| The Downward Spiral | |||||
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| Studio album by Nine Inch Nails | |||||
| Released | March 8, 1994 | ||||
| Recorded | 1993-1994 Le Pig, Beverly Hills; Record Plant Studios & A&M Studios, Los Angeles | ||||
| Genre | Industrial rock | ||||
| Length | 65:02 (Original) 70:38 (Japanese Version) 135:40 (Deluxe Edition) |
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| Label | Nothing Records | ||||
| Producer | Trent Reznor, Flood | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
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Original release:
Deluxe Edition: |
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| Nine Inch Nails chronology | |||||
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| Alternate cover | |||||
Deluxe Edition cover art
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| Singles from The Downward Spiral | |||||
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The Downward Spiral is the third album by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released in 1994 on Nothing Records, frontman Trent Reznor's label on Interscope Records. It is "Halo 8" of the official Nine Inch Nails halo releases. The album's success propelled NIN into the public consciousness, especially after the release of its popular second single, "Closer", which was accompanied by a controversial video directed by Mark Romanek. Some critics have stated that this album demonstrates a maturation of Trent Reznor's pop music sensibility, and credit his ability to blend it with taboo themes. The album served as basis for a remix album entitled Further Down the Spiral, released in 1995.
Contents |
Recording
To record the album , Reznor rented the mansion located at 10050 Cielo Drive in Beverly Hills, California where actress Sharon Tate was murdered by members of the Manson Family in 1969. Reznor built a studio space in the house which he named Le Pig, after the message scrawled on the front door with Tate's blood by her murderers. Reznor told Entertainment Weekly that despite the notoriety attached to the house, he chose to record there because, "I looked at a lot of places, and this just happened to be the one I liked most." Reznor moved out of the house in December 1993, shortly before the house was demolished.[1] Reznor made a statement about working in the Tate house during a 1997 interview with Rolling Stone:
| “ | While I was working on Downward Spiral, I was living in the house where Sharon Tate was killed. Then one day I met her sister. It was a random thing, just a brief encounter. And she said: 'Are you exploiting my sister's death by living in her house?' For the first time, the whole thing kind of slapped me in the face. I said, 'No, it's just sort of my own interest in American folklore. I'm in this place where a weird part of history occurred.' I guess it never really struck me before, but it did then. She lost her sister from a senseless, ignorant situation that I don't want to support. When she was talking to me, I realized for the first time, 'What if it was my sister?' I thought, 'Fuck Charlie Manson.' I went home and cried that night. It made me see there's another side to things, you know?[2] | ” |
Reznor set out to make an album that was a departure from the Broken EP (1992), which he described as "a real hard-sounding record that was just one big blast of anger." Instead, Reznor wanted to create an album "that went in 10 different directions, but that was all united somehow." Reznor brought in a number of guest performers to record, including former Jane's Addiction and Porno for Pyros drummer Stephen Perkins and progressive rock guitarist Adrian Belew. Perkins played a number of drum parts that were recorded live in the studio; these tracks were in turn turned into sample loops. Reznor took a similar approach to recording guitar parts. Reznor would record 20 to 25-minute long sessions of himself playing guitar on a hard disc recorder with a Studio Vision sequencer, then would cut out parts of the recording he found interesting for later use. Reznor said, "99 percent of the stuff we do–even vocals–is recorded into the computer [hard disk] first. We get an arrangement together and then dump it to tape."[3]
Track information
- "Mr. Self Destruct" begins with a sample from the film THX 1138.[4]
- The melody in "A Warm Place" is near-identical to the one in David Bowie's Crystal Japan from the extended edition of Scary Monsters.
- The loop of screaming voices heard at the beginning of "The Becoming" is a sample from the movie Robot Jox.
- The sampled clanks at the beginning of "Reptile" can be heard in the film Leviathan.
- 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 stated that the recording was from him testing the microphone setup in studio, but he liked the sound too much not to include it.[5]
Reception
The Downward Spiral was released March 1994. The album debuted the following week at number two on the Billboard album charts.[6] The album 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 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."[7] 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."[8] 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."[9] The album was ranked at number 25 in Spin's "100 Greatest Albums, 1985-2005", Spin also ranked it 11th on their "Top 90 Albums of the 90's ". 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.[10] In 2003, the album was ranked number 200 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. [11]
Lyrics
There are several layers of metaphors that move throughout the album, which opens it to a multitude of interpretations. As a whole, The Downward Spiral is replete with Nietzschean concepts; existentialism is without a doubt one if its fundamentals. It is a concept album in which the overarching plot follows the character along his life's "Downward Spiral". While this character can be understood as a representation of Reznor himself (Metal Edge July 2005)
| “ | ...it was during that tour (The Downward Spiral) that problems started to arise. Prior to that I would have considered myself 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. | ” |
Rereleases
Tenth anniversary re-releases
On November 23, 2004, The Downward Spiral was re-released to celebrate its tenth anniversary. It is available in two versions: as a 2-disc hybrid SACD set and as a DualDisc (DVD-A on one side and CD on the reverse). The SACD version is known as The Downward Spiral: Deluxe Edition and the DVD-A version is known as The Downward Spiral: DualDisc.
Deluxe edition
The SACD version consists of two discs. Disc one is a CD/SACD hybrid. It has the original album, digitally remastered, in SACD 5.1 surround and SACD stereo on one layer (only playable in SACD players), and regular CD stereo on the other layer (playable in normal CD players). Disc two consists of b-sides, soundtrack contributions, and previously-unreleased demos presented in regular CD stereo only. This version is labeled halo eight DE.
DualDisc
The CD-compatible side contains the digitally remastered original album, which is playable on regular CD players. The DVD side contains:
- 5.1 surround and stereo version of the original tracks, digitally remastered
- The Downward Spiral Artwork (plays with the music in DVD-A players, viewable as a slideshow on DVD-Video players)
- Music Videos
- "Closer" (available in 5.1 surround and stereo)
- "March of the Pigs" (stereo)
- "Hurt" (stereo)
- Discography, including selected bits of music from each album (starting with Broken) that run about a minute each
This is a North American release (DVD Region 1) and is labeled halo eight DVD-A.
Track listing
Original version
- "Mr. Self Destruct" − 4:30
- "Piggy" − 4:24
- "Heresy" − 3:54
- "March of the Pigs" − 2:58
- "Closer" − 6:13
- "Ruiner" − 4:58
- "The Becoming" − 5:31
- "I Do Not Want This" − 5:41
- "Big Man With a Gun" − 1:36
- "A Warm Place" − 3:22
- "Eraser" − 4:54
- "Reptile" − 6:51
- "The Downward Spiral" − 3:57
- "Hurt" − 6:13
Japanese pressings contained a bonus track, the Joy Division cover "Dead Souls", originally released on The Crow original soundtrack.[12][13]
Deluxe edition
- Disc 1
- Identical to the original version, although 1 dB louder mix overall, track anomalies fixed (sounds from previous tracks creeping up on start of tracks)
- Includes SACD layer
- Disc 2
- Collection of remixes and b-sides. The last three tracks are previously unreleased demo recordings from the original album.[14]
- "Burn" (from Natural Born Killers OST) – 5:00
- "Closer (Precursor)" (from Closer to God") – 7:16
- "Piggy (Nothing Can Stop Me Now)" (from Further Down the Spiral) – 4:03
- "A Violet Fluid" (from March of the Pigs") – 1:04
- "Dead Souls" (from The Crow OST) – 4:53
- "Hurt (Quiet)" (from Further Down the Spiral (US version)) – 5:08
- "Closer to God" (from "Closer to God") – 5:06
- "All the Pigs, All Lined Up" (from "March of the Pigs") – 7:26
- "Memorabilia" (from "Closer to God") – 7:22
- "The Downward Spiral (The Bottom)" (from Further Down the Spiral) – 7:32
- "Ruiner (Demo)" – 4:51
- "Liar (Reptile Demo)" – 6:57
- "Heresy (Demo)" – 4:00
Personnel
- John Aguto – Engineer
- Tom Baker – Mastering
- Sean Beavan – Mixing
- Adrian Belew – Ring mod & texture generating guitars
- Charlie Clouser – Programming, Continuity
- Mark "Flood" Ellis – Producer
- Bill Kennedy – Mixing
- Andy Kubiszewski – Drums
- Danny Lohner – Guitar
- Alan Moulder – Mixing
- Stephen Perkins – Drum loops
- Brian Pollack – Engineer
- Trent Reznor – Vocals, Guitar, Piano, Arranger, Producer
- Chris Vrenna – Drums, Programming, Sampling
- Russell Mills – Paintings
- David Buckland – Photography
- Gary Talpas – Package
- Rob Sheridan – Package, additional photography
- James Brown – 5.1 mix (re-release)
- Neal Ferrazzani – Assistance (re-release)
- Bob Ludwig – High-resolution mastering (re-release)
Chart positions
Album
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1994 | The Billboard 200 | #2 |
| 2004 | The Billboard 200 (catalog) | #19 |
Singles
| Year | Song | Chart peak positions | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. [15] |
U.S. Mod[15] | U.S. Main[15] | U.S. D/CP[15] | UK [16] |
AUS [17] |
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| 1994 | "March of the Pigs" | 59 | — | — | — | 45 | — |
| "Closer" | 41 | 11 | 35 | 29 | 25 | 3 | |
| "Piggy" | — | 20 | — | — | — | — | |
| 1995 | "Hurt" | — | 8 | 10 | — | — | — |
^ I "Piggy" and "Hurt" were released only as promotional singles, not as commercial singles.
"—" denotes releases that did not chart.
References
- ^ Making Records: Where Manson Murdered Helter Shelter, Entertainment Weekly, March 18, 1994, <http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,301460,00.html>. Retrieved on November 1, 2007
- ^ Trent Reznor Lost Highway Interview, Rolling Stone, March 6, 1997, <http://www.lynchnet.com/lh/lhrs3.html>. Retrieved on December 25, 2007
- ^ di Perna, Alan. "Machine Head". Guitar World. April 1994.
- ^ Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral Last accessed April 15, 2007.
- ^ Greg Rule (April 1994). Trent Reznor. Keyboard. Retrieved on 2007-04-25.
- ^ "Changing of the Garden". Entertainment Weekly. March 25, 1994. Retrieved October 26, 2007.
- ^ Pareles, Jon. "A Noise Sculptor Reveals An Ear for the Commercial". The New York Times. May 8, 1994. Retrieved October 26, 2007.
- ^ Gold, Jonathan. "The Downward Spiral" [review]. Rolling Stone. March 24, 1994. Retrieved October 30, 2007.
- ^ Sinclair, Tom. "The Downward Spiral" [review]. Entertainment Weekly. March 18, 1994. Retrieved October 26, 2007.
- ^ Q 50 Heaviest Albums Of All Time-A selection of lists from Q Magazine. Last accessed April 15, 2007.
- ^ Rolling Stone : 200) The Downward Spiral-Rolling Stone. Last accessed April 15, 2007.
- ^ Halo Eight - Japanese first pressing CD5. NIN Collector. Retrieved on 2007-11-22.
- ^ Evans, Paul (1994-07-14). Various Artists: The Crow : Music Review : Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone. Retrieved on 2007-10-09.
- ^ http://wm09.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:8z5tk6sxykrj
- ^ a b c d Billboard Music Charts - Search Results - Nine Inch Nails. Billboard. Retrieved on 2007-09-28.
- ^ Chart Stats - Nine Inch Nails. Chart Stats. Retrieved on 2007-09-28.
- ^ Search results for: Nine Inch Nails. Australian-Charts.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-28.
External links
- nin.com − official Nine Inch Nails website
- Halo 8 at NIN Collector
- The Downward Spiral (US CD) at discogs.com
