Nine Inch Nails overlord Trent Reznor High King of the Emo Elves, Duke of Dark Pop and eternal gothling love-interest has a fan base with near-unrivalled passion; an online army that spans generations, caked in eyeliner and melancholy. This heated mass will hurl all of their Pounds, Dollars, Euros and Bitcoins at anything that Uncle Trent has blessed with his seal of approval - hell well trade our hastily harvested organs for a melted guitar plectrum or nasty demo recording. And, like the overzealous fans of any number of bands, we believe that the rest of you simply dont get it, and youre missing out on an industrial rock death-synth extravaganza unlike any other. While the flow of club bangers has subsided of late - it's been twenty long years since we had our hearts and minds ground to a pulp by the catchy, throbbing bleakness of The Downward Spiral - the real fans are still out there keeping the faith. We've poured over the intricacies of the weighty, heroin-addled opus The Fragile, we've been treated to some forward-thinking electro un-dubstep grizzle from Year Zero and Hesitation Marks, and we've endured all manner of sketchy remixes along the way. Reznor has packed up the whole Nine Inch Nails idea and called it quits, and then unpacked it and re-birthed it in different forms. He's draped it in plastic sheeting and left it dormant while he buggered off to make Grammy-winning film scores, play Beats Music curator and make miniature Reznors with his new wife. But through the decades, through all the side projects, Nine Inch Nails has always been the beating heart of T-Rez - yes, it's all rather pretentious, but we go with it. Reznorites are a tight-knit bunch. We natter amongst ourselves about Trents Perfect Drug-era Zorro moustache; we swoon over his Year Zero muscles and his Downward Spiral heroin-chic vibe. We obsess over every snippet of trivia; we trawl the depths of the interwebs to collate the vast lists of collaborators and affiliates, pinned up on our basement walls, mapped out with lengths of coloured wool like serial killer schematics. And, more than anything, we do this all with the deepest sincerity and a pinch of self-depreciating wit, since in our hearts we all know its probably a bit much. So, as a bit of fan service for those who share this compulsive approach to all things Reznorish, lets take a brief look at the fishnet-clad inside-joke of Nine Inch Nails obsession
Game-obsessed since the moment I could twiddle both thumbs independently. Equally enthralled by all the genres of music that your parents warned you about.
