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Album Review: Nine Inch Nails - Add Violence

Mac McNaughton
StarStarStarStar

"Opener 'Less Than' is as radio friendly as Trent Reznor...has ever been."

More Nine Inch Nails Nine Inch Nails Profile

Add Violence provides an entertaining opportunity to initiate the uninitiated.

Opener Less Than is as radio friendly as Trent Reznor (and the now officially assimilated Atticus Ross) has ever been - three-and-a-half minutes of pre-drugs Depeche Mode synth-pop mania. The Lovers and Not Anymore trot out reliable NIN tropes (plinky-piano; sub-conscious whispering; belligerent yelling) as the EP claws towards monolithic closer The Background World, which initially at least could sit comfortably on The Fragile (1999) but over 12 minutes morphs into disquieting, punctuated distortion and endurance baiting decay. It'll horrify your mate who expected Less Than to set the tone.