Unless you’re living under a rock, I’m sure you’re familiar with the device known as the microphone or mic. Singers use it to deliver their show-stopping performances, broadcasters use it to deliver information and opinions on their shows, and professional wrestlers use it to deliver promos.
Side note: In professional wrestling terms, a promo is a monologue from a wrestler/manager/personality or a dialogue between two or more individuals that hypes a match, advances a storyline, and develops wrestling personas. In pro wrestling, the act of delivering a promo is called “cutting a promo.”
So, where is this going? I just want to share that I have watched too many Scott Steiner videos so often that even the word “mic” triggers my Steinermania. Let me explain why.
I can honestly say that 2025 is one of the most memorable years of my life, and one reason is that I replaced a few of my New Year’s resolutions with some things better. One resolution was to delve into a different single music artist per week, and it proved to be difficult, especially since I have a day job and other interests I’d like to pursue after work. So, I replaced that music resolution with listening to a playlist of my favorite songs on Spotify. It turns out that listening to songs I truly love (whether I’m writing, walking, or just chilling) is more enjoyable than absorbing an entire discography in seven days. The latter sounds like a chore rather than entertainment.
With my favorite songs list comes a rekindled appreciation for the industrial rock pioneers, Nine Inch Nails. When I listened to the legendary band’s essential playlist curated by Spotify, I rediscovered the songs I remembered and loved years ago, and then I added them to my list. Since then, according to my Last.fm, my number of listens to the band spiked to 300+ times. That’s an incredible feat, and I believe the statistic will grow in the future because, at this point, I acknowledge (and embrace) both the light and the darkness, and Nine Inch Nails is known for their dark, heavy music.
So, you might ask what my favorite Nine Inch Nails song is as of late. It’s definitely “The Hand That Feeds”, the first single from the fourth studio album With Teeth. Based on my lyrical interpretation, the song is about questioning authority (while questioning oneself in the process), and that politically relevant message is wrapped in a heavy, defiant industrial rock sound that is so hypnotically danceable, and I don’t normally dance to Nine Inch Nails songs. Nowadays, every time I commute, I’d search “That Hand That Feeds” on my list, and then listen to it as I move my feet like I own the street.
The music video of Nine Inch Nails’ “The Hand That Feeds”.
I think I have found my top favorite Nine Inch Nails song in “The Hand That Feeds” for its modern-day relevance and its hypnotizing, groovy industrial rock instrumentals. That’s why it’s my Song of the Moment.
Just how deep do you believe? Will you bite the hand that feeds? Will you chew until it bleeds? Can you get up off your knees? Are you brave enough to see? Do you wanna change it?
The chorus of Nine Inch Nails’ “The Hand That Feeds”
Anyway, let me dance again to the song in my favorite cafe. It’s a good thing I’m the only customer here at the moment… oh, shit. People are approaching. I’ll just do an internal dance, if I could call it that.
The Diary of The Deranged Writer 