Nine Inch Nails

Going against the glass-studded grain of fellow industrial-music icons like KMFDM and Ministry, Nine Inch Nails has spent the past two decades blending jackhammer beats and buzz-saw guitars with genuine pop hooks. The accompanying best-of breakdown would make the band's mastermind, singer/multi-instrumentalist Trent Reznor, proud — so dig in, and gird your loins, as the irresistible force of NIN storms your speakers with the mud-caked sonic slabs of "March of the Pigs," the nihilistic noise of "Wish," the demonic disco of "The Hand That Feeds" and the brittle balladry of Johnny Cash's favourite NIN song, "Hurt."

As for our NIN Next Steps, they're full of fan favourites . . . and a touch of ambience.

While it's sometimes hard to hear past the blustery hooks and battery-acid breaks of such scorched-earth singles as "Burn" and "1,000,000," Nine Inch Nails' bottomless back catalogue is packed with songs that prove how mangled Trent Reznor's mind truly is. At one end of the spectrum is his surprisingly serene side — frosty waves of ambient music ("A Warm Place") and restrained piano playing ("Something I Can Never Have") that wouldn't sound out of place on a Brian Eno album. At the other? Absolute madness, including the gloomy dance grooves of "Sin" and the corroded choruses of "Suck."

Our Deep Cuts cranks up the contrasts as well, including Reznor's key side projects and guest spots.

When Nine Inch Nails retired from the road in 2009, Trent Reznor didn't hang up his drool-worthy collection of keyboards and electric guitars. No, he got right back to work, draping his wife's melancholic melodies in minor-keyed soundscapes — How to Destroy Angels — and scoring The Social Network (the shimmering, shuddering chords of "Hand Covers Bruise"). Which would be a surprise if he hadn't spent the past two decades appearing alongside razor-tongued rappers (El-P, Saul Williams), dance-floor dons (Wink), and the one-and-only David Bowie ("I'm Afraid of Americans"). Not to mention approving an incredible range of remixes, from a deeply corroded version of "Metal" to Fennesz's fuzz-flecked take on "In This Twilight."

If Trent Reznor had a bumper sticker customized for his car, it'd read something like "Making Death and Decay Sound Downright Pleasant Since 1988." After all, his soul-scrapping Nine Inch Nails collective is responsible for some of the darkest Top 40 tunes of all time, whether we're talking about the sinister synths and unholy hooks of "Closer," the screeching riffs and chain-gang grunts of "Head Like a Hole," or the tense strings and skittish drum 'n' bass beats of "The Perfect Drug." And then there are NIN's less obvious numbers — a dizzying array of welcome detours that includes Aphex Twin's steamed-pressed Downward Spiral samples ("At the Heart of it All"), Telefon Tel Aviv's haunted-house approach to "Even Deeper," and a Soft Cell cover ("Memorabilia") that teeters on the edge of a nervous breakdown for seven amp-frying minutes.