I’ve long maintained that despite all of the moody aesthetics, dark lyrics, and sonic abrasiveness, Nine Inch Nails is a pop band. Glimpses of this can be gleaned from their debut Pretty Hate Machine and singles like “Closer,” but even their dourest songs can’t completely hide Reznor’s signature popcraft.

I bring all this up to make a point about Spike Hellis: despite their dark aesthetics and harsh sonic elements, this is honest to goodness pop music, filled with earworms and rhythms that will make even the most somber goth want to dance.

Sharp arpeggios spiral over whirling bass synths and fleshless drum machines. The vocals, when they’re present, are shared between the two members. Elaine Chang’s singing voice ranges from moody, dare-you-to-try-it clean vocals and chant-like barks. Cortland Gibson’s is far more mercurial, hitting near-rapped shouts, spoken word, blasé near-whispers, and anguished screams. Where Chang’s vocals are the most immediate on the record, Gibson’s almost manic-depressive performance on “Help” deserves special attention.

While the sonic center of the record is informed largely by dissonant industrial and EBM, there are flashes of more mainstream pop that subtle enough that they feel like the duo is winking between lines. “Teardrops (Kisses)” is buoyed by Prince-like synth horns. Beneath the sing-talk vocals, buried screams, and sampled robot voices of “Cause of Death” is a bass line so groovy that I feel like I heard it in a Janet Jackson song. And I might be crazy, but “Slices” almost sounds like the Beastie Boys rapping over a Nine Inch Nails track.

Don’t let all my talk about mainstream pop dissuade you though: this is a fearsome record. The synth lines are often atonal and harsh. There is a grimy sheen over the soundscape that acts as a warning sign, and anyone who doesn’t heed its message will find themselves in danger. The hints to Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, and Prince aren’t enough to make their aural cataclysm palatable to anyone who hasn’t waded far outside the mainstream (I wouldn’t play this around my mom, for instance). But for the initiated, Spike Hellis is an absolutely wicked delight.

Spike Hellis is out now through their own Over-Pop Records.

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