Tension Marks

The first new Nine Inch Nails album released since 2008's The Slip, Hesitation Marks brings back the NIN that we all know and love. I don't think it's any secret for how much I love Nine Inch Nails and Trent Reznor's work, so this album was highly anticipated for me. It is also pretty much a dream come true to be getting to see NIN live, which was the case with seeing them at the Barclay's Center in Brooklyn.

Nine Inch Nails - Barclays Center; October 14, 2013

First off, I have been waiting many years to see this band live. Trent Reznor is one musician who I highly look up to and find extremely inspirational so again, finally seeing him and NIN live is live a dream come true. Now with this expectations set, they did not disappoint in the slightest; they were fucking amazing.

One thing that really stood out about this show was just how much raw emotion Trent brought to the music. There was just so much energy that was in their performance on stage. I had seen some live videos of the upcoming live release Nine Inch Nails: Tension 2013, and the energy in this performance was so much more than those videos. I in no way mean to knock those recordings, I plan on getting it when it's released, but just to put into perspective just how phenomenal the performance at the Barclays Center was.

Musically everything sounded fantastic, and venue wise compared to where I sat for seeing Atoms for Peace this sound quality was much better. To clarify, for that show I was off to the right in section 209 a few rows from the ceiling basically in front of a speaker, and for this concert I was closer to the center ad lower in section 213. So with this venue it matters where you are for how the overall sound quality will be.

The setlist for the show was as follows:
01. Copy of A | 02. 1,000,000 | 03. Terrible Lie | 04. March of the Pigs | 05. Piggy | 06. All Time Low | 07. Disappointed |  8. Came Back Haunted | 09. Find My Way | 10. The Frail | 11. The Wretched | 12. Satellite | 13. In Two | 14. Survivalism | 15. Running | 16. A Warm Place | 17. Somewhat Damaged | 18. Wish | 19. Burn | 20. The Hand That Feeds | 21. Head Like a Hole

Encore: 22. The Day the World Went Away | 23. Even Deeper | 24. While I'm Still Here | 25. Black Noise | 26. Hurt 

Aside from the energy and the music aspect of the performance (both being amazing), the visuals were stunning. Utilizing somewhat of a screen in front of the band for certain lighting effects, as well as the background, it looked fantastic. Over two months later and I'm still giddy from getting to see them live, and just how amazing they where in every aspect of the show. If you can see them live, go immediately, it's something I'll never forget (and hope to experience again).

Hesitation Marks
This album returns to the same feel of NIN as their older albums, but now approaching the music almost as through taking in all that life's brought them so far. It starts off with "The Eater of Dreams", which works as an intro that in a way reminds me of how "Pinion" leads into the EP Broken.  The track listing  that follows this introduction is; "Copy of A", "Came Back Haunted", "Find My Way", "All Time Low", "Disappointed", "Everything", "Satellite", "Various Methods of Escape", "Running", "I Would for You", "In Two", "While I'm Still Here", and "Black Noise."

The whole album is just really grooving out, and you can tell by the music that Trent is in a lot better place in his life than compared to previous albums. Now while musically that does not necessarily make some better that others, that's up to personal preferences, but it is an interesting observation to make when listening. What I'm really getting at with this is that Hesitation Marks is an enjoyable album that you can easily reply again and again, so with that I highly recommend giving it a listen.

The deluxe edition came with a second disc with the following remixes; "Find My Way" (Oneohtrix Point Never Remix), "All Time Low" (Todd Rundgren Remix), and "While I'm Still Here" (Breyer P-Orridge 'Howler' Remix).

Hesitation Marks was released in four different versions, each with their own unique cover artwork which was done by Russel Mills. The pieces used for the covers consisted of "Cargo In The Blood" for the deluxe CD version, "Time And Again" for the standard CD, "Turn And Burn" for the digital version, and "Other Murmurs" for the vinyl. You can see these, listed (clockwise) as shown below. You can see all four versions of the cover artork along with a description to read from Mills here.

Hesitation Marks does something very unique, and that is how there are two different masters of the album. The standard version which can be heard on all the physical copies and downloaded from iTunes or similar providers, and the audiophile mastered version that is solely from the official NIN site. There is an interesting photo set here on tumblr, which shows the audio spectrum of the "audiophile mastered" version of the album. Now at the moment I have not listened to the files for the audiophile mastered version, but I do hope to change that in the future so that I can fully experience the various aspects of this fantastic album.

Now if you would like to read another point of view regarding the album, I would recommend reading this excellent review done by one of my friends.

Concerts to Journey Through Emotions

September, this month I got to see some of my favorite bands. Now when I say concerts which journey through emotions, I really mean how deeply some of the music performed has connected with me.

Anathema / Alcest - Gramercy Theater; September 14, 2013

When I first heard of this tour, and first heard rumor of this tour, I thought it was just too good to be true. Due to this fantastic line up, the concert was to no surprise, sold out. The opening act for this show was Mamiffer, who were an ambient/drone band that I think set a nice mood up for the rest of the concert to follow.

Mamiffer is actualy comprised of former Isis guitarist Aaron Turner, and his wife Faith Coloccia. Together they had a very interesting sound, between her vocals, bowed guitar, and looping themselves which all blended very nicely.
Their set had each song really flow into the next;
01. Rusal'e | 02. Dead Settlers | 03. Mercy | 04. Austejá

I absolutely love all of Alcest's work, and honestly their albums do not do them justice. Their performance was extremely beautiful and emotional, that while I completely love their albums all of that does not convey over a recording. One thing about Alcest, is that their music has the ability to connect so deeply with ones emotions, and can seriously help in feeling better if you are down.

Neige (Alcest)

Prior to heading to the concert, I was stressed for various reasons, one being someone who I had known passed away and their funeral was that morning. But their music really helped me feel so much better, that even more than any time I've listened to their albums. Hearing them live is just showing that recordings can not do them justice, and what fantastic musicians they are for conveying so much emotion through their music to entirely captive the cramped and sold out audience.

Every aspect of their set held the crowd's full attention, whether it be the earthly more post-rock aspects from songs off Les Voyages de l'Âme, or the heaver parts where you can't help but head-bang along to. Granted with through all of this the crowd was pretty tight, but everyone was chill and just flowed with the music through whichever mood it traveled through. Their set was the following:

Alcest

01. Autre temps | 02. Là où Naissent les Couleurs Nouvelles | 03. Les Voyages de l'Âme | 04. Opale | 05. Souvenirs d'un autre monde | 06. Beings of Light | 07. Sur l'océan couleur de fer | 08. Percées de Lumière | 09. Summer's Glory | 10. Deliverance

Two of the songs played were from their upcoming album Shelter, which after hearing I even more can not wait for its release. These songs were "Opale" and "Deliverance", which sounded absolutely fantastic. I keep re-watching a video recorded from the concert of "Opale" because it's just so beautiful; hearing those two songs live was a reminder of how much I am anticipating this album and am eager for its release. That song in particular is very warm and uplifting, where it almost transports you to another land (which is not unfamiliar for Alcest's music). Then they closed their set with the other new song, "Deliverance", which was just a nice way to conclude their older material they played with a note to look forward even more for what is to come.

Next Anathema was on, their first time as a whole band in the US in over ten years. Last time they were here, it was as support for Blackfield and only Vincent and Danny Cavanagh playing their songs acoustically. Granted they still had some problems with getting everyone overseas, unfortunately Jamie Cavanagh (bass) and John Douglass (drums) could not make it, so Daniel Cardoso (keyboards) moved on to drums and recommended Tobel Lopes to fill in on bass. All of that being said for what they had to accommodate, they put on a fantastic show.

Now with the [mostly] whole band, they played a lot off of Weather Systems, with a couple older songs as many of the fans in the audience have been waiting for over 10 years to see them live. During the set, they dedicated the song "Dreaming Light"* to both their manager [who was with them] and Steven Wilson for helping them get back on track.

Anathema

On stage the band had a lot of energy, mentioning how they are aware of how long some of the fans had waited to see them live. "I'll never forget this" was said on stage by Danny, and really I don't think anyone in the audience will forget it either. The set they played was the following:

[Intro] | 01. Untouchable, Part 1 | 02. Untouchable, Part 2 | 03. The Gathering of the Clouds | 04. Lightning Song | 05. Thin Air | 06. Dreaming Light | 07. Deep | 08. A Natural Disaster | 09. The Beginning and the End | 10. A Simple Mistake
Encore: | 11. Internal Landscapes | 12. Closer | 13. Fragile Dreams | [Outro] 

Several of the songs they played featured vocalist Lee Douglas who sounded amazing. Her vocals are very prominent on Weather Systems, and on stage they just come across fantastic with the band.

After the concert, since it was a relatively small venue a bunch of the guys in Anathema and Alcest were downstairs meeting and talking with fans. I still can't believe this happened, by which I mean getting to meet Neige from Alcest. Even though I was kind of [really] awkward, he was just extremely nice and polite, very chill to talk to people.

I also got to meet Vincent and Danny Cavanagh again, which was really cool. Talked to them a little bit, so that was just a nice way to end the concert. Now just to specify, the photo on the right is me with Neige, and happy beyond belief because of it. :)
I have to say this concert, Alcest's performance in particular, was one of the best concert's I've been to musically and just the emotional experience that was created with their music.

* If I remember correctly, this was the song that they dedicated to them, and unfortunately I did not catch the name of the manager who was on tour with them.

Atoms for Peace

Atoms for Peace - Barclays Center; September 28, 2013

The live sound of Atoms for Peace is really unique even when compared to their album AMOK. There performance brought in a whole new dimension to their music, and more so to the songs that they played off of Thom Yorke's solo album The Eraser. The opening act for them was James Holden, who performed some really cool electronic music.

Throughout the performance Thom Yorke and Flea were dancing around the whole stage, and you could tell that the entire band just has so much energy that was brought through in the music. Even with having seats way high up (literally a couple rows from the ceiling), I had a great time. Happy to saw I've seen Thom Yorke live twice now, first with Radiohead at the Prudential Center last year, and now with Atoms for Peace.

Here is the set they played, and since I hadn't been looking into what they were playing on tour (I consider that to be a little bit of "spoilers"), I was pleasantly surprised with some of their songs:

01. Before Your Very Eyes... | 02. Default | 03. The Clock | 04. Ingenue | 05. Stuck Together Pieces | 06. Unless | 07. And It Rained All Night | 08. Harrowdown Hill | 09. Dropped | 10. Cymbal Rush

Encore: 11. Skip Divided | 12. Feeling Pulled Apart by Horses | 13. Rabbit in Your Headlights [UNKLE cover] | 14. Paperbag Writer [Radiohead cover] | 15. Amok
Encore 2: 16. Atoms for Peace | 17. Black Swan