Pretty Hate Machine

Pretty Hate Machine (also known as Halo 2) is an album by Nine Inch Nails released in 1989. Pretty Hate Machine is the second official Nine Inch Nails release and the band's first major release.

Working nights at a recording studio cleaning toilets, Trent Reznor saved enough money to purchase time in a recording session. Playing all of the keyboards, drum machines, guitars, and samplers himself, he recorded a demo and sent it to various record labels. Not expecting any real response, Reznor was surprised when he received serious offers from many of the labels.

Teaming up with agent John A. Malm, Jr., Reznor signed a deal with TVT Records, a company mainly known for producing novelty and television jingle records. TVT paired Trent up with well-known producers Adrian Sherwood and Flood, as well as some lesser-knowns who Reznor later claimed to hate working with .

The album was released on October 20, 1989 and was a critical success. It received radio airplay for the singles "Down in It", "Head Like a Hole" and "Sin". The album also gained popularity through word-of-mouth and developed an underground following. Reznor quickly hired a band for touring with The Jesus and Mary Chain, including guitarist and future Filter frontman Richard Patrick. NIN's live set was notorious for louder, more aggressive versions of the studio songs, and also for destroying their instruments at the end. Reznor preferred using the heel of his boots to strip the keys from expensive keyboards.

Since the album was released, a recording known as Purest Feeling surfaced. This bootleg album contains the original demo recordings of most of the tracks found on PHM, as well as a couple that were not used ("Purest Feeling" and "Maybe Just Once").

The entire album was covered by a string quartet in 2005 as The String Quartet Tribute to Nine Inch Nails' Pretty Hate Machine, arranged by Eric Gorfain.

Pretty Hate Machine went out of print through TVT Records, but was reissued by Rykodisc Records on November 22, 2005 with slight changes in the packaging. Reznor had expressed an interest in creating a "deluxe edition" with surround sound remastering and new/rare remixes, similar to the re-release of The Downward Spiral. Rykodisc liked the idea, but not enough to pay Reznor to do so ^*.

Releases

TVT Records TVT 2610-1 - 12" Vinyl
TVT Records TVT 2610-2 - CD

Track listing

"Head Like a Hole" - 4:59
"Terrible Lie" - 4:38
"Down in It" - 3:46
"Sanctified" - 5:48
"Something I Can Never Have" - 5:54
"Kinda I Want To" - 4:33
"Sin" - 4:06
"That's What I Get" - 4:30
"The Only Time" - 4:47
"Ringfinger" - 5:40

Personnel

Doug d'Angelis - Engineer
Tony Dawsey - Mastering
Flood - Programming, Producer, Engineer
John Fryer - Producer, Engineer, Mixing
Kennan Keating - Engineer
Keith LeBlanc - Producer, Engineer, Remixing, Mixing
Richard Patrick - Guitar
Ken Quartarone - Engineer
Trent Reznor - Arranger, Programming, Producer, Engineer, Digital Editing, Mixing
Adrian Sherwood - Producer, Engineer, Mixing
Jeffrey Silverthorne - Photography
Gary Talpas - Cover Design
Chris Vrenna - Programming, Digital Editing

Chart positions

Album

1990 Pretty Hate Machine The Billboard 200 75

Singles

1989 Down in It Hot Dance Music/Club Play 16 1989 Down in It Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales 20 1989 Down in It Modern Rock Tracks 16 1990 Head Like a Hole Hot Dance Music/Club Play 17 1990 Head Like a Hole Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales 34 1990 Head Like a Hole Modern Rock Tracks 28 1990 Sin Hot Dance Music/Club Play 10 1990 Sin Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales 13

Nine Inch Nails albums | 1989 albums | Debut albums

Pretty Hate Machine | Pretty Hate Machine