Today, after trying to wake up earlier (and failing) and finishing a ton of paperwork, I’m honestly in low spirits and also anxious for a few reasons. As a fan of professional wrestling, I know there’s at least one reason to celebrate today, which is Austin 3:16 Day (in reference to the history-altering “Stone Cold” Steve Austin promo at WWE King of the Ring in 1996). Still, sometimes the melancholy and anxiety cannot be extinguished easily by a single happy memory.
That doesn’t mean I’m not doing my best to feel better, though. Here’s one of my happy methods this afternoon: listening to my favorite metal band, Motörhead, to burn off my anxious energy while working. In particular, I’ve been listening to their first two albums: the self-titled debut album and Overkill. The latter features one of my top three favorite songs from the speed metal pioneers, “I’ll Be Your Sister”.
Today, I randomly remembered an old conversation with Mr. Saints, a high school classmate I never talked to during that phase. In 2016, when he learned from my Facebook posts that my favorite band is the legendary alternative/hard rock band Foo Fighters, he sent a message, then we switched on our fanboy modes, and we talked about our favorite songs and albums.
During the conversation, he said this:
Mr. Saints: I wish we could’ve been friends during high school because I only knew a few people who listened to Foo Fighters while everyone else was into emo.
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 