The Downward Spiral
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The Downward Spiral is the second studio album by American industrial rock recording act Nine Inch Nails, released on March 8, 1994, on Interscope Records and Nothing Records. It is a concept album detailing the destruction of a man, from the beginning of his "downward spiral" to his climactic attempt at suicide. Due to its lyrical and thematic content, the album was often packaged with a Parental Advisory sticker, the first of many instances for a Nine Inch Nails recording. The Downward Spiral features elements of industrial rock, techno, and heavy metal music, a stark contrast to the primitive electronic dance music style shown throughout Pretty Hate Machine in 1989.
Following the increase of popularity achieved from the marketing campaigns for Pretty Hate Machine, Broken and Fixed, Trent Reznor wrote the concept of the album and created poems. He then moved to 10050 Cielo Drive, and started the recording process, along with co-producer Flood, in spite of electrical issues. Adrian Belew and Stephen Perkins were invited to participate in the album's production. Production wrapped up in February 1994 when it was mastered by Alan Moulder.
Selling over five million copies worldwide and certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipments of four million copies in the United States making the album the act's highest selling release there, The Downward Spiral was a major commercial success that established Nine Inch Nails as a reputable force in the 1990s music scene, particularly following the release of the single "Closer" and its provocative video. The live band supported the record with the controversial Self Destruct Tour.
It has been widely regarded by music critics as Nine Inch Nails' best work. The album was nominated for the Best Alternative Music Performance at the 37th Grammy Awards on 1 March, 1995. A companion remix album, Further Down the Spiral, was released in that same year.
Writing and recording
Background and relocation
"The idea for this record came about the end of '91 when we finished the first Lollapalooza, and we went to Europe. I was sitting in the hotel room and I was kind of seeing the energy that Nine Inch Nails was drawing on. It was a definite negative vibe, and although [...] it was powerful, it's ultimately not the end of the road: a means towards something else - I'm not sure what that is and [...] I kinda came up with the idea of [The] Downward Spiral which I knew would be a pretty harrowing exploration of that. So, this record was focusing on those certain things that were bothering me that I felt needed exploring - which is not to say that everything in my life is totally terrible and negative, but it was a record about a certain set of things and that's what I wanted to explore."
—Reznor, on the album's pre-production.[1]
The first ideas for The Downward Spiral were conceived after the act's role in the Lollapalooza 1991 festival, but recording on the material did not start until 1993.[1] Despite a lack of knowledge to judge the musical direction of his project's next album,[2] Reznor rented a house located at 10050 Cielo Drive in Beverly Hills, California – the location where actress Sharon Tate, wife of noted film director Roman Polanski, was murdered by members of the Charles Manson-led Manson Family in 1969 – on July 4, 1992, and invented a studio space in the house which he named "Le Pig", after the message that was scrawled on the front door with Tate's blood by her murderers.[3]
Initially, Reznor was to record the album in New Orleans, but due to financial duties, he changed his mind.[4] Amidst the notoriety attached to the house, he chose to record in the building he rented due to having found it interesting. "I looked at a lot of places," Reznor said. "And this just happened to be the one I liked most."[5]
Le Pig sessions
The first stage of production was the writing process. Reznor wrote several poems, then made a list of things and lyrical themes he will venture for the forthcoming album on paper.[6] He purchased two action figures (Jesus and Kiss lead singer Gene Simmons) while writing the album, and placed both at a mixing console.[7]
The Nine Inch Nails frontman was afforded more studio time than the 1992 Broken extended play, also partially recorded in Le Pig. Flood was previously involved in two of the ten tracks off Pretty Hate Machine (1989) ("Head Like a Hole" and "Terrible Lie"), and three songs from Broken (1992) ("Wish", "Last", "Gave Up"). He was hired as co-producer of several tracks on The Downward Spiral.[8]
A option of inviting a number of guest performers to record was created, including former Jane's Addiction and Porno for Pyros drummer Stephen Perkins on "I Do Not Want This" and progressive rock guitarist Adrian Belew on "Mr. Self Destruct" and "The Becoming", who played in several bands, including King Crimson and the live band for David Bowie.[8] Belew said of Reznor: "Trent [Reznor] has an astounding command of technology, old and new; he's such an intriguing person to work with, but that may have actually helped in some way. The music just lent itself to so many ideas that are in my realm."[9] He went on to collaborate on two more Nine Inch Nails records, follow-up The Fragile (1999) and the instrumental, independently-released Ghosts I–IV (2008).[10]
Perkins performed a number of live drumming takes that were recorded live in the studio; these tracks were subsequently rendered into looped samples that were manipulated electronically using Pro Tools in a Macintosh computer. Reznor took a similar approach to recording audio existing of guitars, taping 20 to 25-minute long sessions of himself playing with a Jackson guitar and a Zoom 9030 pedal on a hard disc recorder with a Studio Vision sequencer. He would cut out clips of the recordings he praised for later use. Many portions of the "stuff we do–even vocals–is recorded into the computer first. We get an arrangement together and then dump it to tape."[11]
Reznor later explained of most of the equipment he used in 1995:
Usually I call up [a highlight from Digidesign's TurboSynth program] the 'waveshaper' function and click through a few of them, or use the 'convert sample to oscillator' command. A real low pitch can get you some insane sounds. I also might modulate a guitar or vocal sound with a real low frequency from the oscillator module, something with a bell tone or some odd harmonics – that can usually produce some awesome death-vocal or guitar sounds. Also, for [samples involving the] guitar, almost everything was put through a Zoom 9030. I don't like the distortion stuff in there – it's too traditional – but I really like the amp simulator. We also used a new Marshall rack-amount head, which sounded great. I'd take the direct out of that through the Zoom amp simulator for a pretty good, almost Pantera-ish power-metal sound. I use that as a basis, and since everything's recorded in the computer, it's easy to take it into TurboSynth and fuck around with it."[9]
Nevertheless, the production was plagued with several electricity problems, and a number of songs had to be reworked. The overuse of the equipment they used resulted in these issues.[12]
One of the songs written for the album, "Just Do It," made Flood speak to Reznor that he was dismissive of the final result. Reznor said of this: "There was another song that I didn't put on there called 'Just Do It.' It was a very dangerously self-destructive, silly little snippet. You know, 'If you're going to kill yourself, just do it, nobody cares at all.' But [The Downward Spiral co-producer] Flood freaked out and said, 'No, you've gone too far. I don't want to be involved in that'." Afterwards, Reznor completed the last song written for the album, "Big Man with a Gun", in late 1993.[13] The album is widely seen as Flood's finale with Nine Inch Nails' works, since he opted to work on various other albums like U2's Pop (1997), Depeche Mode's Ultra (1997), and The Smashing Pumpkins's Adore (1996).
Post-production
Reznor's last visit to the house occurred in December 1993. In that day, he was confronted by Patti Tate, who questioned, "Are you exploiting my sister's death by living in her house?". Reznor responded, "No, it's just sort of my own interest in American folklore. I'm in this place where a weird part of history occurred."[14]
Finally, Reznor moved out of Le Pig the very same month, and had it demolished shortly thereafter.[5] After recording was finished, The Downward Spiral entered its mixing and mastering processes. This was done at Record Plant Studios, the building where heavy metal band Black Sabbath recorded two of their albums (Black Sabbath Vol. 4 (1972) and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973)), and A&M Studios. Both studios are located in Los Angeles, California (which Reznor hated). Alan Moulder, who later co-produced The Fragile (1999) and With Teeth (2005), mixed the album.
Themes, lyrics and controversy
There are numerous layers of metaphors that are present throughout the album, which leaves it open to wide interpretation.[15] The album relays many concepts of Nihilism, such as the chorus line in "Heresy" (one of three meanings of the word is "adherence to a religious opinion contrary to church dogma"),[16] which exclaims: "Your god is dead/And no one cares. If there is a hell/I'll see you there." As a whole, The Downward Spiral is defined by Nietzschean concepts and a prominent theme of existentialism. It is a concept album in which the overarching plot follows the protagonist's descent into his own inner solipsistic world, through a metaphorical "downward spiral", dealing with relationships ("Piggy"), religion ("Heresy"), society ("March of the Pigs" and "Eraser"), sexuality ("Closer"), drugs ("Ruiner"), dehumanization ("The Becoming"), disease ("I Do Not Want This" and "Reptile"), violence ("Big Man with a Gun"), emotion ("A Warm Place"), and finally suicide ("The Downward Spiral" and "Hurt"). This character can be understood as a representation of Reznor himself. Throughout the accompanying Self Destruct tour, the visibility of controversy increased with religious protests, but before this point occurred, Reznor perceived himself to be "pretty normal. With The Downward Spiral, I can remember where I was in my head, what I was thinking, and I can remember writing that record, and the mindset. This record that was about an extension of me, became the truth fulfilling itself."[17]
"Mr. Self Destruct" describes the background of the protagonist, but among the information heard is sexuality, discussed in the first verse. Sexuality is further explored in "Closer," whose lyrics and music video were both deemed to have a risk of controversy. The chorus featured themes of copulation, leading to radio edits to make the line "I wanna fuck you like an animal" censored for airplay. The song did not top any charts, and failed to reach the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at number 41.[18]
"The best thing about life is knowing you put it together."
—hidden message heard in the opening of "A Warm Place".
The meaning of "Hurt" (later covered by country musician Johnny Cash in 2002) is disputed; some listeners say the song acts like a suicide note with notes on depression, while other may find it to describe someone finding a new lease on life.[19] Officially, the song talks about differences between society and self-harm. The title track, somewhat like "Hurt," has the protagonist committing suicide with a gun aimed at "his face" (the unreleased "Just Do It" deals with a similar fate, while the gun violence-laden "Big Man with a Gun" might be heard sometimes as an alternative ending to the album – the latter with the main character killing a different person instead of himself), followed by changes of the person's environment.
Two songs are named after animals: "Piggy" is titled after a character of the same name who disbelieves in the protagonist, whereby "Reptile"'s title addresses from the animal whose blood is taken to human body parts "underneath [the] skin" of a nameless person. "Eraser" is the only song to have its title created after a invention (in this case, the school-used object with the same name).
"The Becoming" tackles on the protagonist's fears of a transforming into a machine after dying of a disease (possibly HIV/AIDS). Its lyrics includes references to near-death and death experiences, and the loss of feelings. The lyrics also uses the name "Annie". Speaking of "Annie," Reznor said in retrospect that this person "was abstractly referring to a college sweetheart/heartbreak situation that, at the time I was writing that song, was a valid source of emotional pain to draw from. Her real name is Andrea Mulrain, and her phone number is... [the phone number used was not printed in Reznor's answer to the use of the name]."[20] Even "Ruiner" blusters with disease themes, though the lyrics contain drug references, with the eponymous character's personality consisting of "ruin[ing] everything" so much that he could spread a virus.
Quite a few of the album's songs conclude by repeating the same line or set of lines. These deviate from the traditional chorus-chorus ending in that these lyrics are introduced near the end, and they are not sung, but rather whispered or yelled. The most evident of these is the phrase "nothing can stop me now", which appears in "Piggy", "Ruiner", and "Big Man with a Gun". The same words would recur on later albums in "La Mer", "We're in This Together", and "Sunspots".
There are 49 expletives included in The Downward Spiral. Inaugurating the majority of them evident on the album is "fuck" (many of which are used in a sexual context), heard most commonly in "Big Man with a Gun." This led to a Parental Advisory Explicit Lyrics sticker being pasted on most copies, as seen on many editions.[21]
"March of the Pigs" may have been inspired by Charles Manson and the murders he helped to incite, due to the words "pig", or "piggy" being written on the walls in blood after the murders. Two other people, deceased Columbine High School student mass murderers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, cited The Downward Spiral as the source of their crime,[23][24][25] with the latter comparing the album to his own depression.
Its emphasis on transgressive themes has made The Downward Spiral's lyrics vulnerable to attack from American social conservatives. Sen. Bob Dole, then head of the Republican Party, sharply criticized Time Warner after a meeting between Michael J. Fuchs (head of the Warner Music Group), William Bennett, and C. Delores Tucker, at which she and Bennett demanded that Fuchs recite lyrics from "Big Man with a Gun" because the politician thought the lyrics were an attack on the United States Government.[26] Reznor claimed that the lyrics had nothing to do with politics:
The record was nearing completion. I had written those lyrics pretty quickly and I didn't know if I was going to use them or not. To me, Downward Spiral builds to a certain degree of madness, then it changes. That would be the last stage of delirium. So the original point of 'Big Man with a Gun' was madness. But it was also making fun of the whole misogynistic gangsta-rap bullshit. [...] I listen to a lot of it, and I enjoy it. But I could do without the degree of misogyny and hatred of women and abuse. Then, my song got misinterpreted as exactly that. It was probably a lack of being able to write. I've been taken out of context, and it's ridiculous. [...] She's a fucking idiot. But I think The Downward Spiral actually could be harmful, through implying and subliminally suggesting a lot of things, whereas a lot of the hardcore rap becomes cartoonish—it's real to youngsters, but it's so over the top. From an artistic point of view, if I'd had a couple more months to look back on everything, I probably would not have put that song on the record. Just 'cause I don't think it's that good a song, not because I got spanked for it.[27]
Robert Bork also repeatedly referenced "Big Man with a Gun" in his book Slouching Toward Gomorrah as evidence of a cultural decline. The book incorrectly states that it is a rap song.[28]
In 2009, Apple rejected a Nine Inch Nails application for the iPhone, NIN: Access, due to "offensive, obscene and/or objectionable content" in The Downward Spiral.[29]
Music
Content
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The Downward Spiral features elements of industrial rock, techno, and heavy metal music, a stark contrast to the primitive electronic dance music style shown throughout Pretty Hate Machine in 1989. Reznor regularly uses noise and distortion in his song arrangements, and incorporates dissonance with chromatic melody and/or harmony, most notably on the album's closing track "Hurt". The album features a wide range of textures and moods to illustrate the mental progress of a central character.[30] Reznor's singing follows a similar pattern from beginning to end, frequently moving from whispers to screams.
Opener "Mr. Self Destruct" predicts the album's ugly aesthetic and mostly angry tone; it begins with a film sample, then immediately cuts out to aggressive verses and choruses. Reznor's casual vocal delivery contrasting with the noisy cacophony around it. The only section of the song to feature bass is the bridge, the opposite of the rest of the song. The remaining quarters follow, ending with manipulated and looped guitar noises made by Adrian Belew, who was invited by Reznor to the production.[11]
The frantic drumming on the end of "Piggy" is courtesy of Reznor himself. This is his only attempt at live drumming on a record, and one of the few "live" drum performances on the album. Reznor had stated that the recording was from him testing the microphone setup in studio, but he liked the sound too much not to include it.[31]
"Heresy" contains synthesized bass, simple and powerful drum loops, distorted guitar riffs backing aggressive vocals, and moody atmospherics. Like many other songs on the album, the song’s bridge contrasts heavily with the verses and choruses by being considerably quieter. The penultimate line of the final chorus as printed in the liner notes is not sung on the final album cut.[32] The last line, rather than being sung at the end of the song, is repeated during the bridge, as evident in live performances.
According to the liner notes of the album's lead-off single, "March of the Pigs" has a BPM rate of 269.[33] The song's high energy (analogous to a previous Nine Inch Nails track, "Wish"), segued by two piano breakdowns, has made it a staple of the band's live concert performances. It is also one of the band's shortest hit songs, clocking in at 2:58. "March of the Pigs" also uses odd time signatures, alternating three measures of 7/8 with one measure of 4/4 in the verses (in effect, a 29/8 time signature). The chorus is in the common 4/4 time signature.[34]
"Closer," the album's second single, starts up with a drum sample. A keyboard melody and mechanized sixteenth-note cymbal pattern join in along with Reznor's singing. Layers are continuously added before being interrupted to a stop at the end, only the chromatic piano tune remains, and is abruptly cut off in order to segue into the next track, "Ruiner". On the single version, "Closer's" piano and background sounds are allowed to play out 13 seconds longer.[35]
The majority of "Ruiner" is dominated by a computerized drum loop and accompanying synths, the verses are sung maliciously, but faster and distorted in the pre-choruses. Against the verses' wishes, the chorus uses simpler musical instrumentation. A fuzzy guitar solo follows, and after that was finished, the rest of the song continues until ending with a final coda. The solo was in fact something that Reznor criticized as "cheesy," but former drummer Chris Vrenna, who participated in the recording process, was impressed by it.[11] Another solo is found in "Heresy", which contains synthesized bass, moody atmospherics, and simple, industrial drum loops. The guitar riffs and vocals are distorted.
"The Becoming" begins in a 13/8 time signature with a piano line, then bursts into drum and sample loops. At the 3-minute bookmark, an acoustic guitar-led passage is heard in the 6/8 signature, with machine-like loops and electronic chorus pads sampled from Reznor's voice, giving listeners a feeling that the song sounded like a malfunctioning object with technology.[36] There is a final outburst of noise and screaming before returning to the acoustic section, which crossfades with the opening of "I Do Not Want This," whose manipulated introduction drum loops give way to the first verse, characterized by a unedited version of the drum loops, and piano, which drops out for Reznor's vocal layering and returns for the pre-chorus. The chorus, in contrast, is much louder, lead by a speedy electric guitar progression and yelled, distorted vocals. The bridge adds synthesizers, guitar and noise loops onto the base drum line before transitioning into the loud, final coda. The drums created for the latter song were performed by Stephen Perkins.[11] Short, fast (200 BPM, like "Mr. Self Destruct"), violent, and energetic, "Big Man with a Gun" contains repetitive guitar riffs, and features Reznor singing most of the lyrics with an equalizer filter. On the "March of the Pigs" single, it does not contain the ending clip of "I Do Not Want This," as it does not transition directly from any other song.
Consisting solely of synthesizer chords and melodies, "A Warm Place" remains quiet, tranquil, and reflective throughout. Its structure is very simple, containing only few chord progressions and a couple of different melodic lines reminiscent of David Bowie's "Crystal Japan". Beginning directly after the sudden crescendo ending of "Big Man with a Gun," the piece ends by crossfading with the opening samples of "Eraser."
The beginning of "Eraser" contains a sound often referred to as "straw blowing." This is the sound of somebody blowing air through a saxophone while manipulating the keys, but not producing any tones. This song consists of a 6/4 instrumental ostinato that builds up from the weird sounds of humming and "erasers" at the beginning through heavy rhythmic drumming and very oddly tuned, loud guitars before dropping out to the 4/4 vocal area, which gets progressively louder until Reznor yells "Kill me!". It then completely degenerates into noise and all aspects are eliminated, except for the logarithmic fading out of the string synthesizer.
A track including characteristics of the band's mid-1990s industrial metal sound, "Reptile" opens with an eerie and quiet machine-like sound collage, which constructs into an imitative musical composition. The structure, repetitive in nature, contains three distinct but similar sections, all driven by mechanical percussion loops and undulating rhythm guitar and bass synthesizers. For another hand, the choruses reflect a brighter mood. The three sections are joined by two quiet instrumental breaks.
The title track incorporates white noise and the sound of flies, possibly symbolizing the main character's arrival to "the bottom" of madness and "self-destruction." A single acoustic guitar is layered on top, playing the album's central leitmotif. The music then moves into a second section and begins to build up, culminating in a third section with sounds of a scream, surrounded by thunderous drums samples (recorded by Andy Kubiszewski), guitar and synthesizer playing the leitmotif, all equalized and digitally edited so as to sound distant and less powerful as Reznor calmly recites the lyrics quietly on top. Finally, the song abruptly ends with an elongated cymbal crash and the sound of white noise. On the 5.1 surround sound version, the ending plays in the back speakers, leaving the front two to play the leitmotif, and the center channel for Reznor's vocals. The ballad "Hurt" features a highly dissonant tritone played on guitar during the verses, a B5#11, emphasized when Reznor sings the eleventh note on the word "I" every time the B/E# dyad is played.[37]
Influences
Reznor listened to various records from a number of artists while writing and recording the album.[38] Amongst these influences are David Bowie's Low (1977) and Pink Floyd's The Wall (1979), as Reznor noted:
I was really into electronic music at the time. David Bowie's Low was probably the single greatest influence on The Downward Spiral for me. I got into Bowie in the Scary Monsters era, then I picked up Low and instantly fell for it. I related to it on a songwriting level, a mood level, and on a song-structure level. That got me into Iggy Pop, stuff like The Idiot and Lou Reed's Transformer era. I went back to old Velvet Underground music I'd missed. On Low, Bowie exorcised his inner demons through mellow but very intense pieces of music. I like working within the framework of accessibility, and songs of course, but I also like things that are more experimental and instrumental, maybe. You may still be expressing extreme emotions, but instead of loud guitars it's the silence of restraint. When you think it's going to explode and it doesn't, it's over.[39]
Fans also noted influences of Metallica, the fathers of the thrash metal genre, on The Downward Spiral, but it is unsure if Reznor specifically listened to them during production (however, Reznor was seen in various Metallica shirts when photographed with fans in 1994 and had pasted a sticker of their logo in the Self Destruct tour bus, thus giving notice that he is a fan of the group).[40]
Samples
The opening sounds of "Mr. Self Destruct" are a portion from the George Lucas-directed THX 1138 in which a man is being beaten by a prison guard while flanked inside a jail.[41] The drum track for "Closer" features a heavily modified bass drum sample from the Iggy Pop song "Nightclubbing" from his album The Idiot. The sounds heard in the middle section of "Ruiner" contains a sample from David Lynch's film The Elephant Man (1980). The loop of screaming voices heard at the beginning of "The Becoming" is again a sample from the cult film Robot Jox (1991), which globally grossed less than US$2,000,000.[42] The voice at the beginning of "Big Man with a Gun" comes from a studio-altered recording of a porn star having an orgasm. According to the album liner notes, this sample is titled "Steakhouse" and is credited to Tommy Lee.[43] However, in the 5.1 surround edition of the 2004 re-release of The Downward Spiral, the sample heard at the point is replaced with a lower-pitched, distant wail, which echoes around the speakers.
The mechanical clanks at the beginning of "Reptile" can be heard in Leviathan (1989), and the looping female voice at the end of the second chorus was originally used in a horror fiction film titled The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1975). The watery noise at the beginning of "The Downward Spiral" is sampled from Ridley Scott's science fiction-horror movie Alien (1979). Japanese pressings contain a bonus track, the Joy Division cover "Dead Souls", originally released on The Crow original soundtrack.[44][45]
The Downward Spiral leitmotif
Listeners of the album have noticed the obvious use of a descending chromatic line known as "The Downward Spiral leitmotif". The melody is debuted during the second verse of "Piggy" on organ, then reappears in power chords at Drop D tuning throughout the chorus of "Heresy". "Closer" concludes with this pattern in piano form, whilst an inverted (ascending) version is used throughout "A Warm Place", and then recurs in its original state for the final time on the title track.[46] In 2007, Ladytron used "The Downward Spiral leitmotif" in their remix of "The Beginning of the End" on Year Zero Remixed.
It should also be noted that this scale is a direct homage to the aria "Dido's Lament" from Henry Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas with its allusion to death. In "Dido's Lament", this leitmotif occurs when Dido, Queen of Carthage, commits suicide by throwing herself into a fire. Thus, this insinuation is topically appropriate for The Downward Spiral, and further demonstrates Reznor's strong connection with classical music.
Packaging
Artwork and sketches for The Downward Spiral, "Closer" and "March of the Pigs" by Russell Mills were displayed at the Glasgow School of Art. He was commissioned to create the artwork for the record, beginning with the album's cover and booklet. He later made packaging to all of its singles (including "March of the Pigs" and "Closer to God"), the remix collection Further Down the Spiral,[47] the 1997 videocassette compilation Closure, the 2004 Deluxe Edition and DualDisc re-releases of The Downward Spiral (which was accompanied by several new Mills-conceived visual compositions downloadable from Nine Inch Nails' website),[48] and various promotional materials. The reissued 2008 vinyl edition contains the same artwork doctored by Mills from the original release.[49]
These interrelated works contain Mills' heaviest use of organic materials to depict a multi-layered sense of grotesque and decay (also known as decomposition). All of them were developed in Lakeland, Cumbria, with the process varying; many of the objects used in the artwork were re-done from Grasmere Lake. Animal skeletons, teeth, blood, feathers, and dead insects are embedded in the canvases. In some pieces, materials have been affixed and then exposed to water or chemical elements, so that their decay (caused by Fungi) is literally imprinted on the surface of the artwork.[50] Mills explained the ideas and materials that made up the painting (titled "Wound") that was used for the cover:
I had been thinking about making works that dealt with layers, physically, materially and conceptually. I wanted to produce works that were about both exposure and revealing and at the same dealt with closure and covering. Given the nature of the lyrics and the power of the music I was working with, I felt justified in attempting to make works that alluded to the apparently contradictory imagery of pain and healing. I wanted to make beautiful surfaces that partially revealed the visceral rawness of open wounds beneath. The mixed media work 'Wound' was the first piece I tackled in this vein (no pun intended) and it became the cover of the album. It is made of plaster, acrylics, oils, rusted metals, insects, moths, blood (mine), wax, varnishes, and surgical bandaging on a wooden panel.[51]
Promotion
Before the release of The Downward Spiral, Reznor presented the album to Interscope Records, a record label who signed Nine Inch Nails shortly before Broken's debut date. After listening to it, they suggested that "Closer" be the album's lead single, but Reznor was critical of the song, unlikely calling it his stunt on ripping off Prince. The record label released "March of the Pigs" instead, hence Reznor's criticism of "Closer".[52]
The album was anchored by two singles, "March of the Pigs" and "Closer", along with "Hurt" and "Piggy" which were issued to radio without a commercial single release. A total of four singles were spawned from the album.[53] The music video for "Closer" was directed by Mark Romanek and received frequent rotation on MTV, though the network made extensive edits to the original version, which they perceived to be too graphic.[54] A radio edit that censored the explicit portions of the song's lyrics also received extensive airtime.
After The Downward Spiral's release, Reznor produced an accompanying remix album entitled Further Down the Spiral (1995), the only non-major Nine Inch Nails release to be certified gold in the United States.[55] It featured contributions from Peter Christopherson, electronic musician Aphex Twin, producer Rick Rubin, and Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro, among others. The Closure (1997) video documented highlights from the band's Self Destruct tour, including full live videos of "Eraser", "Hurt" and a one-take "March of the Pigs" clip made for MTV.[54]
On August 23, 2009 at Webster Hall, New York City, Nine Inch Nails opened their show by performing the album in its entirety for the first time ever without any prior announcement, which included the live debut of "A Warm Place" and the first performance of "Big Man with a Gun" in over 15 years. This was followed by nearly a dozen additional songs. On September 2, 2009 at the Hollywood Palladium, Los Angeles, the band repeated this for the second and final time.[56][57]
Tour
The Self Destruct tour featured Marilyn Manson as the supporting act, who Reznor had recently signed to his Nothing Records label. At the time, Marilyn Manson featured bassist Jeordie White (then playing under the pseudonym "Twiggy Ramirez"), who would later play bass with Nine Inch Nails live performances from 2005 to 2007. Despite Reznor's dislike of playing at large venues,[52] the fourth leg of the tour (which included a concert supporting Soundgarden) was notable for ending with a mud-drenched performance at Woodstock '94 (their 300th gig in count),[58] which was broadcast on Pay-per-view and seen in as many as 24 million homes, Nine Inch Nails' widest audience.[59] Nine Inch Nails received considerable mainstream success thereafter, performing with significantly higher production values and the addition of various theatrical visual elements[60][61] The inclusion of "Happiness in Slavery" in Nine Inch Nails' Woodstock setlist earned the group a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in 1995.[62] Entertainment Weekly described the band's Woodstock '94 performance by saying "Reznor unstrings rock to its horrifying, melodramatic core—an experience as draining as it is exhilarating".[63] New Musical Express had a similar sentiment after the band's Lollapalooza performance in 1991, describing the show as "genuinely frightening", and asking the reader to "decide for yourself if it's choreographed chaos or unbridled grievous bodily harm".[64]
The fifth leg of Self Destruct was the Further Down the Spiral tour. This supported The Downward Spiral's remix accompaniment of the same name. Afterwards, Nine Inch Nails contributed to the Alternative Nation Festival in Australia. Five months later, Nine Inch Nails co-headlined the Dissonance Tour along with David Bowie. This lasted for 26 concerts, and was opened by Prick. This tour observed a format placing Nine Inch Nails as the opening act, transitioning into Bowie's set with joint performances of both bands' songs.[65] However, the crowds reportedly did not respond positively to the combination.[66]
Almost one year after a leg with Helmet as a support act, the tour concluded with a three-night Nothing Records showcase called Nights of Nothing. The live performances featured in the showcase were Marilyn Manson, Prick, Meat Beat Manifesto, Pop Will Eat Itself, and Nine Inch Nails, the latter putting the concerts to closure with an 80-minute set.[67] Kerrang! described the Nine Inch Nails set during the Nights of Nothing showcase as "tight, brash and dramatic", but was disappointed at the lack of new material.[68] On the second of the three nights, Richard Patrick was briefly reunited with the band, as he contributed guitar to a performance of "Head Like a Hole".[67] After the Self Destruct tour, Chris Vrenna, member of the live band since 1988 and frequent contributor to Nine Inch Nails studio recordings, left the band permanently to pursue a career in producing and to form the band Tweaker.[69][70]
Release and reception
Commercial performance
A major commercial success that established Nine Inch Nails as a reputable force in the 1990s music scene, The Downward Spiral was released in March 1994. The album debuted the following week at number two on the US Billboard 200 chart,[71] ahead of Soundgarden's Superunknown (1994).[72] After a drop from the Top 10 (number 12)[73] one week before being towed below the Top 20 (number 23),[74] sales slowed down for a dropout from the Top 30 (number 33),[75], then it collapsed to 38 for the next week,[76] and ranked one position lower afterwards,[77] followed by a exit from the Top 40 (number 48).[78] The album was kicked out of the Top 50 (number 53) by the week that followed,[79] falling further by five positions (number 58) during the May 8–June 4 week.[80][81]
Segueing to June 1994, The Downward Spiral escaped from the Top 60 (number 61),[82] and charted under the Top 70 (number 72) during the June 12-16 week.[83] The album returned to the Top 70 by climbing up to number 67, and then blowing back up to the Top 60 with a jump to number 57, due to "Closer"'s success on radio airplay.[84][85] It remained inside the Top 60 during July 1994 despite dropping to number 59, and stayed at number 58 for two weeks.[86][87] The album eventually re-entered the Top 40, reaching number 32[88] bombing down to 37 for two weeks[89][90] before getting out of that ranking. By December 1994, it fell down to number 75.[91] Upon the Christmas week, the album returned to the Top 70 by flying to 62, as "Piggy" reached the Top 20.[92]
The first week of 1995, The Downward Spiral blew back up to the Top 50 (number 44),[93] just before it came down to the number 56 spot.[94] After a brief return to the Top 50,[95][96][97] the album sunk into number 54.[98] and flopped down number 58[99] at the week before it jettisoned three positions higher (number 55).[100]
When "Hurt" first appeared on the charts, The Downward Spiral winded up in number 62[101] prior to revisiting the Top 60.[102] The aforementioned single helped the album to reach (after skyrocketing to number 56)[103] 54[104] and 49,[105] but later sales of the album were overshadowed by Further Down the Spiral, a companion remix album.[106] Both releases had their sales becoming increasingly slow, as Further Down the Spiral's ranking during the July 8-15 week was 14 positions higher than The Downward Spiral's.[107] Starting on August 13, 1995, The Downward Spiral had faster sales than that of Further Down the Spiral's,[108][109] but both records were having lower chart appearances since that point (for example; the two albums were in the 101-110 charting range for one week).[110] For the week beginning on September 15 and ending September 21, Further Down the Spiral dropped out of the Top 150 (number 157), while The Downward Spiral was kept at number 111,[111] but the ranking for the next week were higher.[112] Further Down the Spiral dropped out of the charts on October 8, 1995.[113]
During preparation for the 1995 Grammy Awards, after the album slowly fell to number 192 (the lowest United States ranking for The Downward Spiral),[114] sales of The Downward Spiral sped up. The album reached number 139 in February 1996,[115] then exited the Billboard 200 on June 16, 1996, after it dropped to number 190.[116] To date, The Downward Spiral spent 115 consecutive weeks on the charts, has sold over five million copies worldwide, and was the 45th best-selling album of 1994;[117] on 28 October 1998 the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified the album quadruple platinum, denoting sales of four million in the United States—making it their biggest-selling work there.[55][118]
Canada had certified The Downward Spiral triple platinum in April 1994, one month after it debuted at 15 there.[119] The United Kingdom took a similar approach, giving it a readymade "Silver" certification, following its number nine peak (the highest UK Albums Chart ranking for the act until With Teeth in 2005).[120]
Critical response
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [121] |
| Blender | [122] |
| Chicago Tribune | [123] |
| Entertainment Weekly | (B+)[124] |
| Los Angeles Times | [125] |
| Pitchfork Media | (8.3/10)[126] |
| PopMatters | (9/10)[127] |
| Rolling Stone | [128] |
| Sputnikmusic | [129] |
| USA Today | [130] |
Upon its release, The Downward Spiral received general acclaim from music critics, who praised its inventive arrangements, sonic framework, instrumental tracks, and provocative lyrics.[131][132] Jon Pareles of The New York Times wrote, "every instrument, acoustic or synthetic, seems tuned to create the maximum aural abrasion." Pareles asserted that unlike other electro-industrial groups like Ministry and Nitzer Ebb, "Reznor writes full-fledged tunes; he knows his way around melodic hooks, not just riffs. And while purists accuse him of selling out their insular genres, he actually trumps them; the music is no less transgressive, and possibly more so, because it sticks in the ear."[133] Jonathan Gold of Rolling Stone described it as "music that pins playback levels far into the red [...] music the blade runner might throw down to: low-tech futurism that rocks."[134][135] In his consumer guide for The Village Voice, critic Robert Christgau gave the album an honorable mention (
) rating,[136] indicating a "likable effort consumers attuned to its overriding aesthetic or individual vision may well enjoy".[137] Christgau commented that it is "musically, Hieronymus Bosch as postindustrial atheist; lyrically, Transformers as kiddie porn."[136] Entertainment Weekly's Tom Sinclair commented that "Reznor's pet topics (sex, power, S&M, hatred, transcendence) are all here, wrapped in hooks that hit your psyche with the force of a blowtorch."[138] In its 2004 edition, The New Rolling Stone Album Guide gave the album five out of five stars and called it "a powerful statement, and one of the landmark albums of the Nineties."[139]
Accolades
The Downward Spiral received 1995 Grammy Award nominations, for Best Hard Rock Performance and Best Alternative Music Album.[140][141] Nine Inch Nails was subsequently nominated for two 1996 Grammy Awards, including Best Rock Performance for the song "Hurt" and for the inclusion of the Broken EP's debut single "Happiness in Slavery" at the act's Woodstock '94 gig under Best Metal Performance, with the latter award delivered to the aforementioned track that won the honor. However, The Downward Spiral failed to win any of them.[142]
The album was placed 25th on Spin's 100 Greatest Albums, 1985-2005 list; Spin also placed it 11th on their Top 90 Albums of the 90's; in 2010 the magazine placed the album 10th on their 125 Best Albums of the Past 25 Years list.[143] JustPressPlay placed the album 10th on their Fifty Years of Great Music: The Top 100 Albums of the 1990s list.[144] Blender named it the 80th Greatest American Album. It was ranked #488 in the book The Top 500 Heavy Metal Albums of All Time by Martin Popoff. In 2001 Q named The Downward Spiral as one of the 50 Heaviest Albums of All Time;[145] in 2010 the album was ranked #102 on their 250 Best Albums of Q's Lifetime (1986-2011) list.[citation needed] In 2003, the album was ranked #200 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.[146] The Downward Spiral was featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
Track listing
All tracks are written by Trent Reznor[147]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Mr. Self Destruct" | 4:30 |
| 2. | "Piggy" | 4:24 |
| 3. | "Heresy" | 3:54 |
| 4. | "March of the Pigs" | 2:58 |
| 5. | "Closer" | 6:13 |
| 6. | "Ruiner" | 4:58 |
| 7. | "The Becoming" | 5:31 |
| 8. | "I Do Not Want This" | 5:41 |
| 9. | "Big Man with a Gun" | 1:36 |
| 10. | "A Warm Place" | 3:22 |
| 11. | "Eraser" | 4:54 |
| 12. | "Reptile" | 6:51 |
| 13. | "The Downward Spiral" | 3:57 |
| 14. | "Hurt" | 6:13 |
| Total length: | 65:02 | |
- Deluxe Edition (Halo 8 DE)
Disc one of the album's deluxe edition re-release is identical to the original version, although 1 dB louder mix overall, track anomalies are fixed (sounds from previous tracks creeping up on start of tracks), and it includes a stereo and multi-channel SACD layer. The second bonus disc is a collection of remixes and b-sides and also includes a stereo SACD layer in addition to the Redbook CD layer. The last three tracks on the bonus disc are previously unreleased demo recordings from the original album.[148]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Burn" (from Natural Born Killers) | 5:00 |
| 2. | "Closer (Precursor)" (from "Closer to God") | 7:16 |
| 3. | "Piggy (Nothing Can Stop Me Now)" (from Further Down the Spiral) | 4:03 |
| 4. | "A Violet Fluid" (from "March of the Pigs") | 1:04 |
| 5. | "Dead Souls" (from The Crow) | 4:53 |
| 6. | "Hurt (Quiet)" (from Further Down the Spiral, US version) | 5:08 |
| 7. | "Closer to God" (from "Closer to God") | 5:06 |
| 8. | "All the Pigs, All Lined Up" (from "March of the Pigs") | 7:26 |
| 9. | "Memorabilia" (from "Closer to God") | 7:22 |
| 10. | "The Downward Spiral (The Bottom)" (from Further Down the Spiral) | 7:32 |
| 11. | "Ruiner (Demo)" | 4:51 |
| 12. | "Liar (Reptile Demo)" | 6:57 |
| 13. | "Heresy (Demo)" | 4:00 |
| Total length: | 70:38 | |
- DualDisc (Halo 8 DVD-A)
The DualDisc edition of The Downward Spiral contains the same CD content on Side A as the Deluxe Edition, with a DVD-Audio layer on Side B. When played on DVD-Video players a Dolby Digital 5.1 multi-channel or Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo mix of The Downward Spiral can be selected, along with videos of "March of the Pigs", "Hurt" and an uncensored video of "Closer". There is also an interactive discography and an image gallery. When played on a DVD-Audio player a high resolution 24-bit/48 kHz Advanced Resolution Surround and stereo versions of The Downward Spiral can be played, allowing the user a similar high fidelity experience as the SACD layer of the Deluxe Edition. The DualDisc release does not contain the additional b-sides and demo tracks.[149]
Personnel
Credits for The Downward Spiral adapted from liner notes:[150]
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Charts
Notes
References
External links
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