- Record Label: The Null Corporation
- Release Date: Jul 6, 2010
Buy Now
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
HTDA's debut EP doesn't consist of dressed-up leftovers from The Slip: some of Reznor's obsessions remain recognizable, but having collaborators opens up the music and Maandig softens it, giving this EP a different feel despite some familiar sounds.
-
It adds up to more of a transitional work than a reinvention, a placeholder until Reznor's next major move.
-
With its tick-tocking death-disco beats and its precisely designed blasts of digital fuzz, How to Destroy Angels might be the best-sounding work Reznor has ever done....Yet as songs go, tracks such as "The Space in Between," "Fur-Lined" and the seven-minute "A Drowning" rank among Reznor's least compelling.
-
It's not Reznor's best or boldest work, but it's a promising first step down a new path.
-
Even if this EP is the byproduct of a band that's working out the kinks, it's still a promising glimpse into what to expect from How to Destroy Angels' 2011 full-length.
-
Reznor's torture-device beats only magnify the push-pull between them [him and his wife, Mariqueen Maandig].
-
Trent Reznor's dark symphonies of clank succeed when their bleakness is broken by moments of humanity or hilarity, both of which come from the Nine Inch Nails mastermind's serrated scream. But when Reznor's haunted-spaceship beats combine with the seductive coo of former West Indian Girl vocalist Mariqueen Mandig (his wife) on the trio's debut EP, the results too often suggest a plodding, Matrix-style soundtrack.
-
As it is, How To Destroy Angels resembles a subdued Nine Inch Nails with female vocals.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 12 out of 13
-
Mixed: 1 out of 13
-
Negative: 0 out of 13
-
Sep 23, 2010