Track Listing

1. Mr Self Destruct
2. Piggy
3. Heresy
4. March Of The Pigs
5. Closer
6. Ruiner
7. The Becoming
8. I Do Not Want This
9. Big Man With A Gun
10. A Warm Place
11. Eraser
12. Reptile
13. The Downward Spiral
14. Hurt

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3505 in Music
• Released on: 1994-03-01
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics
• Running time: 65 minutes

From Amazon.com
It's easy to understand why Nine Inch Nails became the industrial band to break out of the techno ghetto and win a larger audience. Trent Reznor, who records the NIN albums almost entirely by himself (although he tours with a full band), tries very hard to pass himself off as an angry young man, but underneath the angst-ridden lyrics, pounding synths, and grating guitars is an irrepressible pop sensibility. On the second full-length NIN album, The Downward Spiral, Reznor builds his constructions of noise and gloom around warm, fuzzy melodies. On the album's first single, "March of the Pigs," for example, Reznor screams about swine lined up for slaughter amid guitars screeching in pain. Suddenly the guitars fall away to reveal the sensually throbbing rhythm track below; then that falls away to reveal a vocal-and-piano track that's as catchy as anything by Elton John. Because Reznor has a better handle on dynamics now, the melodic core is more obvious than ever. --Geoffrey Himes

CD Description
Nine Inch Nails mastermind Trent Reznor became an instant alternative-music hero with 1989's PRETTY HATE MACHINE, an angry-yet-accessible album that appealed to rock fans and clubkids alike. Record-label woes led to a five-year delay for Reznor's follow-up, with two hard-edged EPs (BROKEN and its remix disc, FIXED) issued in the interim. Finally released in 1994, THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL seethes with an almost unhinged industrial ferocity, due, in part to both Reznor's frustration with messy bureaucratic entanglements and time spent withMinistry's Al Jourgensen during the peak of that band's guitar-heavy phase.
Although, SPIRAL does reveal the influence of latter-day Ministry (particularly on the blazing opener, "Mr. Self Destruct", and the scathing, distortion-filled "March of the Pigs"), Reznor also incorporates elements of progressive rock and funk into the proceedings. More than anyother Nine Inch Nails song, the provocative, groove-laden "Closer" (and its shocking video) established Reznor as a bold, audacious artist. In contrast, quiet and emotive songs such as Eno-esque instrumental "A Warm Place" and the spare, haunting "Hurt" (famously covered by Johnny Cash shortly before the country legend's death) revealed Reznor's sensitive side. Here the intense performer works with his largest sonicpalette yet, and the results are fascinating.

Customer Reviews

Amazing
This album is the best i have heard. Intense, passionate, terrbly depressing, in some cases the most calming thing i have ever heard. Trent Reznor leaves his meanings to the lyrics open, there are numerous debates to the meanings, they can be so in depth it gives a whole new meaning to the music, making it a truly awesome experience.
Many people may think this is a heavy album, it is, (with its calmer parts) but the heavy parts are heavy in a diffrent way to normal. The "heavyness" is created by many smaller parts ending up in a masses confusion of art.
In Closer i counted 13 different sounds at the same time, there maybe more, there are so many parts to the album you cant hear unless you really sit down and listen to it hard, alot.
The best album i have ever heard, as soon as i heard "Closer" i wanted the album, as soon as i heard "Hurt" i knew i would do anything to get it.

A stirring contradiction. Beauty and Violence married as one
Trent Reznor just not just write 'songs'. He writes experiences. Just as the auteur theory of film study teaches us that the image can be layered with meanings and statements quite independent of the narrative, so Nine Inch Nail's music constantly evokes a sense of structure, of attempting to convey a message through not just the lyrics, but through the music itself.

Here we have an album that tracks the human mind through a myriad of conflicting and contrasting moods and states. Opener 'Mr Self Destruct' begins with the sound of a man being beaten, setting an apt precedent for the album that follows. The resulting track at first bludgeons, but then throws off anyone who dares to believe they can predict its course, with an intricate break-down into a near white-noise. Follower 'Piggy' doesn't even try to follow, introducing an overwhelming atmosphere of melancholy that all but ecclipses the previous statement of malicious intent.

And so the album continues, confusing at every turn. Even when Reznor chooses to adhere to the Verse/Chorus/Verse format, it still seems like an attempt to subvert. 'Closer' is a really sexy song, riding along on a synth so gorgeous that it should dismay any Slipknot fans simply out for a record to 'mosh' to. Make no mistake, like Tool, Nine Inch Nails are an intelligent force of music, with so much more to offer than some bruises and a collection of other people's sweat in the moshpit.

However abrasive the record may seem, a sense of balance is still maintained throughout. The nihilism of 'Heresy' is stopped short by 'A Warm Place', an instrumental so delicate as to lull you dangerously into calm. And then the drum from 'Eraser' shatters your every being. This is not just a 'heavy' record. It is loud, it is aggressive, but it is also beautiful, well crafted, and at times achingly sad. It isn't any one thing, as to call it anything would be to pigeonhole and limit its brilliance. Trent Reznor himself said that the making and the subsequent touring of this record was the lowest point in his life. You can actually hear that on this release. You can hear all of the extremities of emotion. There is tortured love, rejection, the baseness of sexuality, fear, loathing, melancholy, anger, and finally, a dismissal of everything that our society values as important. Nihilism. The rejection of everthing.

Behind the pretension and the manufacturing and the commercialism and the degradation of everything around us, of a society losing any sense of moral coding, of ideology that is becoming twisted and tainted as Political Correctness attempts to satisfy everyone at all times, behind all of that, we are human. Behind the grinding mechanics and the screeching electronics, even behind the delicate piano that accompanies 'The Downward Spiral's' most vulnerable moments, this record too, is human. Everything on it 'feels' real, with emotions that raise the hairs on the back of your neck. It is a work of cathartism, where the music and the structure serves to emphasise the feelings at the records heart.

But yeah, it is darned good to mosh to as well.

Nothing Can Stop Me Now...
This album is considered Nine Inch Nails' most controversial and disturbing work. They completely change their image that was first seen on "Pretty Hate Machine" to something much more darker and emotional. The result is a very successful and complex masterpiece that takes you to places you have never been in the music world. With each track you step in further and further into Reznor's mind. "The Downward Spiral" is an outstanding album and will always remain a classic.

The songs are much more complex and have more structure to them than the ones that appear on "Pretty Hate Machine" and "Broken." There are heavy songs, and there are soft songs. There are disturbing songs, and there are beautiful songs. You get to experience something different with each song.

The great thing about this album is, just like with any other NIN album, no two songs are the same. Each one has its own identity and feeling to it. Another plus is that there is not a single bad song on the entire album. My favourites are "mr. self destruct," "march of the pigs," "closer," "the becoming," "a warm place," "eraser," "I do not want this," "ruiner," and "hurt."

"The Downward Spiral" is an amazing album. Reznor knows how to make great music and continues to impress us even to this day. Be warned, however; this album isn't for everyone. It is indeed a very controversial and even sometimes offensive album. But if you love Nine Inch Nails, then this is a must-have. It is a CD I continue to listen to over and over again. It never ceases to amaze me. A classic to the very end.