A Loud Journey Through the Lives of Tortured Souls

It looks as if record buyers don’t have such a short memory after all. Exhibit A? “The Fragile,” the first album in five years from Nine Inch Nails, entered the charts at No. 1, which should at least give Gavin Rossdale and his band Bush some hope for their new album (due in stores Oct. 26). After all, Rossdale already seems stuck in an early ‘90s time warp, a grunge bandwagon-hopper whose band transmuted Nirvana’s raw rage into synthetic angst on the albums “Sixteen Stone” and “Razorblade Suitcase.”

But regardless of the recent convulsions that have turned the pop charts into a haven for underage overachievers, loud, tortured guitar rock of the kind practiced by Bush just lies dormant for a while, until the zeitgeist provides an opening. “The Science of Things” serves up Promethean riffs meted out like punishment and lyrics that map the inner turmoil of heartbroken souls, just like the band’s previous efforts.

Like a high school jock who secretly writes poetry, Rossdale is intent on flexing amplified muscle and writing disturbing melodies that tilt slightly off their axis. But songs such as “The Chemicals Between Us” and “English Fire” are ultimately too facile to make a deep psychic impact.

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Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two (fair), three (good) and four (excellent).