An Analysis of Nine Inch Nails’ “Heresy" by Diego Talbot

I’ve always liked classical and jazz music, but not really anything else. So when I decided to venture out into new genres, I couldn't find too much that I enjoyed, until I found Nine Inch Nails. I suppose the reason why I like their music so much is because it’s interesting to listen to.  On may 17th 1965 in a Pennsylvanian town named “New Castle” Michael Trent Reznor was born. Reznor was a mostly average kid with two parents, but in high school he found that he found that he enjoyed creating music, and several years later the, “Industrial Rock Project” Nine Inch Nails was born. And in 1994 he released what is currently his most popular album, “The Downward Spiral” which contains the song that this essay is about, “Heresy”. In “Heresy,” Trent Reznor uses allusion and symbolism to convey the theme that blindly believing someone without question is bad.

One way Reznor conveys the theme that blindly believing something is bad is by using symbolism. In the first line Reznor sings, “He sewed his eyes shut because he is afraid to see”  Or in other words the person in question closed his eyes and kept them that way. This is symbolic for purposely ignoring or rejecting facts so your beliefs aren’t questioned.

Another way Reznor conveys his theme that blindly believing something is bad is by using allusion. In the Tenth line of the song he says, “Demands devotion atrocities done in his name”. This is alluding to all the bad things done in the name of religion (the crusades, terrorism, etc). This shows that if you blindly follow someone you can be led to do bad things without wondering if they are bad or not.

One strength of “Heresy” is the chorus, it’s loud, dark and almost forcing people to question what they believe. “Your god is dead and no one cares; if there is a hell I’ll see you there” with each word of this dark gritty chorus, you can hear the intensity that Reznor felt about this topic. But on the other side of the coin, there are the verses. While the lyrics are fine in them, the way that they are delivered could’ve been better. Reznor keeps his dark voice, but digitally edits it to a screeching high voice that makes it hard to take seriously.

    In conclusion, “Heresy” is a great song with an important message: “Blindly believing things is bad.” The reason why this important is because think of all the bad things that have happened by people blindly stuff. If we had continued to believe that smoking was good for you, the world would be in a much worse condition. So if you blindly believe something I’d recommend questioning it.