Yeah, Trent was the only permanent member of the band. Live shows were different, but he had absolute control in the studio. The plural band name is (maybe intentionally) distracting.

Edit: also, I had the pleasure of seeing Trent Reznor at a Bridge School Benefit concert many years ago. That concert series was famous for, among other things, acoustic performances, and so it was just Trent and a piano. It is one of the best performances I've ever seen by any musician to date, so I'm not at all surprised he was able to pull off a lot alone.

[–] Mycatiskai@lemmy.ca 2 points 7 months ago

I think Trent generally does all the music himself in studio as it is done in layers and he retains more control over the finished product, then he tours with musicians and not even the same ones.

[–] bloopernova@programming.dev 3 points 7 months ago

I think I still prefer The Fragile, and Hesitation Marks has some great tracks.

[–] Mycatiskai@lemmy.ca 1 points 7 months ago

With Teeth has some really good songs like Only, Every day is exactly the same and Getting Smaller.

Best album for me is Year Zero. It has a dark theme and without being extremely political like SOAD or RATM it definitely is saying something about the way the world is governed.

[–] HAL_9_TRILLION@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

"The answer was The Downward Spiral... Nine Inch Nails’ second album"

I like how Broken, despite having 7 tracks to PHM's 8 tracks, is referred to as an "EP" and not their second album. Not to mention Fixed exists. TDS is their third album, fite me.

Edit: since I'm on the subject, here are some little kids performing Wish.

[–] ososalsosal@aussie.zone 1 points 7 months ago

Broken has 99 tracks, but most of them are digital silence for whatever the redbook minimum length was