Before Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails “wave goodbye” (title of their current tour) to his Filipino fans this August 5 at the Araneta Coliseum, here is a quick look at their albums from the 80s and 90s:

“Pretty Hate Machine” (1989)

Although neglected when released, this album still became a hit through word of mouth. Indeed, the bashings it got from critics only made the album even more significant in retrospect.

Majority of “Pretty Hate Machine” is electronic. Synths articulated all the major riffs, directed by hammering drum machines. Distorted guitars were a textural building block, but not the chief concentration.

Despite nil publicity, “Pretty Hate Machine” became a record for juvenile anxiety. Reznor's turmoil and self-indulgence gave industrial music a face (albeit with tormented expression).

Reznor’s lyrics are crammed with betrayal, whether by lovers, human society, or even God -- the sound of his childhood illusions, crashing. The dichotomies in his universe made for good melodrama.

The greatest accomplishment of “Pretty Hate Machine” is this: For all the dehumanizing inherence of the genre, this, somehow, came out lavish. Somehow.

“Broken” EP (1992)

If “Pretty Hate Machine” had flashes of rumination and satirical wit, “Broken” is a concerted detonation of scathing wrath.

Considering how exhausting that is, a full-length release would have been wearying.

So, for their sake as well as the listeners, “Broken” is the kind of EP that's determined and whole unto itself.

“Broken” is laden with weighty, jagged guitars administered through a grinder of effects that lead to a wall of distortion. Each track is a notch more rancorous than the last.

The take on Adam Ant's "(You're So) Physical" was sort of a surprise -- not just underlining Reznor's soft spot for new wave, but serving as a benchmark for his self-conscious, “glammed” sense of style.

That, along with his competence as producer-arranger, achieves completion in “The Downward Spiral.”

“The Downward Spiral” (1994)

This album incorporates the deafening metal guitars of “Broken” with drawn out song structures, odd time signatures, and fluctuating arrangements, all of which may have been the stimuli of progressive rock.

“The Downward Spiral” is chock-full of arresting sonic concurrences and impulsive about-faces in ambience. At this point, histrionics had become Reznor's specialty.

The surprise hit "Closer" made him a postmodern sage for the '90s; someone who is passionate in revealing the dark from behind the most innocent of smokescreens.

“The Fragile” (1999)

Processed guitars, portentous electro rhythms and atmospheric keyboards, and Trent Reznor's frayed vocals all gelled well here as in “The Downward Spiral.”

More, there are covert flourishes; most notably the redolent instrumental interludes which underline Reznor's flair for arrangement. He really can fashion elegant and poignant soundscapes into a sonic juxtapositions.

The spurts of industrial noise keep the album from sounding extravagant.

How? Each note moving smoothly into the next.

It’s the flow that makes "Fragile" fanstastic.