10 Failed Albums That Became Cult Classics

'Pretty Hate Machine' is the humble debut record from the industrial rock behemoths, Nine Inch Nails. As the album that kick started one of the biggest careers in industrial music history, it seems hard to believe that this record had such a mixed reputation for so long.

Nine Inch Nails front man, Trent Reznor, was initially signed by TVT Records as a solo act after they received his self-recorded demo in early 1989. Reznor worked with a number of producers and recruited a handful of musicians for the official recording (although he did most of the recording by himself), which mainly consisted of re-recorded versions of the demo tracks.

'Pretty Hate Machine' peaked at #75 on the US Billboard chart which certainly isn't bad for an independently released debut record. But, the records issues were more deep rooted than this with one critic calling the album a 'parody' of New Order. When talking about the recording process in a 1991 interview, Reznor went on record saying it 'totally sucked' and that it made him feel withdrawn and introverted.

However, the album quickly gained a huge underground following and in 1995, it became one of the first independent records ever to achieve platinum certification in the US.