Music / With Teeth

Will you bite the hand that feeds you?
Will you stay down on your knees?

With Teeth is the fourth studio album by Nine Inch Nails, released on May 3, 2005 through Nothing Records and Interscope Records, six years after their previous album, The Fragile.

This album marked a new beginning for frontman Trent Reznor. Leading up to its creation, and following the mainstream ascent the band underwent after the success of 1994's The Downward Spiral, Reznor struggled with alcohol and drug addiction, depression, and writer's block. He eventually decided to go to rehab, and subsequently began work on a new album, which became With Teeth. Finding that songwriting now came more naturally to him, Reznor centered the album's lyrics around deep introspection on his addiction, sobriety, and self-image, also drawing on themes of protest and propaganda that became prevalent in a post-9/11 world.

Reznor described With Teeth as more "lean" and "song-oriented" than The Fragile, summarizing it as less of an outright concept album and more of "a collection of songs that are friends with each other, but don't have to rely on each other to make sense". It is also the first NIN album to feature production work from Atticus Ross, who was promoted to an official member in 2016.

The album was toured between 2005 and 2006, with Reznor putting together a new live band to play heavier arrangements of songs. Lead single "The Hand That Feeds" received extensive radio airplay that made it the second and most recent NIN song (after "The Day the World Went Away") to make the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. This and the two following singles, "Only" and "Every Day Is Exactly the Same", also topped the Alternative Airplay chart (then known as the Modern Rock chart).

Tracklist:

1. "All the Love in the World" (5:15)
2. "You Know What You Are?" (3:42)
3. "The Collector" (3:08)
4. "The Hand that Feeds" (3:32)
5. "Love Is Not Enough" (3:41)
6. "Every Day Is Exactly the Same" (4:55)
7. "With Teeth" (5:38)
8. "Only" (4:23)
9. "Getting Smaller" (3:35)
10. "Sunspots" (4:03)
11. "The Line Begins to Blur" (3:44)
12. "Beside You in Time" (5:25)
13. "Right Where It Belongs" (5:04)

Bonus Tracks

1. "Home" (3:14) (vinyl and most international versions)^note Placed after "Sunspots" on the vinyl version
2. "Right Where It Belongs" (V2) (5:04) (UK and Japanese versions)
3. "The Hand that Feeds" (Photek Ruff remix) (3:58) (Japanese version only)

Musicians:

• Trent Reznor: Vocals, most instruments
• Dave Grohl: Drums, percussion on "All the Love in the World"
• Jerome Dillon: Drums on "With Teeth" and "Home"

You will trope the hand that feeds:

• Alone in a Crowd: "All the Love in the World"
  "Hiding in a crowd, I'm all alone"
• Atomic F-Bomb: "You Know What You Are?"
  "You better take a good look 'cause I'm full of shit! (Shit! Shit! Shiiiit!)"
• Broken Record: The second half of "All the Love in the World" repeats "Why do you get all the love in the world?" over and over again.
• The Collector: Picks things up that tend to accumulate. He uses a net to pick up feelings for him to feed upon.
• Cluster F-Bomb: This is the last NIN to use swearing on a relatively large scale, with the majority of it concentrated in "You Know What You Are?"
  "Don't you fucking know what you are?"
• Fading into the Next Song:
  • "The Collector" segues into "The Hand That Feeds"
  • "Every Day Is Exactly the Same" crossfades into the title track.
  • "Only" crossfades into "Getting Smaller"
  • The last three songs, which make up side 4 of the vinyl, are essentially an extended suite:
    • "The Line Begins to Blur" ends with the drone of "Beside You In Time"
    • "Beside You In Time" is linked to "Right Where It Belongs" by the sound of waves.
• "Groundhog Day" Loop: Every Day Is Exactly The Same is a metaphorical example.
  "I believe I can see the future, 'cause I repeat the same routine."
• Lighter and Softer: Musically, at least. The heavier songs are more hard rock than metal, though there is still plenty of Lyrical Dissonance throughout.
• Lost in a Crowd: Invoked in "Getting Smaller":
  "I'm just a face in a crowd, nothing to worry about, not even trying to stand out."
• Mesodiplosis: In "The Hand That Feeds", joining up the topic of "You", while also using some Will You Anaphora:
  "Just how deep do you believe? Will you bite the hand that feeds? Will you chew until it bleeds? Can you get up off you knees? Are you brave enough to see? Do you want to change it?"
• New Sound Album: This has a more straightforward rock sound with only a few hints here and there of the sound of past releases.
• Song Style Shift: The title track abruptly changes into a Lonely Piano Piece for a couple of minutes, then changes back.

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