Daily Staff Writer

“The Fragile”

Nine Inch Nails

Trent Reznor’s latest venture into double album experimentation almost leaves him packing his bags.

After nearly half a decade, Nine Inch Nails have finally chosen to poke their head out of the dirt and walk among the musical mainstream again, complete with a surprising and dramatic entrance.

“The Fragile” begins with the disappointing “Somewhat Damaged,” which pales in comparison to the chaotic opening of NIN’s previous album “The Downward Spiral,” (a record deemed one of the top albums of 1994 by fans and critics alike).

Reznor packs the next few tracks with off-kilter vocals, redundant effects and clich‚ lyrics. The songs themselves are decent, but hardly in the ballpark of the Nails’ long-standing reputation of interesting and raw music.

“The Day The World Went Away” is a rehashed version of the slow and methodical “Hurt” from “The Downward Spiral,” which makes you wonder whether Reznor has any real new music to offer.

Lumbering songs like “The Wretched” and the title track with its slow and boring instruments are like watching water boil. The instrumental “La Mer” breaks the redundancy slightly with the plunking keys of a toy piano that burst into a funky jazz guitar.

Other songs, including “Pilgrimage” and “No, You Don’t,” come too late in the album and use virtually the same sounds reworked from the previous 10 tracks.

Most of the first disc makes you examine your compact disc player to make sure the music is still playing.

Then you put in the second disc.

Suddenly, “The Fragile” wakes up from its coma and the rules according to Nine Inch Nails are changed.

“Into the Void” launches disc two with a cello and xylophone that transform the music into an ’80s-style synth-pop, complete with hand claps. This turning point grabs the band until the dire end, making you forget about the disappointingly dry first disc.

The clanking metal and synthesizer note drops work exquisitely with the picked guitar of “The Big Come Down.”

“Please” and “Starfuckers, Inc.” deliver the warped guitars and catchy, driving beats reminiscent of NIN’s successful debut, “Pretty Hate Machine.”

Even the slower songs “Where is Everybody?” and “I’m Looking Forward to Joining You, Finally” emerge beyond the drivel that weighed down the first disc.

Offering another dramatic musical change of pace, Reznor regains control as the dictator of electronic-fused experimentation. Nine Inch Nails turns the unsuccessful artsy personal statement of “The Fragile” into another worthwhile offering.

3 STARS

— Ryan Rogness

“Euphoria Morning”

Chris Cornell

“She’s going to change the world, but she can’t change me,” sings Chris Cornell on his latest solo project, “Euphoria Morning.” She may not have been able to change him, but something has.

Soundgarden is a fleeting memory as Cornell describes this album as his “getting in touch with his emotions.” No kidding.

With cover art making you think he was joining Lilith Fair and emotion-driven songs, Cornell also gets “in touch” with his acoustic guitar.

Cornell’s soft side doesn’t prove to be a bad thing, unless you’re a Soundgarden fan. “Euphoria Morning” is strictly pop rock with a depressed, emotional twist.

The first single, “Can’t Change Me,” is one of the few tracks that even comes close to a hard-rocking Cornell on the entire album.

“Sweet Euphoria” is an excellent example of an artist trying to break through the musical stereotypes and classifications of his past band. Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots did it with “12 Bar Blues,” and Cornell seems to be following suit.

Overall, “Euphoria Morning” rides the thin line of major disappointment and breakthrough solo project.

The question surrounding the album, however, is will the public be able to adjust to Cornell playing the piano?

Doubtful.

2 STARS

— Sam Johnson

“World Coming Down”

Type O Negative

The “drab four” return for another 74 minutes of gut-retching,self-mutilation on “World Coming Down.”

Trademark baritone vocalist Peter Steele opens the set with “White Slavery,” a down-tempo tale of torment surrounded by gothic organs and scraping bass guitars. Johnny Kelly’s drum beat sounds like a dying heart palpitation, under the mutterings of “With every breath/ I pray for death.”

“World Coming Down” is sickeningly morbid beyond even Type O Negative’s standards.

“Everything Dies” begins with Steele delivering an obituary of everyone close to him who has died. Later he sadly reports, “I’m looking for someone who was around/ And I’m hoping.” Emotions cap the song with screams of “Oh God, I miss you.”

Type O Negative have traded songs of twisted sexual acts and lesbians on previous albums for the stone-cold reality captured in depressing, poetic lyrics on tracks like “Everyone I Love is Dead” and “World Coming Down.”

The anguish continues as the band worships Halloween with multiple tracks, including “Creepy Green Light” and “All Hallows Eve,” with Black Sabbath-style heavy metal riffs draining energy from the church style organ.

Even the cover of The Beatles’ “Day Tripper” sounds like stones grinding in your teeth, rolling into the barely recognizable ballad “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” from “Abbey Road.”

Type O Negative use emotions to pin chaotic songs like “Who Will Save the Sane,” wherein Steele gives the play-by-play of an outcast young man wishing to kill his oppressors but eventually commits suicide. The haunting echoes of “… wasn’t he strange?” drain the song into silence.

Completely captivated by the morbid horrors of life, Type O Negative are in a category all their own. Thankfully, the death fascination brings out their best.

Type O Negative use horribly real emotions to pigeonhole a morbid part of reality. Through the tear-ridden eyes of Type O Negative, this world is a disgusting place that consists of daily disappointments.

Fortunately, “World Coming Down” is not one of them.

5 STARS

— Ryan Rogness

“Amen”

Amen

Dear God,

I am angry. Very angry. I could rage against machines all day and still be pissed. I could beat a freak on a leash to a pulp and not feel relief. Please help me find music to convey my angst.

Amen.

Exactly!

Pioneering rapcore producer Ross Robinson’s latest project, and the second on his I Am label, is a heavy metal assault so vicious it chews the kernels of Korn and spits them in your face.

Amen frontman Casey Chaos has been cutting his teeth in the L.A. metal scene for five years, making fans out of rockers like Iggy Pop and Sex Pistol Steve Jones, who declared, “Amen’s more pissed off than we ever were.”

Chaos is just that. He’s a tour guide on a rollercoaster ride to hell. The problem is, he doesn’t take you back.

“Amen” borders on unbearable.

It lifts the nu-metal sound crafted in past years by bands like Snot and Spineshank to a level for which most ears aren’t ready.

Angst anthems “When a Mean Dies a Woman” and “Down Human” are fist pumpers with clinching-tight musicianship and mad screams, while “Coma America” has that Metallica “One” sing along quality.

But the remaining tunes just melt together like molting lava too hot to handle.

Amen is God’s gift to the insane.

2 1/2 STARS

— Corey Moss

“The Best of Yaz”

Yaz

Yaz was a remarkable synth-pop duo in the early ’80s that combined the stiff and computerized, yet strangely expressive synthesizers of Vince Clarke with the haunting, mesmerizing jazz vocals of Alison Moyet.

For a pop duo at the forefront of new wave club music, their sound was alarmingly full of feeling.

Yaz’s unique sound came from the contrast between cold synthesizers and Moyet’s deep honey sweet voice singing plaintively about lost love and desire.

It is a shame they rarely receive the airplay and credit they deserve.

But that may change with the release of “The Best of Yaz.”

This album contains 11 of the duo’s best songs and four remixes, including a 1999 version of “Only You,” which offers a softer, less mechanical sound with the same great vocals.

Listening to Yaz is like cutting through the decades of imitations that have followed and going straight to the source. For all intents and purposes, Yaz is like pure heroin when compared to the many bands that have since walked in their footsteps.

Giving a listen to “The Best of Yaz” makes it easy to see where Erasure, Lisa Stansfield and Paul Young got 90 percent of their sound.

Emerging from the smoking embers of disco, Yaz’s sound is heavily influenced by that ’70s phenomenon and gives the dance craze a prophetic shot in the arm.

No one over the age of 25 and under 40 can forget the sweet sensation of “Midnight.”

“Midnight, it’s raining outside/ He must be soaking wet/ Everyone is sleeping tight, God knows I tried my best but/ Darling you know it looks bad, just lost the best thing that I ever had/ Still I don’t know why I did him wrong it’s too late now/ He’s gone.”

Talk about good, sweet honey.

This album is a time machine to 1982, “Bladerunner” is the in-flight movie, the liquor is free and Shannon Tweed will be your flight attendant.

4 STARS

— Greg Jerrett

“The Burning Red”

#Machine Head

In the current crowded metal scene, it’s becoming harder and harder to find bands that step a level above the rest, but Roadrunner Records’ Machine Head is doing just that.

The foursome shows it is a force to be reckoned with on its third record, “The Burning Red.”

Guitarists Robert Flynn and Ahrue Luster rip super heavy riffs through “I Defy” and “Devil With the King’s Card.” Add Flynn’s growling lyrics, and instantly there’s a formula for classic hardcore tunage.

The record’s first single, “From This Day,” provides the heaviness of the other songs, but with a chorus that will make anybody want to join in.

Machine Head does a great job of switching styles. They can go from fast, hard songs that induce neck cramps, to slow melodic songs, such as the title track.

Lead singer Flynn also does a good job of switching vocal styles. Flynn can scream, growl, bark, and sing. More than one time while listening to the album, sounds of Pantera and labelmates Slipknot will pop in your head, but the constant vocal and musical change — without giving up the original heaviness — will erase those thoughts quickly.

Of course, any metal band that wants any attention these days has to release a cover song. Following the lead of Limp Bizkit, Orgy and Fear Factory, Machine Head add their own cover — a metal dose of The Police’s “Message in a Bottle.” You can’t go wrong with a metal makeover of a classic ’80s song.

In the age of Korn and Limp Bizkit, it’s hard to be a metal band without some kind of hip-hop element involved. But Machine Head seems to be up to the challenge of bringing pure metal back to the forefront.

3 1/2 STARS

— Trevor Fisher

“In Spite of Ourselves”

John Prine

Singer/songwriter John Prine reveals in the liner notes of his new album that he “nearly fell over” when he learned that all nine female country singers he desired to work with, including Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris and Iris DeMent, agreed to collaborate with him.

After hearing the album, you may wish that he had actually fallen and injured himself badly enough that this record would never have been made.

Containing almost as much energy as present during an 8 a.m. lecture, Prine’s latest duet-filled musical venture would perhaps be useful to insomniacs — if the vocals weren’t so grating.

On the only song on the record that he wrote, “In Spite of Ourselves,” Prine sings such wonderfully poignant lyrics. “She don’t like her eggs all runny/ She thinks crossin’ her legs is funny/ She looks down her nose at money/ She gets it on like the Easter Bunny.”

Though country music, at least older country music, is supposed to be concerned with the lives of “real” people, lyrics like these seem more fitting in a horrible Weird Al country parody than in an actual country song.

The multitude of guest artists who duet with Prine bring the only real spark to the music, though their talent serves only to accentuate his limited vocal capacity.

A more upbeat number, though no less lacking in lead vocal talent, “Dear John (I Sent Your Saddle Home),” includes a rousing chorus featuring, in the words of Prine, “me and a bunch of men shouting, ‘Dear John.'”

This song may be more on par with a 9 a.m. chemistry recitation, far surpassing the rest of the album’s content in terms of excitement.

Prine said he intended the record’s theme to be a “collection of meetin’, cheatin’ and retreatin’ songs.”

Listener advisory: When coming in contact with “In Spite of Ourselves,” skip the meetin’ and cheatin’ parts and focus on retreatin’.

1 1/2 STARS

—Jon Dahlager

“In Moderation”

8STOPS7

First impressions are important — especially in the music business.

But when reading the biography on 8STOPS7, it brags about how there was a major label bidding war between their current label Reprise and some others.

Yeah right.

At first listen, “In Moderation” produces a gagging sensation in the throat. The husky lead vocals are insanely similar to Seven Mary Three, Days of the New and even Pearl Jam at times.

These vocals serve as a reminder why this type of music is not popular any more — it gets old really fast.

The biggest problem with the band’s music is that their vocals are far from catchy, and every song just blends together to form one 47-minute song.

It is obvious that 8STOPS7 has some talent and the music is tight. But the lack of direction leaves them in the dust when they are thrown in with other alternative bands that creative interesting music.

8STOPS7 is yet another example of a band that needs to find their own identity before signing to a major label. The band will fall harder than they would if they stayed independent.

1 STAR

— Kyle Moss

“Home”

Sevendust

After a debut album that brought them national attention and a spot on the Ozzfest tour, Sevendust can’t quite duplicate themselves on their second effort, “Home.”

With the exception of a few songs, the album has enough repetition to be the soundtrack for “Groundhog Day.”

Guitarists Clint Lowery and John Connolly fail to play anything but chunky, simple, boring riffs on each song. But that isn’t the only problem. Lajon Witherspoon’s opera, glam rock-style vocals do nothing to help their cause.

The chorus of every song sounds identical — some songs even have almost the same lyrics.

For example, before the chorus of “Waffle,” Witherspoon screams the phrase “Whatever you say” three times. Throughout “Feel So,” he continuously yells “What did you say” in a stroke of pure lyrical genius … not quite.

Not even guest vocals from Chino Moreno of the Deftones can save this record. Moreno tries to lend a much needed helping hand on the album’s final song, “Bender.” Disappointingly though, it is one of the slower, mellower songs on the album.

Luckily, one guest appearance does measure up. “Licking Cream” features a female singer by the name of Skin. Vocally and musically, the song is much more creative than all the others, making it the high point on an album full of lows.

Overall, Sevendust lacks just about everything possible to lack.

1 STAR

— Trevor Fisher

Everything Zen

“Trance States in Tongues”

Zen Guerrilla

Sub Pop

Straight from the label that brought bands like Soundgarden and Red Red Meat comes the rock-and-blues fusion band Zen Guerrilla.

Punk rocker Jello Biafra has referred to the band’s sound as “hardcore Motown,” but despite innovative-sounding descriptions, Zen Guerilla put forth a mediocre attempt on their latest album, “Trance State In Tongues.”

According to the band’s story, a retired DuPont plastics engineer chemically created an “astro-robot” that demolishes schools and terrorizes towns.

The monster’s creator assembled four nuclear-powered rocketmen to battle the warped creature, arming themselves with “frequency” and “R & B.” The operation was named Zen Guerrilla.

The album starts off rocking with “Pins and Needles,” a barrage of loud, grungy guitars. But then Marcus Durant starts to sing.

His voice is like mud, thick and oozing, but not in a pleasing way. Imagine stuffing cotton balls in the late Stevie Ray Vaughan’s mouth, and think about how that would sound.

There are a few good songs on the album, most notably the driving rocker “Mod Riot” and the speedy “Heart Attack.” However, the heavy blues influence is unsettling. Songs that shuffle along like “Peppermint” and “Cold Duck” really get monotonous.

The only trance-inducing song is “Moonage Daydream.” The opening riff freezes you in its clutches and then slowly unravels into a lengthy caterwaul of arcane guitar sounds.

Surely the rawness of their music suggests Zen Guerrilla’s live show would be better. But in reality, instead of fighting imaginary monsters, this band is fighting a serious bout with delusion.

2 STARS

— Kevin Hosbond

Ratings based on a FIVE STAR scale.