It was one of the crucial eagerly anticipated data of the alt-metal period, a 9 Inch Nails side-project that includes a few of the greatest names in 90s rock that had followers chomping on the bit.
A duet between Trent Reznor and Maynard James Keenan? A Pantera and NIN mash-up? What’s to not get enthusiastic about? So why did Tapeworm by no means see the sunshine of day?
“Hey, I used to be simply as enthusiastic about it as all of you,” laughs former 9 Inch Nails keyboardist Charlie Clouser. “I imply, you see it on paper and it does look actually cool. I can see why folks had been like, ‘Simply launch it, man!’ however it’s actually not so simple as that.”
Tapeworm was formulated after 9 Inch Nails completed the top of the gargantuan touring schedule of 1994’s The Downward Spiral album.
“With Trent Reznor eager to proceed writing, he requested his band to reconvene in New Orleans to start out the method of developing a brand new NIN album.
“We had been instructed that we might play a component in that course of and that our concepts had been welcome,” Charlie says. “However in actuality, we knew that 90% of the report could be from Trent.
“So, he instructed Danny [Lohner, NIN bassist] and I that any concepts we had that wouldn’t work for Nails may very well be expanded on by us for our personal venture, and he’d put the outcomes out on Nothing Data. It felt like a win-win.”
As Charlie and Danny labored in isolation on songs, they started to dream up their very own wishlist of musicians to duet alongside Trent.
“Possibly we had been aiming approach too excessive,” Charlie shrugs. “However we approached Phil Anselmo, as we had been all followers of Pantera.
“Maynard Keenan was an apparent one, I really like Jaz Coleman, one of the crucial apocalyptic voices in music, Alec Empire had toured with 9 Inch Nails and we love Atari Teenage Riot, and we had a tune that we thought could be good for Dave Gahan from Depeche Mode.
“The thought of those nice vocalists buying and selling verses with Trent excited us massively.”
Sadly, the lure of a brand new 9 Inch Nails album started to drag the pair away from concentrating on Tapeworm too closely.
“When the behemoth that could be a new 9 Inch Nails album is on the horizon, you need to be a part of it,” says Charlie. “Do I need to have a writing credit score on that, or do I need to use my thought for this little, unevolved factor? It’s a no brainer, actually.
“For instance, I had a drum loop for a tune that I used to be engaged on for Tapeworm and Trent actually preferred it. He took it away and it grew to become the genesis for the tune Starfuckers, Inc., which is a far larger deal, actually.”
Tapeworm was put to 1 aspect as NIN put all efforts into 1999’s epic double album, The Fragile. After its launch and subsequent world tour, Trent was exhausted, leaving Charlie and Danny hanging within the studio whereas he went to recharge his batteries.
Alone, and with hours of tapes and concepts for Tapeworm left unfinished, the venture merely fizzled out. A few reworked tracks appeared by way of Maynard James Keenan – A Good Circle’s Passive and Puscifer’s Potions (Deliverance Combine) – however nothing else has surfaced.
“It’s like a leaf on a department, isn’t it?” Charlie explains. “In case you don’t water it then it dies. Plenty of different leaves had been getting watered at the moment, and the Tapeworm leaf wasn’t. So, it simply died.
“I left the band and went off to work with Web page Hamilton from Helmet [on the latter band’s 2004 comeback album Size Matters]. We do have a complete load of recordings from that point, however they’re not prepared, they’re in no match state to launch.”
And so, one of the crucial thrilling supergroups in steel historical past stays only a hearsay. “I type of prefer it that approach,” smiles Charlie. “It’s virtually cooler that we by no means did launch it.
“It’s grow to be this legendary factor now. There’ll at all times be an air of intrigue and thriller round it. Not many albums you’ve heard have that.”
Initially revealed in Steel Hammer difficulty 322 (April 2019)
