God Break Down the Door - first single

[nmitchell86]

It will be played. The transition to the quieter coda that has proved problematic will just be the entire band chanting "transition" over the rhythmic static noises.

I listened to the song yesterday after taking a self-imposed break. Still very cool.

I like your optopisim.

[nmitchell86]

Even though I've liked it from the get-go, I do feel it's much better via headphones compared to listening in my car (despite a decent car audio setup).

Yes, you hear a lot more detail and quiet noises with nin + headphones. I tend to listen that way when I'm home alone.

[ZeroSum]

I like this lyric in particular. I can see it meaning:
-End the pain by inserting the needle (relapsing into drugs)
-The cylce of feeling pain, relief, pain, in life. Never being free from what haunts you.

I love it too. I think Trent's lyrics work best when they're simple, cryptic, sparse, and, sometimes, frequently, hauntingly repeated.

The song is such a great portrait of anxiety and addiction. Being trapped in this loop, waiting, begging for 'God' to break you out of it. The submission to the pain being the only way to alleviate it. Helplessly returning to trauma, again and again and again.

And to me it's even more intense, and as darkly sexual, as something like "Closer."

[StockAvuryah]

Some similarity with Please :

"Push it away but it all comes back again"

"Remove the pain and push it back in"

[BRoswell]

I really wish someone had access to the vocals from Bowie's "I'm Deranged" so they could do a cool mashup with this track.

[Papagolash]

That's a couple people now who've gone from absolutely hating the song to enjoying it over the course of the past week. Pretty cool. I was actually surprised anyone had formed any kind of opinion the same day the song leaked. People weren't giving it time to cook. If I see a complicated movie and someone asks me what I think right when the credits roll, my response is often, "I have no idea yet." I have to see if I'm still thinking about it in the morning, contemplate what I think certain elements meant, and generally just get some space from it before I can really start to form an opinion. I liked the song right away, but it felt a little flat at first, whereas somewhere into the first 5-10 listens, something clicked, and I got excited.

Hey I never said that I was enjoying it, it's just not as bad as I thought it originally was.

[Dustinhxc]

I really like the music, he has always been brilliant at the instruments he plays. Not sure if I like the vocal style but I honestly love anything Trent makes. Maybe with a few more listens Ill get into the vocals too....

[streetman]

Any idea when Ahead Of Ourselves will drop?

[Mataxia]

Hopefully soon. I need.

[Shadaloo]

I've been trying not to overplay GBDTD. Once every few days or so. Don't dislike it, quite fond of it, but can see myself enjoying it more in the context of an album. Not one I could listen to on repeat.

[EndlessLoveless]

I've been trying not to overplay GBDTD. Once every few days or so. Don't dislike it, quite fond of it, but can see myself enjoying it more in the context of an album. Not one I could listen to on repeat.

I too have been limiting my intake of this song. Nothing worse than when a song is released before album, gets overplayed and then while spinning album for first time you get to the song and want to skip it.

[Pbgut]

I wonder if we'll get a proper video for this song or another off Bad Witch, like Less Than off AV, or if we'll only have a B&W effects vid for it like with Burning Bright. (I guess She's Gone Away on Twin Peaks could count for NTAE too?)

Also kind of odd so far that the band haven't appeared in any of the official vids for these releases yet.

[streetman]

I wonder if we'll get a proper video for this song or another off Bad Witch, like Less Than off AV, or if we'll only have a B&W effects vid for it like with Burning Bright. (I guess She's Gone Away on Twin Peaks could count for NTAE too?)

Also kind of odd so far that the band haven't appeared in any of the official vids for these releases yet.

Well, I wonder if the video will be for Ahead Of Ourselves... It's interesting that it hasn't been released yet since it was available at the listening station and there was a crappy leak. The 2nd track off AV was released 5 days after Less Than. So I wonder if they're holding off on releasing AOO because they may be finishing up a video for it. Either way, can't wait!

[WorzelG]

I’d advise against getting excited for a NIN video after the whole Everything thing, let it be a pleasant surprise if it happens

[streetman]

I’d advise against getting excited for a NIN video after the whole Everything thing, let it be a pleasant surprise if it happens

Did you miss the video for Less Than? That was awesome. Also, the little video for This Isn't The Place was also very cool.

[elevenism]

Why isn’t anyone talking about the God reference? I think that’s the most relevant thing here.
Not whether it’s an LP or EP.
Not his crooning like Bowie.

Nine Inch Nails has always represented a very anti-God, anti-religion perspective, and for the first time really....

Trent is asking for God’s help to break down the door?
A God mention in song title?

Woof. Missing the bigger story here.

I need more thoughts on things that matter.
And more shutting the fuck up about shit that doesn’t.

There's also the fact that Trent went through recovery and I assume a twelve step program was part of it, and there's a whole Hell of a lot of "god" in that shit. The "god of your understanding" is the key to the whole thing.


Also,"god" doesn't have to mean the Christian GOD or any kind of personal capital g God at all.
The word is often used as a figure of speech or metaphor by artists of all kind and even scientists (who often are mistakenly then considered religious.)

I have a dog in this fight, for the record. I'm a Christian, but I think 95% of "christians" have totally missed the fucking point.
Songs like The Doomed and TalkTalk by APC REALLY describe how I feel about the whole thing.

[streetman]

There's also the fact that Trent went through recovery and I assume a twelve step program was part of it, and there's a whole Hell of a lot of "god" in that shit. The "god of your understanding" is the key to the whole thing.


Also,"god" doesn't have to mean the Christian GOD or any kind of personal capital g God at all.
The word is often used as a figure of speech or metaphor by artists of all kind and even scientists (who often are mistakenly then considered religious.)

I have a dog in this fight, for the record. I'm a Christian, but I think 95% of "christians" have totally missed the fucking point.
Songs like The Doomed and TalkTalk by APC REALLY describe how I feel about the whole thing.

Exactly. I don't get how a mention of the word "God" makes someone suddenly pro-god. What the hell are people thinking? lol. If Trent mentioned Zeus or some other deity (Trent refers to Icarus in Somewhat Damaged) would we assume he supports/believes in the Greek gods????????? LOL! Laughable. In God Break Down The Door the use of "GOD" is clearly a metaphor for intervention. If you listen to what the album is about in the Lowe interview you'll see how that makes sense.

[Pbgut]

Exactly. I don't get how a mention of the word "God" makes someone suddenly pro-god. What the hell are people thinking? lol. If Trent mentioned Zeus or some other deity (Trent refers to Icarus in Somewhat Damaged) would we assume he supports/believes in the Greek gods????????? LOL! Laughable. In God Break Down The Door the use of "GOD" is clearly a metaphor for intervention. If you listen to what the album is about in the Lowe interview you'll see how that makes sense.

I have a dog in this fight, for the record. I'm a Christian, but I think 95% of "christians" have totally missed the fucking point.
Songs like The Doomed and TalkTalk by APC REALLY describe how I feel about the whole thing.

I've posted this a couple times but Trent has stated he believes in God. He was raised Protestant, and although he is no longer affiliated with a particular denomination, several of his most famous songs are about a betrayal or test of faith and the struggle to keep believing. "Find My Way" includes several very non-confrontational references to prayer and the Lord.

Also, I'm not Christian, so I don't care either way, but I was almost an English major and here's the thing: if you're an atheist, you don't express anger towards God the way he does on, say, "Terrible Lie," "Wish" or many other songs! If there's no God you believe in, there's no one to rage against about being betrayed. But if there IS a God you believe in, you get several of NIN's classic songs. This predates his struggles with sobriety and twelve-stepping, although as elevenism said, it may be a less personal, more spiritual God than the Christian one that he believes in at this point. But he definitely believes in one, or he'd be talking about nothing. Reading comprehension, guys!

Here's the interview where he affirms he believes in God. He seems to have gotten past the betrayal and faith struggles of his youth: http://www.theskinny.co.uk/music/int...s-trent-reznor

Brody Dalle: T-Dog, do you believe in God?

“I do. I take comfort in thinking there’s some purpose and higher power of some sort. I’m not affiliated with any particular religion but that gives me some sense of comfort. I’ve had some dark days through the years and been through some shit that makes me think there is some reason here and it’s beyond just physics and biology.”

[elevenism]

Oddly enough, I was talking about this subject with the preacher (ha, seriously)at our church the other day, who is also one of my only friends in this town.
And I was saying the same thing as @Pbgut about terrible lie.
An atheist wouldn't be saying "HEY GOD" etc. And I said I thought that song in particular is about being MAD at god, which is something most religious people can relate to.

Now I don't think Trent is 'filled with the holy spirit' or whatever (actually, who am I to say,) but the point is that I don't like NEED for him to be Christian.

Art is art and I listen to a lot of shit that's blatantly evil.

But I really don't think that NIN is that.

And I REALLY don't think that "God Break Down the Door" is lyrically strange for NIN, although this is a damn good topic for discussion.

[Pbgut]

Oddly enough, I was talking about this subject with the preacher (ha, seriously)at our church the other day, who is also one of my only friends in this town.
And I was saying the same thing as @Pbgut about terrible lie.
An atheist wouldn't be saying "HEY GOD" etc. And I said I thought that song in particular is about being MAD at god, which is something most religious people can relate to.

Now I don't think Trent is 'filled with the holy spirit' or whatever (actually, who am I to say,) but the point is that I don't like NEED for him to be Christian.

Art is art and I listen to a lot of shit that's blatantly evil.

But I really don't think that NIN is that.

Yeah, I think there's an assumption that a guy making a fake snuff film, living (supposedly accidentally but I find that hard to believe) in the house of the Manson murders, and singing the kind of crossing-a-line lyrics of some of TDS, is living in a black metal, Mayhem, Euronymous kind of mindset. But I always took that particularly subversive 1992-1996 era to be an expression of rage and despair that the world is as cold and horrific as it is for so many innocent people, not the nihilism it could have come off as to people who weren't paying close enough attention or who were reading into what they wanted to be there. Some people seem to want Trent and NIN to be some kind of atheist provocateurs jump through a lot of interpretive hoops and come to a lot of illogical conclusions about why a person who's a nihilist would bring up morality, God and a sense of despair in the first place. If you're "too fucked up to care anymore," clearly you're saying caring and not being apathetic is the correct road, and you've strayed from it. NIN is the work of someone who is sensitive and probably somewhat moral looking at the other side and wondering, "What's stopping me from losing all of my faith in humanity and becoming like one of these totally lost people? Have I already gone too far?"

The references to God since at least Hesitation Marks seem to be written by someone who is no longer struggling with or antagonistic in their relationship with whatever they think God is; so I take GBDTD to essentially be a non-ironic prayer for enlightenment or epiphany. There's nothing to suggest otherwise in the lyrics or in Trent's post-2013 attitudes.

[elevenism]

i would in fact go back to Year Zero, not just 2013.
i always felt that the Church of Plano story and God Given were referring to people bastardizing christianity and missing the whole fucking point and going around judging people. I love this because i DEEPLY echo these sentiments.

And then The Warning is the voice of the REAL god.

And then, of course, "may god have mercy on our dirty little hearts."

[streetman]

I've posted this a couple times but Trent has stated he believes in God. He was raised Protestant, and although he is no longer affiliated with a particular denomination, several of his most famous songs are about a betrayal or test of faith and the struggle to keep believing. "Find My Way" includes several very non-confrontational references to prayer and the Lord.

Also, I'm not Christian, so I don't care either way, but I was almost an English major and here's the thing: if you're an atheist, you don't express anger towards God the way he does on, say, "Terrible Lie," "Wish" or many other songs! If there's no God you believe in, there's no one to rage against about being betrayed. But if there IS a God you believe in, you get several of NIN's classic songs. This predates his struggles with sobriety and twelve-stepping, although as elevenism said, it may be a less personal, more spiritual God than the Christian one that he believes in at this point. But he definitely believes in one, or he'd be talking about nothing. Reading comprehension, guys!

Here's the interview where he affirms he believes in God. He seems to have gotten past the betrayal and faith struggles of his youth: http://www.theskinny.co.uk/music/int...s-trent-reznor

Brody Dalle: T-Dog, do you believe in God?

“I do. I take comfort in thinking there’s some purpose and higher power of some sort. I’m not affiliated with any particular religion but that gives me some sense of comfort. I’ve had some dark days through the years and been through some shit that makes me think there is some reason here and it’s beyond just physics and biology.”

Trent has never stated "he believes in God". He very casually said there might be some higher power out there. That's it. The higher power could be anything: it could be the universe itself or the collective conscious. Artists use "God" as a metaphor in a lot of their work. Let's not start pretending the guy who made Wish and Heresy and Year Zero is now suddenly a Catholic schoolboy lol

[streetman]

i would in fact go back to Year Zero, not just 2013.
i always felt that the Church of Plano story and God Given were referring to people bastardizing christianity and missing the whole fucking point and going around judging people. I love this because i DEEPLY echo these sentiments.

And then The Warning is the voice of the REAL god.


And then, of course, "may god have mercy on our dirty little hearts."

Again, "God" is used as metaphor. Year Zero is clearly bashing religion as a whole and the backward people who blindly follow a flawed/dangerous ideology. He's almost mocking it in Year Zero. Even the album art conflates violence with religion (the gun and the bible). I personally hate religion; it's one of humanity's worst inventions. Countless lives have been lost and continue to be lost because of it. This is why I love NIN; Trent isn't afraid to point this out and he does it brilliantly.

[Pbgut]

Again, "God" is used as metaphor. Year Zero is clearly bashing religion as a whole and the backward people who blindly follow a flawed/dangerous ideology. He's almost mocking it in Year Zero. Even the album art conflates violence with religion (the gun and the bible). I personally hate religion; it's one of humanity's worst inventions. Countless lives have been lost and continue to be lost because of it. This is why I love NIN; Trent isn't afraid to point this out and he does it brilliantly.

Trent has clearly stated he believes in God, though he is not associated with a religion. I am an atheist myself so I'm not trying to proselytize. But when asked if he believes in God (not "a god" or a "higher power" but just plain ol' God), his answer is simply "I do." He then details that he is not affiliated with a particular religion. If you want a guy who's explicitly anti-religion AND anti-spirituality, Marilyn Manson is more your guy. There are way too many references to spirituality in NIN's lyrics AND interviews to twist Trent Reznor into being an anti-spirituality poster boy, especially in his later days.

You can't really point to any evidence that God is being used as a metaphor on his earliest songs. Terrible Lie is explicitly a protest against the betrayals and broken promises of Christian God himself, not against some other metaphor. Heresy is railing against the perversion of Christian principles by right-wing evangelicals. And Trent grew up with the church, which itself is not evidence of him being still religious, but does provide more than enough evidence that he is very familiar with the concept. Why would he release so many songs protesting the cruelty of God if it was just a metaphor? This is a stretch at best, and makes no sense.

I have no desire to paint him as a Sunday school-goer, but I think people have a real desire to paint him as this raging atheist when he's more a skeptic of religion itself, but not the spirituality behind it. If you want that, Manson is probably more your guy.

And Trent is not the same angry dude he was at 25; all you need to do is read the lyrics of "Find My Way" to see that. Again, he doesn't talk about God on that song - he references "dear Lord," which is basically never used as a metaphor the same way "god" colloquially is. You're really, really stretching it if you want to read a song that is entirely framed structurally as prayer as somehow metaphorically a prayer, when in the same year he unequivocally says he believes in God, in an interview.

If you want to ignore all of this stuff, I can't really reason you out of it, but I think a lot of people heard burned by religion heard the chorus to Heresy without thinking about the context of it and haven't really re-evaluated their position. It's always curious to me that atheism and anti-religious sentiment can lead some people to the same kinds of misinterpretations that see as endemic to religious thought, when it's just a basic aspect of humanity.

And you're gonna keep missing the point of pretty straightforward prayer songs like Find My Way and GBDTD, and think it's mocking the idea of faith, when there is simply absolutely no evidence that it's anything but a humble expression of a more personal faith.

[elevenism]

Again, "God" is used as metaphor. Year Zero is clearly bashing religion as a whole and the backward people who blindly follow a flawed/dangerous ideology. He's almost mocking it in Year Zero. Even the album art conflates violence with religion (the gun and the bible). I personally hate religion; it's one of humanity's worst inventions. Countless lives have been lost and continue to be lost because of it. This is why I love NIN; Trent isn't afraid to point this out and he does it brilliantly.

Who do you think is speaking in "the warning" though?

the way i always took year zero was that, yes, backward people are following a dangerous ideology, and then the REAL god, the "essence" or whatever you want to call it, says "you will change your ways and you will make amends or we will wipe this place clean."

do you feel like the narrator in "the warning" is lying about what "came down from the sssky?"
it's possible, but that's not how i see it.

[polski]

Don't you think it's intentionally ambiguous as to whether The Presence is God, aliens, et al, specifically so one can interpret it any number of ways?

[eversonpoe]

Don't you think it's intentionally ambiguous as to whether The Presence is God, aliens, et al, specifically so one can interpret it any number of ways?

[Jon]

[elevenism]

Aliens, obviously. May they have mercy on our dirty little hearts.

Perhaps we should take this discussion to maybe the controversial nin opinions thread or something; it seems to be like clogging up discussion of the song.

I DO have some more thoughts and I think this is an interesting subject, but I'm not sure it's in the right place.

[polski]

The characters could believe different things about what The Presence is than you do.