Album Review: How To Destroy Angels - Welcome Oblivion

How To Destroy Angels
Welcome Oblivion
Rating: Meh

Trent Reznor is never going to be able to separate himself from NIN; it basically inhabits everything he does, whether producing music for a video game or producing an Oscar winning music score, it just sounds like NIN. How To Destroy Angels, the band he put together with spouse Mariqueen Maandig, collaborator Atticus Ross, and art director Rob Sheridan, suffers from the same fate, it sounds like NIN with a female vocalist. But where NIN has always been a classic mixture of the beautiful and the ugly, melody versus texture and atmosphere, aggression against passivity. On their debut album Welcome Oblivion, How To Destroy Angels mainly sticks to creating atmosphere and texture which, while not necessarily a bad thing, tends to get a little monotonous over the long haul of a record.

Of course, the looming question over the record is the presence of Mariqueen as lead vocalist. Is her voice detrimental to the sound of How To Destroy Angels? Not particularly. Her voice is perfectly serviceable, however, when you are marrying it with the music of Trent Reznor, someone with a broader range and more forceful personality is needed, and Mariqueen's delicate, breathy approach tends to float off into the background. And on many tracks here, you can sense Reznor realizing her limitations and either turns her voice into chopped up samples or more mantra-like recitations. But when these tracks are extended past the 5 minute mark it becomes increasingly turgid. Reznor utilizes her best on the more structured tracks, most of the times adding his voice as a counterpoint to her lukewarm presence. "Strings And Attractors" is perhaps the perfect marriage (no pun intended) between Reznor and Mariqueen. Over trash can style beats and skronky synths, Mariqueen's coo is the perfect foil, and on the chorus, Reznor steps in with some of his most beautiful ambient touches, while his voice comes in behind, adding needed strength to the track. "How Long?" is probably the most "pop" track Reznor has ever produced featuring an almost epic sounding chorus. It's an interesting track in the middle of the record that stands out almost to its detriment because it is so straightforward.



Even "Ice Age," which appeared on their EP An Omen, takes a more organic approach, Mariqueen's vocals a better match with the intertwined banjo, dulcimer, and acoustic guitars.



Where Reznor is less successive is when he realizes the limitations of Mariqueen's vocals and tries to either mask the flaws or makes her voice just an element of the mix. Both "And The Sky Began To Scream" and "Keep It Together" finds her breathy voice buried underneath an avalanche of twisted, burning electronics. "Welcome Oblivion," the harshest track on the record, twists and manipulates her voice into something more aggressive and brutal, but still feels like some way to make up for her limited range, especially when her true voice appears mid-track. "Too Late, All Gone" cuts and pastes her vocals into a robotic frenzy which suits the throbbing pulse of the song.

Elsewhere, the lengthy runtimes of the songs are more of a hindrance as Reznor runs out of ways to obscure the fact that Mariqueen's vocals cannot carry a full length record on their own. The last few tracks on the record especially make this apparent. "We Fade Away" barely leaves much of an impression over its interminable 6:45 runtime; Reznor and Mariqueen's vocals repetitiously intoning the lyrics over and over again until they reach trance-like levels. "Recursive Self-Improvement" takes the vocals, chops them up, then throws them in the mix like a mantra. "The Loop Closes" is a rising storm of brooding electronics that mainly chants the lyrics instead of working them into the mix.



Of course the record itself is impeccably produced; I doubt Reznor could ever just phone in his production work. The album opens and closes with two instrumentals that showcases Reznor's still immaculate ear for atmosphere, texture, and mood. In a way, the record would have been more successful had it been strictly instrumental. Surely, it would have been better with a stronger vocalist. As it stands, we get more Reznor made music while waiting for his recently resurrected NIN to get back on track with recording and touring. Welcome Oblivion unfortunately will be seen as a mere stopgap in the NIN history.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and piques one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.