content: Anybody who buys this before "The Downward Spiral" will be severely disappointed by this album. While "TDS" was all ooh, I'm metal, oh, very scary, "Pretty Hate Machine" shows Trent as the reformer of industrial. Just the same, I wish he hadn't watered industrial down into the Marilyn Mansonish muck it is today. But by its standards, "PHM" is actually a pretty good album.Trent hits many moods here...anger, angst (groan), sadness, insanity, a wish for belonging, et cetera. It is like he is an angel fallen from grace, or a Clive Barker character, bloodied, torn, and discarded by all but the world of the damned, but still with a sense of belonging like in "Cabal." (It is with no irony that NIN credits Barker in the liner notes.)Get this album for a moody look at what Trent Reznor was. If you buy his projects now, namely Two, and his Bowie/NIN track on "I'm Afraid Of Americans," you're a fool. Ah Trent...why have you fallen...