Nine Inch Nails - The Hand That Feeds (Universal Island)

When this single arrived on my doormat my first thought was: "It's been too long." Trent Reznor and his black-clad associates from Ohio are back. The even better news for fans is that The Hand That Feeds, the first single from new album With Teeth, kicks ass.

Ignore those who claim NIN are exclusively for schoolboy depressants. A driving tempo and taut structure house searing industrial riffs and beats ample enough to get heads banging to, while bags of distortion fuzz it all down dark and dirty. It gets up and goes, whatever the age of the listener.

Entirely lacking in the bursts of tension-laden silence characteristic of Broken, this is a huge, stomping fire of angry energy exploding out of subconsciousness. NIN blazed a trail for the likes of Sulpher and Marilyn Manson to follow, but on this evidence Reznor's still well and away the leading darkness.