I remember that producer Gareth Jones once said he had naively assumed "reverb equalled atmosphere" and he had applied it liberally to a Depeche Mode record in search of a more ethereal sound.
It seems that for this record, Nine Inch Nails had a similar thought but decided to apply distortion to everything to make their record "sound better" (much like Depeche Mode do today ironically). However, there's no subtilty or dynamics here - "Bad Witch" is just a wall of noise.
The first track, "Shit Mirror" is a terrible piece of nonsense - but at least it doesn't last long. Second track "Ahead of Ourselves" would seem to have some good ideas, but everything is buried in so much distortion it is impossible to discern what is going on.
More sonic saturation destroys the aimless "Play The Goddammed Part" which doesn't even have the decency to be brief. By the time I reach "God Break Down The Door" I am feeling tested and the use of saxophone just about finishes me off.
After a short break I resume with "I'm Not From This World" which is a fine piece of sound design but isn't music. There's a trace of a beat on the start of "Over and Out" and it even sounds like the distortion might have been turned down from eleven to...well, at least four. So the last song is reasonably entertaining but this record is a real low point in the NIN back catalogue for me. 1/5
