Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine

Although Nine Inch Nails mastermind Trent Reznor became the poster boy for industrial rock in the early 1990s, his '89 debut, 'Pretty Hate Machine', actually has a stronger foothold in '80s synth-pop. The guitar-heavy opener, 'Head Like A Hole,' is the most aggressive track on the album and proved to be the signature song for Reznor's initial breakthrough, but much of the disc sounds like Depeche Mode in a particularly bad mood. All of the tracks on 'Pretty Hate Machine' are based on synthesizer lines and programmed beats, with other elements - such as the distinctive bass on 'Sanctified' and sampled explosions on 'That's What I Get' - filling out the sound. Despite Reznor's morose lyrics, a number of Pretty Hate Machine's finest moments are energetic dance tunes, particularly 'Down In It' and the surging 'Sin.' Oddly enough, Reznor's fiercer - and seemingly less accessible - subsequent work (the 'Broken' EP and 'The Downward Spiral') led directly to his mainstream success, but 'Pretty Hate Machine' reveals where the nine inch nails aesthetic started out.