I checked back a few pages and didn't see anything like this recently, my apologies to the mods if this has already been done. But I would really love some thoughts about what folks think ties the most recent three albums together. I had a thought of my own today and figured I should type it all out and see if anybody else is feeling this.
So Trent and Atticus have both mentioned in interviews that Not the Actual Events/Add Violence/Bad Witch tell a larger story together. But what sort of message/story could be there for listeners in the three records? They honestly don't drop a lot of hints, and I am having a hard time finding the bits they have brought up during interviews at the moment, so I'm only going off lyrics for now.
You know the saying "to a man with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail"? I think we tend to see the world through the lens of the things that impact our lives regularly. Since I spend a lot of time reading the Bible, theology etc: I tend to find bits and pieces of that story in every story (even where it doesn't exist), and the NIN trilogy is no different for me. Not trying to get preachy here, it's just that there are a lot of things here that can synch up with theology, although that certainly may not have been NIN's intention.
A lot of the lyrics sound like the final destruction of the world to me. Like, a very specific, intentional, destruction of the world due to humanity's general sickness of the soul. There's a meme that I think of, and it's the "God hits delete/reset button" used in response to pictures and tweets that are just disturbing or abhorrent. This is the one:
If the story in the trilogy isn't about a diety destroying what they created out of sheer frustration and rage, I think it could be about a contemptuous, disdainful human planning earth's destruction somehow. A created thing destroying a Creator's creation out of resentment for what creation has become.
Starting with Branches/Bones. The title could be a reference to all things "created", both the earth itself (branches) as well as living creatures (bones). I'm also reminded of Ezekiel 37 and the Valley of Dry Bones, which is mostly a prophecy of the coming of Christ. There's a brief mention in that passage about a vine, a lot of folks interpret that as pointing to Christ's words in John 15 (I am the true vine, my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit.) The John 15 passage is largely focused on Christ's followers abiding in love, and rejecting the world. The theme of this trilogy reads to me as a perversion of this idea: destroying the world because we are entirely unloving and unlovable.
"Still can make out the pieces with the opening sewed shut."
When I hear this line, I think of how our vision of humanity has been marred and obscured. We still technically look like humans, flesh and bone and all. We've evolved past the rest of the living creatures, but despite our collective intelligence as a breed and all of the progress we've made - all of the same problems still exist. We still murder, we still rape, we still steal and so on. The saddest part of it all? We've been through these violent cycles a thousand times. We haven't learned, and if anything we've gone backward despite our massive technological advances. If anything, technology has made us more efficiently vicious.
"Feels like I've been here before, yeah I don't know anymore."
Probably because we have been. Theologically speaking, God has destroyed the earth due to violence and disobedience (see the story of Noah and the ark) as well as cities (Sodom and Gomorrah). The latter has frequently been used by evangelicals as an excuse for advocating violence against LGBT folks, but as Ezekiel 16:49-50 points out, S&G's biggest issue was not homosexuality but their pride, penchant for rape and mob violence as well as inhospitality towards sojourners *cough*. In addition to God's own acts of destruction, humanity has independently done the same through centuries of man-led slaughter.
Essentially, the character in this song seems to be aching for another apocalyptic showdown or is at least, unbothered by the idea.
"Yes, I have been here before. Yeah, I don't care anymore. Don't give a fuck anymore."
I can also see pieces of this in She's Gone Away "You dig in places till your fingers bleed. Spread the infection where you spill your seed." Dear World seems to point to the protagonist as mocking a world who doesn't recognize how close it is to its own destruction. "Yes, everyone seems to be asleep/Trajectory in decline/And we become obsolete/it is coming and you didn't even notice." And then on to an internal dialogue about his conflicting feelings on the end of humanity. "I have been entirely patient/but I know I can't trust myself with this again"
When I get to songs like The Idea of You and Burning Bright then I start to feel like it's definitely a human being who is sick of humanity and is battling this idea of destroying it somehow vs. giving the world yet another chance.
Moving on to the tracks on Add Violence, I feel like I see the theoretical protagonist walking back his earlier thoughts: yearning and pleading for a more positive outcome. For the world to wake up, for humanity to change its violent ways etc. But unfortunately, whatever plan this person had set into place for razing the world has already kicked off "I thought we had more time", leading him to eventually fully accept the inevitable destruction found in Bad Witch.
"Got a new face and it feels alright. Power and strength and appetite".
Shit Mirror opens up with the destructor completely embracing the earth's fate, even becoming a monster himself. He now sees the hatefulness of the world reflected back in himself - and he appears unbothered by that.
Ahead of Ourselves seems to be equal parts self-loathing and people-mocking. He knows what's about to happen, and judges humanity as a whole to be "obsolete, insignificant, antiquated, irrelevant" and thus, deserving of their fate. The world has overplayed its cards, and he sees no point in asking them to change when he knows they are incapable of doing so. One point of interest in this song is a reference to the Imago Dei, more commonly known as the Image of God. In the Bible, humankind is created to be uniquely formed in the image of their creator, unlike any other thing God created. The Imago Dei is what makes all humans worthy of dignity and capable of many of the same abilities and emotions that God himself is capable of: feelings of love and justice, the ability to create in an artistic way like God did etc.. However, because of the fall detailed in Genesis 3, the Imago Dei has been blemished and perverted and that reflects in our behavior ever since our ejection from the Garden of Eden. We have reduced ourselves from noble image-bearers to "knuckle-dragging animals/with our snouts in the dirt".
From this point on, the trajectory seems to point more solidly towards total annihilation of mankind at the hands of the main character.
The last four tracks appear to be wrapping up the story (both in the temporal and eternal sense.) Play the Goddamn Part opens with noises that actually sound like buildings collapsing. I once watched a planned demolition of an apartment complex, and the sound played here reminds me of it. The sax starts to sound more dissonant and chaotic towards the end of the song too. It sounds like shit is getting tore up from the floor up in this track. The beginning of the end has begun.
God Break Down the Door feels like the protagonist presenting God (or whoever) with his plan and telling him to look elsewhere if he wants to save humanity. "There are no answers here, no not anymore." As if the central figure is throwing up his hands and saying: "do you want to save this worthless world, God? Break down the door and fucking take them because I'm done waiting for you to redeem them."
Over and Out is where things get hazy for me. Is this the destructor looking at the wreck and ruin he's creating and having another too-late bout of second thoughts? Was his plan to waste the world actually drawing to a close, or was this series of events all in his head? Can he actually hit the "reset" button and draw the destruction to a close?
"I don't know what I'm waiting for"
"Feels like I've been here before"
The lyrics make me think that this planned extermination of man could just be an awful daydream/psychosis that the main character keeps having, especially with the "feels like I've been here before" bit, but that line could just be a sort of refrain to connect other songs in the album together. I don't know.
Either way, I hear these albums and that's what the lyrics sound like to me. I could write more about all this, but I've already got a wall of text that is probably making eyes glaze over. Sorry this is so friggen long.
What do you guys think? I'd love to hear other ideas.