When I looked around for an answer, I found this on the ninfaq…
In the words of Trent Reznor:
“I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to think of band names, but usually you think you have a great one and you look at it the next
day and it’s stupid. I had about 200 of those. nine inch nails lasted the two-week test, looked great in print, and could be
abbreviated easily. It really doesn’t have any literal meaning. It seemed kind of frightening. [In his best he-man voice] Tough
and manly! It’s a curse trying to come up with band names.”
Years back I thought Nine Inch Nails was meant literally, like some freaky goth person with nine inch nails.
When Quake came out, I noticed the nail gun used nine inch nails for ammo.
Nowadays, I’ve been taking a more lyrical approach to the band name. Considering some of the heated anti-religious songs Trent has written, it is possible that Nine Inch Nails can be thought of the nails that were hammered into Christ. Nietzsche said there was only one Christian, and he died on the cross. This representation fits accurately in a lyrical sense to the works of one Trent Reznor, the mastermind of NIN.
I love that soundtrack. I can only imagine it was never officially released as a Halo EP because of copyright conflictions with id software. However, that never stopped me from ripping off the game…
i don’t know much, but i’ve got experience. i was an independent radio dj for over three years.
i was a dj for pirate too.
i’ve never thought of the title nin as anything other than literal. the nails used on christ.
trent reznor is a poet and influenced by religion. he kind of reminds me of tori amos.
sagesound, i can’t download the image anymore. its as if my time was up. and it is.
(regarding the Nietzsche reference) There’s also a Nine Inch Nails song with “Your God is dead” in the lyrics… (and no one cares… if there is a hell… I’ll see you there…) …
I always assumed the title was referring to the nails hammered into Jesus’ hands to keep him on the cross… but now you give a quote saying otherwise… hmm…
the NIN shirt I just happened to wear to work tonight has a serpent on it, which I assume stands for Satan… but now… it could be anything… maybe just a [ he-man voice ] manly symbol… bummer…
On The Fragile album, there’s a song on disc one (left) called The Wretched that has lyrics saying: The clouds will part and the sky cracks open
And God himself will reach his fucking arm through
Just to push you down
Just to hold you downThis could very well signify the kind of defiance you’re talking about with the serpent, stating that if god exists, in all probability, he hates us. (Little reference there to Fight Club.)
I could go on to say that like most band names, the interpretations of the fans are what really decide the meaning, given the lyrics of the artist to justify some kind of answer. Trent is right, band names are hard to come up with, especially something that sticks.
I once heard that they used nine inch nails to close coffins, but I really have nothing to back that statement up.
I have always thought of it as his music is like a nine inch nail, as apposed to pop music that would be more like a nerf ball. No matter who listens to this music it will affect them deeply in some way. Either they like it and enjoy the lyrics or they hate it and call him an evil heathen. So the songs, like a nine inch nail through the heart, penetrate deeply and are hard to forget.
I was thinking the serpent was Satan because of the Garden of Eden… if you ever saw … damn… the movie Mel Gibson just did (bra-a-ain not bzzzrt wo-o-o-rking…) about Jesus… there was symbolism in that one… the serpent was a reminder of Satan’s deception in the Garden… I don’t necessarily think the serpent on my shirt was that particular ‘deception’… rather just plain ol’ Satan. Not that Reznor would acknowledge the beliefs of Judaism/Christianity as… well, I’ll just say “true”, but that maybe he was tired of various aspects of it and chose to defy it by throwing back in their faces their most feared/loathed symbol… like when people turn the Christian icthus (fish) into a darwin fish that evolved legs (it sort of defiles one of their most cherrished symbols)…
I don’t think the name nine inch nails is referring to god itself in any way, he writes songs about a lot of things besides how much god sucks. Here are all the lyrics to heresy, the song She was quoting.
Heresy, The Downward Spiral
he sewed his eyes shut because he is afraid to see
he tries to tell me what i put inside of me
he got the answers to ease my curiosity
he dreamed a god up and called it christianity
god is dead and no one cares
if there is a hell i’ll see you there
he flexed his muscles to keep his flock of sheep in line
he made a virus that would kill off all the swine
his perfect kingdom of killing, suffering and pain
demands devotion atrocities done in his name
god is dead and no one cares
if there is a hell i’ll see you there
your god is dead and no one cares
if there is a hell i’ll see you there
“will you die for this?
will you die for this?
will you die for this?
will you die for this?”
god is dead and no one cares
if there is a hell i’ll see you there
(your god is dead)
god is dead (and no one cares)
and no one cares (drowning in his own hypocrisy)
if there is a hell (see you)
i’ll see you there (you there)
