Do the synth-sounds of a goth studio-rat, who never sees the light of day, translate to the live stage?

The only possible answer is yes. Nine Inch Nail's Trent Reznor is known to tinker and perfect his dark industrial records for years, but on his newest album, And All That Could Have Been, he plays to the crowd without the layers of sound that cover the depth of his songs.

The result is high-intensity guitar and synthesizer driven rock 'n' roll lead by Reznor's piercing voice — and the formula works. The highlights of the album are "March of the Pigs" and "Piggy." "March of the Pigs" starts out with the tremendous roar of the bouncing drums, with Reznor nailing the lyrics of "Step right up!"

The song improved from the studio album; it is performed with a high-frenzied energy. "Piggy" comes in slowly with a slight jazz beat into a beautiful full-throttle scream of Reznor's emotions. The band picks it up midstream with a jam that would make Phish blush.

The songs from NIN's The Fragile are performed with a fresh, brutal sound. They meander from beautiful piano to ripping guitars and are performed closely to the record, with little diversions occasionally added. The album was recorded during live shows from the band's Fragility v2.0 tour. But filling in the NIN's tradition, the songs are unmarked as to when they were performed, and they were mixed together by Reznor using a Macintosh computer. Reznor can't have anything be too real; that would be frightening.

— Reviewed by Caleb Sheaffer