Watching Metal Machine Music: Nine Inch Nails and the Industrial Uprising, you realize that while Industrial was largely an after-the-fact, radioplay brand like so many others, it spoke loudly to more than just college kids experimenting in their first years away from home. The raw, emotional qualities of this music, combined with the reckless abandon its practitioners displayed in relation to each other and their instruments, spoke to any disaffected or generally pissed off individual. Much like the U.K. in the late '70s, where Industrials charts its roots, the US was primed by the late '80s for a shot in the arm. Metal Machine Music shows how deep recession and out-of-touch governments in both the UK and the US turned happy pop groups like Depeche Mode into dark bards singing from behind a cloud of synthesizers and drum machines. The documentary goes back to Genesis P. Orridge and Throbbing Gristle, perhaps the godfather of Industrial across the pond from Trent Reznor, and pre-dating him by several years. Throbbing Gristle, like Nine Inch Nails, held the belief that music was just a collection of sounds, hence anything that made sound made music, hence musicians were just people that knew how to produce sound.
Metal Machine Music labors a bit too much over the mechanics of how artists like Orridge and Reznor created their music, and includes very few instances of Reznor even talking about his music. Chris Vrenna and other Nine Inch Nails collaborators get screen-time, which does provide some insight on Reznor's creative process and the experience of rising so rapidly during the early '90s as Industrial was coming to the fore. During the two-hour feature, there are too many people analyzing the importance of songs and albums, compared to the amount of live footage and music being played. Metal Machine Music is a great documentary for anyone that has lived and breathed albums like Pretty Hate Machine, Broken, The Downward Spiral, and The Fragile. You'll come away with a deeper understanding of the importance of these records and how they fit into the broader context of Industrial, Metal, Thrash, and even Grunge. Additional special features drill deeper into the early years of Industrial with bands like Throbbing Gristle, so pre-Gen Xers can get their fill of how Brit music went hard in the late '70s. What you won't get from Metal Machine Music is extended concert or club footage, or personal insights from Reznor. It's a shame this piece wasn't wrapped in, since 70% of the feature focuses on Reznor's rise to power and prominence. As is mentioned during Metal Machine Music, Reznor has long been a master of controlling his image, and we can assume by the disclaimer on the DVD package - "This DVD is not authorised by Trent Reznor" - that he didn't see this documentary as an integral part of that plan. Even so, it's a boon for the core fans and a decent documentary.
