On Tuesday night, from deep within a cloud of smoke so dense it hung like a heavy shroud, Trent Reznor howled.
The song in question — the pulsing, seething Nine Inch Nails classic “Closer,” with its immortal chorus of “I wanna fuck you like an animal,” as abrasive now as it was upon release three decades ago — had the near-capacity crowd inside the American Airlines Center writhing and shouting in blissful abandon.
Indeed, time has not diminished the visceral quality of Nine Inch Nails’ industrial rock music. If anything, the wider world has, regrettably, caught up to the now 60-year-old Reznor’s long-held views of humanity’s worst impulses. The distillation of dread, paranoia and self-loathing animating so much of his Grammy-winning catalog feels less like projection and more like reflection…