Bad Witch starts out with muscle, bile and swagger; Shit Mirror chugs along on a noisy soundtrack, with a little snap and pep (along with barely audible background vocals from Trent Reznor's wife Mariqueen and The Cult's Ian Astbury), while Ahead of Ourselves propels itself with a frenetic break beat and just a little punk attitude. This pair of tracks are sure to be welcomed by longtime fans who like their NIN fast and loud, though something is a bit different about these songs; they aren't as violent as what probably comes to mind when I say "fast NIN" (my mind immediately goes to March of the Pigs, for instance), and there's a more pronounced playfulness to these rockers as opposed to a dark, ugly pummeling.
Here's where things gets interesting; third track, Play the Goddamned Part, is a warped instrumental somewhat reminiscent of some of the passages on The Fragile, although there are layers and layers of sound running throughout that makes it less of a slow burn and more of an exercise in musical limits; bleating horns arrive around the halfway mark and punctuate the theme in absurd glory.
The horns stick around for God Break Down the Door, a wholly unique song in the NIN discography that acts as both a new flavour for the band but also a tribute to noted Reznor friend and influence David Bowie; hearing Reznor croon this song's verses is kind of off putting upon the first few listens, but it and the track's hypnotizing electronica beat grow on you on repeat visits.
Another instrumental follows, the eerie Im Not From This World (sic); it's dark and cinematic, just the kind of thing we've come to expect from the collaborative relationship of Reznor and Atticus Ross. It slowly unfurls as it goes, a nocturnal and weird piece that could easily find a home in an upcoming Twin Peaks episode, if and when that happens again.
The closing track, Over and Out, plays out like a cross between a late 80's club track, the Reznor/Ross instrumental album Ghosts, and the paranoid noise of Year Zero; Reznor croons again on this one, "Time is running out, I don't know what I'm waiting for". It's a mission statement of sorts, and could be referring to either a retreat from the craft into normal everyday life or a re-commitment to pushing Nine Inch Nails forward. In either event, it feels like an important thing for Reznor to say, and points toward an urgent future.
Bad Witch ends up being the most diverse of the trilogy of recent NIN releases by far, and distances itself from Not the Actual Events and Add Violence on sheer adventurousness alone; as experimental as those two previous EPs seemed, Bad Witch is truly the sound of Reznor and Ross pushing their music past limits and expectations. When combined as a trilogy, it becomes clear that the body of work Nine Inch Nails have produced as a duo is completely unconcerned with popularity and is hellbent on treating the music as art, a vessel for expression rather than ticket sales or streaming numbers. Considering Pretty Hate Machine turns thirty next year, a project as wild and varied as what Nine Inch Nails have rolled out over the past eighteen months proves that so-called "legacy artists" need not be satisfied resting on their laurels or mining for nostalgia (even if the ongoing NIN vinyl reissue series is a bit of the latter), and even artists who have seemingly said everything they have to say can not only find new stories to tell, but indeed new ways in which to tell them.
June 22, 2018 • Null Corporation/Capitol
Highlights Shit Mirror • Ahead of Ourselves • God Break Down the Door
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