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Nine Inch Nails inspired GN'R songs


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Well, is obviously that Axl has inspired in NIN before the Chinese Democracy Era. In the 90's, he searched NIN musicans Robin Finck, Josh Freese and Chris Venna for GN'R because he wanted to change the GN'R style to Industrial Rock. Engeneer Dave Domingez said that Axl has an Elvis Presley cover in NIN style where he plays every instrument like lead NIN singer Trent Reznor in the Year Zero album.
IMO, songs like "As It Began" are inspired in NIN's "A Warm Place" or "Leaving Hope".

What songs do you believe are inspired in the Industrial Rock Band.

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Axl definitely wanted to work with Trent on a solo project (maybe around 94??). There is less certainty about how much Axl wanted a Guns lineup with Slash to go full on industrial. Slash reported Axl also wanting to incorporate Pearl Jam influences up until Slashs departure in 96.

However, Matt and Duff were both their for OMGs genesis. By then, 1997, Finck was in. And OMG certainly has more than just some industrial rock to it.

And you make a great point about just how many NIN alumni Axl tried to poach. I would say though that Freese can also been seen for his punk pedigree as a Vandal, so then along with Tommy one could say Axl must have 'wanted to do a punk album.'  Or how Vrenna was paired with PJs ex drummer in a two drummer lineup. The industrial thing is always a bit difficult to really pin down. Like to what degree Axl wanted to go industrial.

To my ears OMG and State of Grace are the most NIN influenced tracks out so far.

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12 hours ago, Wagszilla said:

Hahaha, no.

This is bordering on parody.

Trent’s lyrics switch between an autobiographical and detached first person present to a passionate, direct second person and comment on addiction, suicide, women, and capitalism. Axl’s dabbled in these topics but never with too much grit or a level of accompanying romanticism.

Axl’s lyrics are abstract, passive, and in a word: dramatic. He’s never met a metaphor he didn’t like. Instead of focusing on narrative, Trent is forensic and rarely poetic. The music is equally as brash.

Trent’s arrangements show a greater level of discipline but also a greater level of rigidness. He started to loosen up a bit when he got into the poppier Year Zero and With Teeth but the structure is let a loop/sequence play out and when it starts to get old change the key or switch directions.

For all Axl’s pretense about getting into new and/or industrial territory, none of the songs are based around loops and always have the same structure. Overdone intro, verses, chorus, verse, bridge, chorus, outro with elements of intro. It’s one reason why I found “Oh My God” so refreshing. First-person, direct, heavy, a bit different and way different from the CD song structures. 

Nine Inch Nails songs are vocals high in the mix, drumbeat heavy, and washes of electronica. Guitar functions as a pure tone or tone enhancer. In AFD they’re set pieces, Chinese set pieces or orchestral. 

In short, “Oh My God” is the only one I’ll accept but still, eh, not really. It’s Axl doing industrial. The rest of the songs? Not even close to NIN.

Yeah, the whole comparison between GN'R and NIN is a big meme. 

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The intro of State Of Grace reminded me of NiN... after which I started listening to NiN again and concluded that NiN is way better. I have been listening to The Fragile double album again lately, and it made me forget about NuGuns.

Sorry Axl :shrugs:

I just wish GnR will release another classic rock album. Then at least there is a chance I'll like it. If I want to listen to NiN type of music, I will listen to NiN.

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"Industrial Music for Industrial People". If you wanna do something closer to industrial music, than you have to listen the pioneers. NIN is a blend, industrial music has nothing to do with rock or synth-pop (the 80's and 90's "industrial"), it's the late appropriation of the name. Of course, Axl woudn't make a industrial album, but a blend of rock, electronic, orchestral. The common place call "industrial" every rock with electronic elements, that's not the way. I usually include NIN in the hall of industrial as one renewer but other guys less competent make me wanna blow up my ears when associated with industrial. Well, that's not Axl's case, CD is a great album, not too "industrial" as I wished and waited in 2001 and 2002, but amazing. Oh My God and Chinese (old version) are like time machines, I always catch me in the early 2000 when llisten to then.

Edited by Jhonn Dee
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State of Grace sounds like Fragile era Nine Inch Nails, just with Axl. Given the some of the same people worked on both and they're from 99, hardly a shocker.

The other suggestions though? Nah. Oh My God only sounds like a Nine Inch Nails track to people who have never heard a Nine Inch Nails album.

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I remember a quote from someone who said Axl asked them to buy a bunch of KMFDM and Prodigy CDs for him around the mid-late 90s. By the sounds of the electronic stuff we've heard, he was more infuenced by artists like that than NIN. We know he's a big NIN fan, but there isn't much he's done that actually sounds like that.

Shackler's sounds more like a Bucket track that was changed to sound like GNR (because it was) than NIN, although OMG sounds similar to something that could have been on the Broken EP.

But I would be willing to bet that Axl wrote State Of Grace right after listening to The Fragile or I'm Afraid Of Americans.

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State of Grace definitely sounds like it was inspired by nin - the fragile album, which came out in 99, not long before state of grace was probably written. You can hear it in the bass line, the vocal delivery, and it lacks a guitar solo that you would usually hear in a gnr song but not in a nin song.

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