Nine Inch Nails, "Ghosts V: Together, Ghosts VI: Locusts" Review

Albums: Ghosts V-VI

Year Released: August 30, 2019

Genre: Industrial rock

Tracks: 23

Length: 02:33:25

Label: The Null Corporation

Nine Inch Nails is a band from Ohio, United States. It's a group that has been playing since 1988. This industrial rock band is characterized for being multifaceted, since we will come across through their alternative, electronic and psychedelic songs that have constantly varied their style during the course of all these years. However, its visual elements, themes and live shows are emblematic and characteristic of the band.

Since 1989 they have released 11 studio albums of which they cannot be missed: "The Downward Spiral", "The Fragile" and "With Teeth" I consider them as unique pieces and more representative of what the band represents. This time Trent Reznor gave us a released digitally free since March 26, 2020. As a continuation of Ghosts I, II and III. We can appreciate songs full of suspense and melancholy. Maintaining that unique style from the incomparable artist. We must not leave behind Atticus Ross, who has joined Trent since 2016, they have presented us soundtrack-worthy masterpieces cinematographies films such as: T"he Social Network", "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", "Bird Box", "Gone Girl" and series like "Watchmen".

NIN presents us with two albums: Ghosts V: Together and Ghosts VI: Locusts. These records as I mentioned before, manifests itself in many layers. As well as dense, dark and sad songs with emotional melodies. It is undoubtedly a roller coaster that will submerge you in an atmosphere where synthetic instruments and even sound effects will lift you to the top of the peak as never before.

• Ghosts V: Together, it's the continuation of Ghosts I-IV the atmospheric conduction from synthesizers to atmospheric musical notes through the keyboard, where we will observe songs of nostalgia, anguish and despair; they raise their musicality to heterogeneous moments. Their style emulate a visual sound, where you can find yourself in dark forests, cloud cover and gray landscape climates as well as on dark night days of dreams and abstract landscapes with stars of the galaxy all around. It's a mix that we can venture to different and unknown places that we will only witness the frequency through their songs.

• Ghosts IV: Locusts, that dark and hopeless environment still reflects us. Where the themes are more apocalyptic and we will find ourselves in a constant cosmic journey to the unknown. Unlike Ghosts V, we will notice an environment that encompasses and surrounds more darkness without giving rise to some hopeful light. The background sound of the tracks emphasize emptiness with an exciting and auditory attack at the same time. We will venture into unreal delusions where we may not be able to see anything other than a desolate environment under the rhythm of atmospheric, catatonic and hypnotizing instrumentation. We will find elements such as saxophone, piano and guitars with a sinister and disturbing loop. Those vibrations of oppression that we will witness with moderate volume in our headphones.

At the beginning we will suddenly find a long-lasting synthetic aura and harmony in the song called: "Letting Go While Holding On" that will constantly be repeated, developing different layers, implementing new sounds, heavenly voices and dark melodies. A perfect relationship between notes of a decaying organ and a background that traps you in that constant magical loop.

One of the songs that I found most representative of the band we are referring to is with the song: "Apart". In this 13:35 minute length theme, we'll uncover all the unique style that define Nine Inch Nails. The injection of atmospheric sounds that transcend your soul and spirit from the place where you are traveling to landscapes and galaxies from beyond. The dark tension that slowly runs through your body as you listen to the album. We can hear an accentuated bass in the songs: "Your Touch" and "Hope We Can Again" very distinctive from the band, those synthetic and lasting notes that together with the orchestration of psychedelic elements presents a very creative panorama of the talent Trent Reznor mind possesses.

Nine Inch Nails is a band that will never cease to amaze. The mastermind of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross who effortlessly compose this music, will continue to be legends of the genre. Beyond being just a band where the ornament of the instrumentation, developed as a meticulously well-worked work, is an art. One of the few bands in this genre in particular that has been truly respected for their career and has inspired many artists on the scene today. This time they gave us these two master works in solidarity during the crisis that is being experienced by the coronavirus pandemic. If you have never heard the band, I recommend that you start from their first album and see the evolution of their career.