The Downward Spiral
Encyclopedia
The Downward Spiral is the second studio album
by American industrial rock
act Nine Inch Nails
, released March 8, 1994, on Interscope 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. The Downward Spiral features elements of industrial rock
, techno, and heavy metal music
, in contrast to the dance
-influenced Pretty Hate Machine
(1989).
Co-produced by Trent Reznor
and Flood, the album's concept was written after the Pretty Hate Machine Tour Series
concluded in 1991. Reznor and Flood moved to 10050 Cielo Drive in Beverly Hills, California
the following year, where The Downward Spiral was recorded. It was influenced by various records like David Bowie
's Low (1977) and Pink Floyd
's The Wall
(1979). Production wrapped up in February 1994 when it was mastered by Alan Moulder
.
Entering the Billboard 200
at number two, the album has sold over five million copies worldwide, while it was certified quadruple platinum
by the Recording Industry Association of America
(RIAA) for shipments of four million copies in the United States (making it 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, since "Hurt" and "Closer" cracked the Top 10, the latter with a provocative music video. It has been widely regarded by music critics as the band's best work. A companion remix
album, Further Down the Spiral
, was released in 1995.
1991 festival concerts ended in September of that year. Though production on 1992's Broken extended play
had begun in late 1991, the writing process for the act's second album did not start until 1992. He created several poems after his stay at there, and penned the themes he will explore on the album in his journals.
Initially, Reznor was to record the album in New Orleans, but due to financial duties, he changed his mind. He often checked out 15 houses in a day, settling to stay at a building that was constructed at a residential area in Los Angeles
. For $11,000 per month, he rented the house located at 10050 Cielo Drive in Beverly Hills, California
, where actress Sharon Tate
was murdered by members of the Manson Family in 1969, on July 4, 1992. Reznor purchased several musical instruments and production equipment, and built 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.
Despite the notoriety attached to the house, he chose to record there, since he "looked at a lot of places, and this just happened to be the one" he found most interesting. Along with his former manager, John Malm, Jr.
, Reznor stayed in there for 18 months.
was also partially recorded there, and a version of the "Gave Up" music video was filmed inside the studio.
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 the adforementioned Broken (1992) ("Wish
", "Last", "Gave Up"). He was hired as co-producer of several tracks on The Downward Spiral. Reznor set out plans to make the album a departure from the Broken EP (emphasizing "mood, texture, restraint and subtlety") but had no knowledge to figure out what musical direction should he want the album to sound like.
He brought in a number of guest performers to record, 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." 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." 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). Perkins played a number of drum parts that were recorded live in the studio; these tracks were subsequently rendered into looped samples which were manipulated electronically using Pro Tools
in a Macintosh
computer. Reznor took a similar approach to recording guitar parts: he would tape 20 to 25-minute long sessions of himself playing a random guitar plugged to a Zoom 9030 pedal on a hard disc recorder with a Studio Vision sequencer.
Reznor stated that "99 percent of the stuff we do–even vocals–is recorded into the computer first. We get an arrangement together and then dump it to tape
." Among the equipment he used for the production are Digidesign
's TurboSynth, a Marshall
rack head, the Prophet VS keyboard, and various Jackson
and Gibson guitars.
Nevertheless, the production was plagued with several electrical problems, and a number of songs had to be reworked. Overuse of equipment and compatibility issues have been cited as contributing factors to these problems.
After the album's recording, Reznor moved out and the house was demolished shortly thereafter. 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
. Alan Moulder
, who later co-produced The Fragile
(1999) and With Teeth
(2005), was involved with mixing the album.
, such as the chorus of "Heresy," which runs: "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 religion, dehumanization, violence, disease, society, drugs, sex, and finally suicide. This character can be understood as a representation of Reznor himself, since he experienced several social and personal issues through the course of Nine Inch Nails' first decade until his rehabilitation in 2001.
The visibility of controversy increased with religious protests during the Self-Destruct tour, but he considered himself "pretty normal" before the beginning of the tour. When developing The Downward Spiral, Reznor 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." Reznor has talked about the album concept numerous times:
Reznor described the idea created for the album as consisting of "someone who sheds everything around them to a potential nothingness, but through career, religion, relationship, belief and so on." He added, "It's less muscle-flexing, though when I started it I didn't know what I wanted it to sound like. I knew I didn't want to be a full metal album, so I tried to address the issue of restraint."
, 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. Reznor's singing follows a similar pattern from beginning to end, frequently moving from whispers to screams.
Reznor has discussed his musical inspiration behind the album:
were displayed at the Glasgow School of Art
. Mills explained the ideas and materials that made up the painting (titled "Wound") that was used for the cover:
chart. To date, the album has sold over five million copies worldwide; on 28 October 1998 the Recording Industry Association of America
(RIAA) certified the album quadruple platinum
, denoting shipments of four million in the United States, making it Nine Inch Nails' highest-selling work there. The Downward Spiral was well-received by critics. 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." Robert Christgau
gave the album an honorable mention rating, and said that, musically, the album was comparable to "Heironymus Bosch as postindustrial atheist", but lyrically, more closely resembled "Transformers
as kiddie porn." Rolling Stone
awarded the album four out of five stars; reviewer Jonathan Gold praised the album as "music that pins playback levels far into the red", and concluded, "The Downward Spiral is music the blade runner
might throw down to: low-tech futurism that rocks." Entertainment Weekly
gave the album a B+; reviewer Tom Sinclair wrote, "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." 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."
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. JustPressPlay placed the album 10th on their Fifty Years of Great Music: The Top 100 Albums of the 1990s list. 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; in 2010 the album was ranked #102 on their 250 Best Albums of Q's Lifetime (1986-2011) list. In 2003, the album was ranked #200 on Rolling Stone
magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time
. The Downward Spiral was featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
.
On August 23, 2009 at Webster Hall
, Nine Inch Nails played the album in its entirety for the first time ever.
, 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 Tucker 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. Reznor claimed that the lyrics had nothing to do with politics:
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.
Before the Columbine High School massacre
of April 20, 1999, two deceased Columbine High School
student mass murderers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold
referenced lyrics from Nine Inch Nails multiple times in their journals, with the latter specifically naming The Downward Spiral as a symbol of his depression. On May 4, 1999, a hearing on the marketing and distribution practices of violent content to minors by the television, music, film, and video game industries was conducted before the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation
. The committee heard testimony from cultural observers, professors, and mental-health professionals that included conservative William Bennett
and the Archbishop of Denver
, Reverend Charles J. Chaput
. Participants criticized the album, Nine Inch Nails' label-mate Marilyn Manson
, and the 1999 film The Matrix
for their alleged contribution to the environment that made tragedies like Columbine possible. The committee requested that the Federal Trade Commission
and the United States Department of Justice
investigate the entertainment industry's marketing practices to minors.
In 2009, Apple rejected the Nine Inch Nails application for the iPhone
due to objectionable content in The Downward Spiral.
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.
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.
Notes
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by American industrial rock
Industrial rock
Industrial rock is a musical genre that fuses industrial music and specific rock subgenres. Industrial rock spawned industrial metal, with which it is often confused...
act Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails is an American industrial rock project, founded in 1988 by Trent Reznor in Cleveland, Ohio. As its main producer, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, Reznor is the only official member of Nine Inch Nails and remains solely responsible for its direction...
, released March 8, 1994, on Interscope Records
Interscope Records
Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that currently operates as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.-History:...
. It is a concept album
Concept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
detailing the destruction of a man, from the beginning of his "downward spiral" to his climactic attempt at suicide. The Downward Spiral features elements of industrial rock
Industrial rock
Industrial rock is a musical genre that fuses industrial music and specific rock subgenres. Industrial rock spawned industrial metal, with which it is often confused...
, techno, and heavy metal music
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
, in contrast to the dance
Electronic dance music
Electronic dance music is electronic music produced primarily for the purposes of use within a nightclub setting, or in an environment that is centered upon dance-based entertainment...
-influenced Pretty Hate Machine
Pretty Hate Machine
Pretty Hate Machine is the debut album by American industrial rock act Nine Inch Nails, released October 20, 1989, on TVT Records. Pretty Hate Machine is compiled of reworked tracks from the Purest Feeling demo, as well as tracks recorded after its recording...
(1989).
Co-produced by Trent Reznor
Trent Reznor
Michael Trent Reznor is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, record producer, and leader of industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. Reznor is also a member of How to Destroy Angels alongside his wife, Mariqueen Maandig, and Atticus Ross. He was previously associated with bands Option 30,...
and Flood, the album's concept was written after the Pretty Hate Machine Tour Series
Pretty Hate Machine Tour Series
Pretty Hate Machine Tour Series was a series of tours in support of Nine Inch Nails' debut album Pretty Hate Machine. The series took place over much of North America and Europe from 1989 to 1991...
concluded in 1991. Reznor and Flood moved to 10050 Cielo Drive in Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is an affluent city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census, it is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together...
the following year, where The Downward Spiral was recorded. It was influenced by various records like David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
's Low (1977) and Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
's The Wall
The Wall
The Wall is the eleventh studio album by English progressive rock group Pink Floyd. Released as a double album on 30 November 1979, it was subsequently performed live with elaborate theatrical effects, and adapted into a feature film, Pink Floyd—The Wall.As with the band's previous three...
(1979). Production wrapped up in February 1994 when it was mastered by Alan Moulder
Alan Moulder
Alan Moulder is one of Britain's premier alternative rock record producers. He has worked with such artists as Depeche Mode, Erasure, Elastica, Gary Numan, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Curve, Ride, Lush and My Bloody Valentine, Lostprophets, Shihad, Ivyrise and Placebo, as well as with many American...
.
Entering the Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
at number two, the album has sold over five million copies worldwide, while it was certified quadruple platinum
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
by the Recording Industry Association of America
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
(RIAA) for shipments of four million copies in the United States (making it 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, since "Hurt" and "Closer" cracked the Top 10, the latter with a provocative music video. It has been widely regarded by music critics as the band's best work. A companion remix
Remix album
A remix album is an album consisting mostly of remixes or re-recorded versions of a music artists' earlier released material.One of the earliest remix albums was 1971's Aerial Pandemonium Ballet by Harry Nilsson, which was released by Nilsson after the successes of Everybody's Talkin and The Point!...
album, Further Down the Spiral
Further Down the Spiral
Further Down the Spiral is a remix album by Nine Inch Nails, and was released on June 1, 1995. It is the tenth official Nine Inch Nails release and is the companion remix disc to The Downward Spiral...
, was released in 1995.
Background, writing and relocation to Los Angeles
Early ideas for The Downward Spiral were conceived after the LollapaloozaLollapalooza
Lollapalooza is an annual music festival featuring popular alternative rock, heavy metal, punk rock and hip hop bands, dance and comedy performances, and craft booths. It has also provided a platform for non-profit and political groups. The music festival hosts more than 160,000 people over a...
1991 festival concerts ended in September of that year. Though production on 1992's Broken extended play
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
had begun in late 1991, the writing process for the act's second album did not start until 1992. He created several poems after his stay at there, and penned the themes he will explore on the album in his journals.
Initially, Reznor was to record the album in New Orleans, but due to financial duties, he changed his mind. He often checked out 15 houses in a day, settling to stay at a building that was constructed at a residential area in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. For $11,000 per month, he rented the house located at 10050 Cielo Drive in Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is an affluent city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census, it is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together...
, where actress Sharon Tate
Sharon Tate
Sharon Marie Tate was an American actress. During the 1960s she played small television roles before appearing in several films. After receiving positive reviews for her comedic performances, she was hailed as one of Hollywood's promising newcomers and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for...
was murdered by members of the Manson Family in 1969, on July 4, 1992. Reznor purchased several musical instruments and production equipment, and built 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.
Despite the notoriety attached to the house, he chose to record there, since he "looked at a lot of places, and this just happened to be the one" he found most interesting. Along with his former manager, John Malm, Jr.
John Malm, Jr.
John Malm Jr. is the former manager of Trent Reznor and his band Nine Inch Nails . He was also a co-founder, along with Reznor, of Nothing Records.-Early career and collaboration with Trent Reznor:...
, Reznor stayed in there for 18 months.
Recording
The Downward Spiral was recorded at Le Pig in 1993. The Broken extended playExtended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
was also partially recorded there, and a version of the "Gave Up" music video was filmed inside the studio.
Flood was previously involved in two of the ten tracks off Pretty Hate Machine
Pretty Hate Machine
Pretty Hate Machine is the debut album by American industrial rock act Nine Inch Nails, released October 20, 1989, on TVT Records. Pretty Hate Machine is compiled of reworked tracks from the Purest Feeling demo, as well as tracks recorded after its recording...
(1989) ("Head Like a Hole
Head Like a Hole
"Head Like a Hole" is a song by the American industrial rock project Nine Inch Nails. A song influenced by industrial metal group Ministry, it was released as the second single from the group's debut album Pretty Hate Machine...
" and "Terrible Lie"), and three songs from the adforementioned Broken (1992) ("Wish
Wish (song)
"Wish" is the second promotional single from Nine Inch Nails' Broken. The most successful song from the EP, "Wish" cemented Trent Reznor's image as a rage-fueled star to the public. "Wish" won the Best Metal Performance in the 1993 Grammy Awards. Reznor later joked that his epitaph should read:...
", "Last", "Gave Up"). He was hired as co-producer of several tracks on The Downward Spiral. Reznor set out plans to make the album a departure from the Broken EP (emphasizing "mood, texture, restraint and subtlety") but had no knowledge to figure out what musical direction should he want the album to sound like.
He brought in a number of guest performers to record, including former Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction is an American alternative rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1985. The band's original line-up featured Perry Farrell , Dave Navarro , Eric Avery and Stephen Perkins . After breaking up in 1991, Jane's Addiction briefly reunited in 1997 and again in 2001, both times...
and Porno for Pyros
Porno for Pyros
Porno for Pyros was an American alternative rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1992, following the initial break-up of Jane's Addiction...
drummer Stephen Perkins
Stephen Perkins
Stephen Andrew Perkins is an American musician and songwriter. A drummer and percussionist, he currently plays with Jane's Addiction and Hellflower....
on "I Do Not Want This" and progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
guitarist Adrian Belew
Adrian Belew
Adrian Belew is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer...
on "Mr. Self Destruct" and "The Becoming." 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." He went on to collaborate on two more Nine Inch Nails records, follow-up The Fragile
The Fragile
In terms of narrative, virtually no references are made to the aspects depicted in The Downward Spiral. Like The Downward Spiral, The Fragile is a concept album, but, as a double album, is nearly twice the length of its predecessor. Reznor's vocals, for the most part, are much more melodic and...
(1999) and the instrumental, independently released Ghosts I–IV
Ghosts I–IV
Ghosts I–IV is the sixth studio album by American industrial rock act Nine Inch Nails, released on March 2, 2008. The team behind the project included Nine Inch Nails front man Trent Reznor, studio-collaborators Atticus Ross and Alan Moulder, and instrumental contributions from Alessandro Cortini,...
(2008). Perkins played a number of drum parts that were recorded live in the studio; these tracks were subsequently rendered into looped samples which were manipulated electronically using Pro Tools
Pro Tools
Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation platform for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, developed and manufactured by Avid Technology. It is widely used by professionals throughout the audio industries for recording and editing in music production, film scoring, film, and television...
in a Macintosh
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
computer. Reznor took a similar approach to recording guitar parts: he would tape 20 to 25-minute long sessions of himself playing a random guitar plugged to a Zoom 9030 pedal on a hard disc recorder with a Studio Vision sequencer.
Reznor stated that "99 percent of the stuff we do–even vocals–is recorded into the computer first. We get an arrangement together and then dump it to tape
Digital-to-analog converter
In electronics, a digital-to-analog converter is a device that converts a digital code to an analog signal . An analog-to-digital converter performs the reverse operation...
." Among the equipment he used for the production are Digidesign
Digidesign
Avid Audio is an American digital audio technology company. It was founded in 1984 by Peter Gotcher and Evan Brooks. The company began as a project to raise money for the founders' band, selling EPROM chips for drum machines. It is a subsidiary of Avid Technology, and during 2010 the Digidesign...
's TurboSynth, a Marshall
Marshall Amplification
Marshall Amplification is a British company, founded by drummer Jim Marshall, that designs and manufactures music amplifiers, brands personal headphones/earphones , and, after acquiring Natal Drums, drums and bongos. Marshall amplifiers, and specifically their guitar amplifiers, are among the most...
rack head, the Prophet VS keyboard, and various Jackson
Jackson Guitars
__FORCETOC__Jackson is a renowned brand of electric guitar that bears the name of its founder, Grover Jackson.-Early years:Grover Jackson obtained ownership in Charvel's Guitar Repair of Glendora, California in the 1970s with a promise to bolster Charvel's business...
and Gibson guitars.
Nevertheless, the production was plagued with several electrical problems, and a number of songs had to be reworked. Overuse of equipment and compatibility issues have been cited as contributing factors to these problems.
Post-production
One of Reznor's last visits to the house occurred in December 1993. On 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." He later made a statement about one of his final days at working in the Tate house during a 1997 interview with Rolling Stone:After the album's recording, Reznor moved out and the house was demolished shortly thereafter. The Downward Spiral entered its mixing
Audio mixing (recorded music)
In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...
and mastering processes. This was done at Record Plant Studios
Record Plant Studios
The Record Plant was a series of three famous recording studios which were founded by Gary Kellgren and Chris Stone, beginning in New York City in 1968. The next year, Kellgren and Stone opened a second studio in Los Angeles. In 1972, the company expanded again with a third location in Sausalito,...
, the building where heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
band Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath are an English heavy metal band, formed in Aston, Birmingham in 1969 by Ozzy Osbourne , Tony Iommi , Geezer Butler , and Bill Ward . The band has since experienced multiple line-up changes, with Tony Iommi the only constant presence in the band through the years. A total of 22...
recorded two of their albums (Black Sabbath Vol. 4 (1972) and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath is the fifth studio album by the British heavy metal band Black Sabbath, released in December 1973. With this album, the band expanded upon their slow, crunching style of music by strings, keyboards and more complex orchestral arrangements.-Recording:Following the 1972–1973...
(1973)), and A&M Studios. Both studios are located in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
. Alan Moulder
Alan Moulder
Alan Moulder is one of Britain's premier alternative rock record producers. He has worked with such artists as Depeche Mode, Erasure, Elastica, Gary Numan, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Curve, Ride, Lush and My Bloody Valentine, Lostprophets, Shihad, Ivyrise and Placebo, as well as with many American...
, who later co-produced The Fragile
The Fragile
In terms of narrative, virtually no references are made to the aspects depicted in The Downward Spiral. Like The Downward Spiral, The Fragile is a concept album, but, as a double album, is nearly twice the length of its predecessor. Reznor's vocals, for the most part, are much more melodic and...
(1999) and With Teeth
With Teeth
With Teeth is the fourth studio album by American industrial rock act Nine Inch Nails, released on May 3, 2005, by Interscope Records. The album was produced by Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor and long-time collaborator Alan Moulder. It was Reznor's first original studio album since The...
(2005), was involved with mixing the album.
Unreleased songs
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 in 1995: "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.Concept
Numerous layers of metaphors are present throughout the album, which leaves it open to wide interpretation. The album relays many concepts of NihilismNihilism
Nihilism is the philosophical doctrine suggesting the negation of one or more putatively meaningful aspects of life. Most commonly, nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism which argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value...
, such as the chorus of "Heresy," which runs: "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
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist...
concepts and a prominent theme of existentialism. It is a concept album
Concept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
in which the overarching plot follows the protagonist's descent into his own inner solipsistic
Solipsism
Solipsism is the philosophical idea that only one's own mind is sure to exist. The term comes from Latin solus and ipse . Solipsism as an epistemological position holds that knowledge of anything outside one's own mind is unsure. The external world and other minds cannot be known, and might not...
world, through a metaphorical "Downward Spiral", dealing with religion, dehumanization, violence, disease, society, drugs, sex, and finally suicide. This character can be understood as a representation of Reznor himself, since he experienced several social and personal issues through the course of Nine Inch Nails' first decade until his rehabilitation in 2001.
The visibility of controversy increased with religious protests during the Self-Destruct tour, but he considered himself "pretty normal" before the beginning of the tour. When developing The Downward Spiral, Reznor 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." Reznor has talked about the album concept numerous times:
Reznor described the idea created for the album as consisting of "someone who sheds everything around them to a potential nothingness, but through career, religion, relationship, belief and so on." He added, "It's less muscle-flexing, though when I started it I didn't know what I wanted it to sound like. I knew I didn't want to be a full metal album, so I tried to address the issue of restraint."
Music and lyrics
The Downward Spiral features elements of industrial rockIndustrial rock
Industrial rock is a musical genre that fuses industrial music and specific rock subgenres. Industrial rock spawned industrial metal, with which it is often confused...
, techno, and heavy metal music
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
, a stark contrast to the primitive electronic dance music
Electronic dance music
Electronic dance music is electronic music produced primarily for the purposes of use within a nightclub setting, or in an environment that is centered upon dance-based entertainment...
style shown throughout Pretty Hate Machine
Pretty Hate Machine
Pretty Hate Machine is the debut album by American industrial rock act Nine Inch Nails, released October 20, 1989, on TVT Records. Pretty Hate Machine is compiled of reworked tracks from the Purest Feeling demo, as well as tracks recorded after its recording...
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. Reznor's singing follows a similar pattern from beginning to end, frequently moving from whispers to screams.
Reznor has discussed his musical inspiration behind the album:
Packaging
Artwork and sketches for The Downward Spiral, "Closer" and "March of the Pigs" by Russell MillsRussell Mills (artist)
Russell Mills is a British artist who was born in Ripon, Yorkshire, UK in 1952. He paints, creates multimedia installations, designs stage sets and lighting and has produced record covers and book covers for Brian Eno, the Cocteau Twins,Michael Nyman, David Sylvian, Peter Gabriel, and Nine Inch...
were displayed at the Glasgow School of Art
Glasgow School of Art
Glasgow School of Art is one of only two independent art schools in Scotland, situated in the Garnethill area of Glasgow.-History:It was founded in 1845 as the Glasgow Government School of Design. In 1853, it changed its name to The Glasgow School of Art. Initially it was located at 12 Ingram...
. Mills explained the ideas and materials that made up the painting (titled "Wound") that was used for the cover:
Reception
The Downward Spiral was released in March 1994. The album debuted the following week at number two on the US Billboard 200Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
chart. To date, the album has sold over five million copies worldwide; on 28 October 1998 the Recording Industry Association of America
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
(RIAA) certified the album quadruple platinum
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
, denoting shipments of four million in the United States, making it Nine Inch Nails' highest-selling work there. The Downward Spiral was well-received by critics. Jon Pareles
Jon Pareles
Jon Pareles is an American journalist who is the chief popular music critic in the arts section of the New York Times. He played jazz flute and piano, and graduated from Yale University with a degree in music. In the 1970s he was an associate editor of Crawdaddy!, and in the 1980s an associate...
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
wrote, "every instrument, acoustic or synthetic, seems tuned to create the maximum aural abrasion." Pareles asserted that unlike other electro-industrial groups like Ministry
Ministry (band)
Ministry is an American industrial metal band founded by lead singer Al Jourgensen in 1981. Originally a synthpop outfit, Ministry changed its style to industrial metal in the late 1980s. Ministry found mainstream success in the early 1990s with its most successful album Psalm 69: The Way to...
and Nitzer Ebb
Nitzer Ebb
Nitzer Ebb is a British EBM group formed in 1982 by Essex school friends Vaughan "Bon" Harris , Douglas McCarthy , and David Gooday .-Band name:...
, "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." Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
gave the album an honorable mention rating, and said that, musically, the album was comparable to "Heironymus Bosch as postindustrial atheist", but lyrically, more closely resembled "Transformers
Transformers
A transformer is a device that transfers electrical energy from one circuit to another by magnetic coupling.Transformer may also refer to:* ASUS Eee Pad Transformer, an Android 3.2 Honeycomb tablet computer manufacturer by Asus...
as kiddie porn." Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
awarded the album four out of five stars; reviewer Jonathan Gold praised the album as "music that pins playback levels far into the red", and concluded, "The Downward Spiral is music the blade runner
The Bladerunner
The novel The Bladerunner is a 1974 science fiction novel by Alan E. Nourse.-Plot:The novel's protagonist is Billy Gimp, a man with a club foot who runs "blades" for Doc as part of an illegal black market for medical services...
might throw down to: low-tech futurism that rocks." Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
gave the album a B+; reviewer Tom Sinclair wrote, "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." 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."
Accolades
The album was placed 25th on Spin'sSpin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
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. JustPressPlay placed the album 10th on their Fifty Years of Great Music: The Top 100 Albums of the 1990s list. Blender
Blender (magazine)
Blender was an American music magazine that billed itself as "the ultimate guide to music and more". It was also known for sometimes steamy pictorials of celebrities....
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
Martin Popoff
Martin Popoff is a Canadian-born music journalist and critic who covers the genre of heavy metal music. The senior editor and co-founder of Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles magazine, he has additionally written over twenty books that both critically evaluate heavy metal and document its history...
. In 2001 Q
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
named The Downward Spiral as one of the 50 Heaviest Albums of All Time; in 2010 the album was ranked #102 on their 250 Best Albums of Q's Lifetime (1986-2011) list. In 2003, the album was ranked #200 on Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
"The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" is the title of a 2003 special issue of American magazine Rolling Stone, and a related book published in 2005.Related news articles:...
. The Downward Spiral was featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die is a musical reference book edited by Robert Dimery, first published in 2005. The most recent edition consists of a list of albums released between 1955 and 2010, part of a series from Quintessence Editions Ltd...
.
On August 23, 2009 at Webster Hall
Webster Hall
Webster Hall is a nightclub located at 125 East 11th Street, between Third and Fourth Avenues, near Astor Place, in Manhattan, New York City. Built in 1886, its current incarnation was opened by the Ballinger Brothers in 1992...
, Nine Inch Nails played the album in its entirety for the first time ever.
Controversy
Its emphasis on transgressive themes has made The Downward Spirals lyrics vulnerable to attack from American social conservatives. Sen. Bob DoleBob Dole
Robert Joseph "Bob" Dole is an American attorney and politician. Dole represented Kansas in the United States Senate from 1969 to 1996, was Gerald Ford's Vice Presidential running mate in the 1976 presidential election, and was Senate Majority Leader from 1985 to 1987 and in 1995 and 1996...
, then head of the Republican Party, sharply criticized Time Warner
Time Warner
Time Warner is one of the world's largest media companies, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Formerly two separate companies, Warner Communications, Inc...
after a meeting between Michael J. Fuchs
Michael J. Fuchs
Michael J. Fuchs isan American executive producer for premium cable television network HBO.-Career:Fuchs is the son of Charles Fuchs a Real Estate Executive...
(head of the Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group is the third largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, making it one of the big four record companies...
), William Bennett
William Bennett
William John "Bill" Bennett is an American conservative pundit, politician, and political theorist. He served as United States Secretary of Education from 1985 to 1988. He also held the post of Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy under George H. W...
, and C. Delores Tucker
C. Delores Tucker
C. DeLores Tucker was a U.S. politician and civil rights activist best known for her participation in the Civil Rights Movement and stance against gangsta rap music.-Early life:...
, at which Tucker 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. Reznor claimed that the lyrics had nothing to do with politics:
Robert Bork
Robert Bork
Robert Heron Bork is an American legal scholar who has advocated the judicial philosophy of originalism. Bork formerly served as Solicitor General, Acting Attorney General, and judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit...
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.
Before the Columbine High School massacre
Columbine High School massacre
The Columbine High School massacre occurred on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, an unincorporated area of Jefferson County, Colorado, United States, near Denver and Littleton. Two senior students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, embarked on a massacre, killing 12...
of April 20, 1999, two deceased Columbine High School
Columbine High School
Columbine High School or CHS is a high school in unincorporated Jefferson County, Colorado, United States.- History :Columbine High School opened in the fall of 1973. There was no senior class in its first year. The school's first graduating class was the class of 1975...
student mass murderers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold
Eric David Harris and Dylan Bennet Klebold were American high school seniors who committed the Columbine High School massacre. They killed 13 people—including teacher Dave Sanders—and injured 24 others, three of whom were injured as they escaped the attack...
referenced lyrics from Nine Inch Nails multiple times in their journals, with the latter specifically naming The Downward Spiral as a symbol of his depression. On May 4, 1999, a hearing on the marketing and distribution practices of violent content to minors by the television, music, film, and video game industries was conducted before the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation
United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation
The United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation is a standing committee of the United States Senate in charge of all senate matters related to the following subjects:* Coast Guard* Coastal zone management* Communications...
. The committee heard testimony from cultural observers, professors, and mental-health professionals that included conservative William Bennett
William Bennett
William John "Bill" Bennett is an American conservative pundit, politician, and political theorist. He served as United States Secretary of Education from 1985 to 1988. He also held the post of Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy under George H. W...
and the Archbishop of Denver
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
, Reverend Charles J. Chaput
Charles J. Chaput
Charles Joseph Chaput, O.F.M. Cap. is an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He is the ninth and current Archbishop of Philadelphia, serving since his installation on September 8, 2011. He previously served as Archbishop of Denver and Bishop of Rapid City .Chaput is a professed Capuchin and...
. Participants criticized the album, Nine Inch Nails' label-mate Marilyn Manson
Marilyn Manson (band)
Marilyn Manson is an American metal band from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Formed in 1989 by Brian Warner and Scott Putesky, the group was originally named Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids with their uniquely theatrical performances gathering a local cult following in the early '90s. This attention...
, and the 1999 film The Matrix
The Matrix
The Matrix is a 1999 science fiction-action film written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, and Hugo Weaving...
for their alleged contribution to the environment that made tragedies like Columbine possible. The committee requested that the Federal Trade Commission
Federal Trade Commission
The Federal Trade Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1914 by the Federal Trade Commission Act...
and the United States Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
investigate the entertainment industry's marketing practices to minors.
In 2009, Apple rejected the Nine Inch Nails application for the iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
due to objectionable content in The Downward Spiral.
Track listing
Notes- Japanese pressings contain a bonus track, the Joy DivisionJoy DivisionJoy Division were an English rock band formed in 1976 in Salford, Greater Manchester. Originally named Warsaw, the band primarily consisted of Ian Curtis , Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris .Joy Division rapidly evolved from their initial punk rock influences...
cover "Dead Souls", originally released on The CrowThe Crow (film)The Crow is a 1994 American action film based on the 1989 comic book of the same name by James O'Barr. The film was written by David J. Schow and John Shirley, and directed by Alex Proyas...
original soundtrack. - The opening sounds of "Mr. Self Destruct" are a sample from the film THX 1138THX 1138THX 1138 is a 1971 science fiction film directed by George Lucas in his directorial debut. The film is based on a screenplay by Lucas and Walter Murch...
in which a man is being beaten by a prison guard. - The frantic drumming on the end of "Piggy" is courtesy of Reznor himself. This is currently his first and 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.
- The sample at the beginning of "Big Man with a Gun" comes from a studio-altered recording of a porn star having an orgasmOrgasmOrgasm is the peak of the plateau phase of the sexual response cycle, characterized by an intense sensation of pleasure...
. According to the album booklet, this "sample" is titled "Steakhouse" and is credited to Tommy LeeTommy LeeThomas Lee Bass , best known as Tommy Lee, is an American musician and founding member of glam metal band Mötley Crüe. As well as being the band's long-term drummer, Lee founded rap-metal band Methods of Mayhem, and has pursued solo musical projects...
. - The break in "Reptile" contains an audio sample (at about 5:06) of a woman falling down a hill from the 1974 film The Texas Chainsaw MassacreThe Texas Chainsaw MassacreThe Texas Chainsaw Massacre may refer to:* The Texas Chainsaw Massacre , a horror film franchise** The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, 1974 film** The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, 1986 film...
. - In 2007 LadytronLadytronLadytron are an English electronic band formed in 1999 in Liverpool, Merseyside. The group consists of Helen Marnie , Mira Aroyo , Daniel Hunt and Reuben Wu .Their sound blends electropop with New Wave and shoegazing elements. Ladytron described their sound as "electronic pop"...
used the Downward Spiral motifMotif (music)In music, a motif or motive is a short musical idea, a salient recurring figure, musical fragment or succession of notes that has some special importance in or is characteristic of a composition....
in their remix of "The Beginning of the End" on Year Zero RemixedYear Zero Remixed-Vinyl:-Critical reception:Year Zero Remixed received generally positive reviews. Virgin Media's review described the album as "a real cornucopia of treats" and "Highly recommended." Pitchfork Media's review, however, criticized the album, writing that it "lacks cohesion and is predictably...
. - The first Australian pressing has track time errors. Affected tracks do not play at their beginnings when selected individually ("Big Man with a Gun" has the beginning of "A Warm Place" tacked on, likewise all the songs up to "Hurt" start 41 seconds earlier than they should. "Hurt" itself has 44 seconds of silence on the end as a result), however the disc plays and flows correctly as a whole.
Deluxe Edition (Halo 8 DE)
Disc one of the album's deluxe edition re-release is identical to the original version, although 1 dB
Decibel
The decibel is a logarithmic unit that indicates the ratio of a physical quantity relative to a specified or implied reference level. A ratio in decibels is ten times the logarithm to base 10 of the ratio of two power quantities...
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
Super Audio CD
Super Audio CD is a high-resolution, read-only optical disc for audio storage. Sony and Philips Electronics jointly developed the technology, and publicized it in 1999. It is designated as the Scarlet Book standard. Sony and Philips previously collaborated to define the Compact Disc standard...
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.
DualDisc (Halo 8 DVD-A)
The DualDisc
DualDisc
DualDisc was a type of double-sided optical disc product developed by a group of record companies including EMI Music, Universal Music Group, Sony/BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, and 5.1 Entertainment Group and later under the aegis of the Recording Industry Association of America...
edition of The Downward Spiral contains the same CD content on Side A as the Deluxe Edition, with a DVD-Audio
DVD-Audio
DVD-Audio is a digital format for delivering high-fidelity audio content on a DVD. DVD-Audio is not intended to be a video delivery format and is not the same as video DVDs containing concert films or music videos....
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.
Personnel
- Trent ReznorTrent ReznorMichael Trent Reznor is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, record producer, and leader of industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. Reznor is also a member of How to Destroy Angels alongside his wife, Mariqueen Maandig, and Atticus Ross. He was previously associated with bands Option 30,...
– vocals, all instruments, arranger, producer - Mark "Flood" Ellis – producer, hi-hat (on "Closer"), Arp 2600 synthesizer (on "The Becoming")
- Chris Vrenna – drums (on "Hurt"), programming, sampling
- Adrian BelewAdrian BelewAdrian Belew is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer...
– texture generating guitar (on "Mr. Self Destruct"), ring mod guitar (on "The Becoming") - Danny LohnerDanny LohnerDaniel Patrick "Danny" Lohner , frequently known as Renholdër, is an American rock musician who plays bass guitar, electric guitar, and keyboards. He worked with Trent Reznor on numerous occasions, both with Nine Inch Nails and on the now defunct Tapeworm project...
– additional guitar (on "Big Man with a Gun") - Andy KubiszewskiAndy KubiszewskiAndy Kubiszewski is an American/Polish musician, songwriter, remixer and producer.Kubiszewski was born in Charleston, South Carolina, United States. His start in rock music came while attending the Cleveland Institute of Music when he and a pair of classmates formed the new wave band Exotic Birds...
– drums (on "The Downward Spiral") - Stephen PerkinsStephen PerkinsStephen Andrew Perkins is an American musician and songwriter. A drummer and percussionist, he currently plays with Jane's Addiction and Hellflower....
– drum loops (on "I Do Not Want This") - Charlie ClouserCharlie ClouserCharles Alexander "Charlie" Clouser is an American musician whose activities include playing keyboard, synth, theremin, and drums. He is known for his abilities in music programming, engineering, mixing, and remixing. He was a member of the band Nine Inch Nails 1994–2000. Before he was in Nine...
– programming, continuity - John Aguto – engineer
- Brian Pollack – engineer
- Sean BeavanSean BeavanSean Beavan is a musician, record producer, and audio engineer best known for his work with Guns N Roses, Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails, God Lives Underwater, and Slayer...
– mixing
- Bill Kennedy – mixing
- Alan MoulderAlan MoulderAlan Moulder is one of Britain's premier alternative rock record producers. He has worked with such artists as Depeche Mode, Erasure, Elastica, Gary Numan, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Curve, Ride, Lush and My Bloody Valentine, Lostprophets, Shihad, Ivyrise and Placebo, as well as with many American...
– mixing - Tom Baker – mastering
- Bob LudwigBob LudwigBob Ludwig is an American mastering engineer.He is a well known and respected figure within the music industry. His name is credited on the covers of albums released across the world, and he has won numerous awards....
– high-resolution mastering (reissue) - James Brown – 5.1 mix (reissue)
- Neal Ferrazzani – assistance (reissue)
- Russell MillsRussell Mills (artist)Russell Mills is a British artist who was born in Ripon, Yorkshire, UK in 1952. He paints, creates multimedia installations, designs stage sets and lighting and has produced record covers and book covers for Brian Eno, the Cocteau Twins,Michael Nyman, David Sylvian, Peter Gabriel, and Nine Inch...
– paintings - David Buckland – photography
- Gary TalpasGary TalpasGary Talpas is an American art director and photographer. Talpas worked as designer and art director for Nine Inch Nails on Pretty Hate Machine, "Head Like A Hole", The Downward Spiral and Further Down the Spiral. Talpas also worked on Smells Like Children for Marilyn Manson.-References:...
– package - Rob SheridanRob SheridanRob Sheridan is an American graphic designer, director, and photographer best known for his extensive work with the band Nine Inch Nails....
– package, additional photography (reissue)
Album charts
| Charts (1994) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australia ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... (ARIA Australian Recording Industry Association The Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956... ) |
12 |
| Canada Canada Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean... (CANOE Canadian Online Explorer Canadian Online Explorer is a bilingual online news and information site from Canada.A subsidiary of Quebecor Media, Canoe.ca is a leading local and national interactive media provider of news, entertainment and services, helping to inform and connect Canadians... ) |
13 |
| New Zealand New Zealand New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga... (RIANZ Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... ) |
23 |
| Sweden Sweden Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund.... (Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association .... ) |
33 |
| United Kingdom United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages... (OCC) |
9 |
| United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... (Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... ) |
2 |
Certifications
| Region | Provider | Certification | Shipment | Actual sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canada | CRIA Canadian Recording Industry Association Music Canada is a Toronto-based, non-profit trade organization that was founded 9 April 1963 to represent the interests of companies that record, artists, manufacture, production, promotion and distribution of music in Canada... |
3× Platinum | 300,000+ | — |
| United Kingdom | BPI British Phonographic Industry The British Phonographic Industry is the British record industry's trade association.-Structure:Its membership comprises hundreds of music companies including all four "major" record companies , associate members such as manufacturers and distributors, and hundreds of independent music companies... |
Silver | 60,000+ | — |
| United States | RIAA Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States... |
4× Platinum | 4,000,000+ | — |
Singles
| Single | Chart (1994) | Peak position |
|---|---|---|
| "March of the Pigs March of the Pigs "March of the Pigs" is a song written by Trent Reznor of American industrial rock act Nine Inch Nails. It was released in 1994 as the first single from The Downward Spiral , the second album by Nine Inch Nails.-The song:... " |
Australia ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... (ARIA Australian Recording Industry Association The Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956... ) |
98 |
| style="text-align:center;"|20 | ||
| United Kingdom United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages... (OCC) |
45 | |
| US United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... (US Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... ) |
59 | |
| "Closer" | Australia ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... (ARIA Australian Recording Industry Association The Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956... ) |
3 |
| style="text-align:center;"|5 | ||
| style="text-align:center;"|12 | ||
| United Kingdom United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages... (OCC) |
25 | |
| US United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... (Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis... Hot 100 Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... ) |
41 | |
| US United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... (Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis... Alternative Songs) |
11 | |
| "Piggy Piggy (song) "Piggy" is a song by American industrial rock act Nine Inch Nails, and the second track of The Downward Spiral . It was written by Trent Reznor, co-produced by Flood, and recorded in "Le Pig", a reincarnation of the living room of 10050 Cielo Drive.... " (promotional) |
US United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... (Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis... Alternative Songs) |
20 |
| Single | Chart (1995) | Peak position |
|---|---|---|
| "Hurt" (promotional) | Canada Canada Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean... (RPM RPM (magazine) RPM was a Canadian music industry publication that featured song and album charts for Canada. The publication was founded by Walt Grealis in February 1964, supported through its existence by record label owner Stan Klees. RPM ceased publication in November 2000.RPM stood for "Records, Promotion,... Alternative Chart) |
8 |
| US United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... (Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis... Hot 100 Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... ) |
54 | |
| US United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... (Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis... Alternative Songs) |
8 |
Notes
- A. "Hurt" peaked on the US Radio Songs chart.
External links
- The Downward Spiral at DiscogsDiscogsDiscogs, short for discographies, is a website and database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs.com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc., and are...
- Album Review — By AbsolutePunk
- Album Review — By Alternative Press
- Album Review — By TimeTime (magazine)Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
- Halo 8 at NIN Collector
- Halo 8 at NinWiki.com