly catchy and gritty at the same time. Underlying all of this is some smoldering, twisted guitar and drum machines.

Explosive rage, betrayal, confusion and pain lie at the heart of "Pretty Hate Machine," an unforgettable debut that Reznor has yet to equal in pure emotion.

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