The Downward Spiral, released thirty years ago on March 8th 1994, is perhaps one of the most infamous of the decade. The brutal industrial concept album was a formative part of the surge in popularity of heavy music throughout the 1990s, pushing the industrial genre to the foreground. The sophomore Nine Inch Nails album has been subject to much controversy, as was much the case with the album and EP released prior. The album found itself at home in alternative and goth culture, becoming a cult hit with its contentious themes only making it more popular amongst fringe groups.
The record is an elegy of personal turmoil, a story of descent into hatred and depression, presented perfectly in a 14-song package. The Downward Spiral marked a paradigm shift for Trent Reznor and his Nine Inch Nails project, newly signed to Interscope Records. The record is a mechanical soundscape, eerie and dark. With his new record deal, Reznor had more creative freedom, which he certainly didn’t hold back on, making a visceral, raw, and importantly controversial masterpiece.
Coming hot on the heels after the 1992 EP Broken which was written and recorded in secret from his previous label TVT Records, Trent Reznor wanted to use his musical voice as a medium to express his emotional state. Signing onto Interscope Records following a feud with TVT, provided him with the freedom he needed to further his band. The Downward Spiral, is deeply personal with the protagonist representing a reflection of himself, a reflection of his own feelings of existentialism and sadness. The album’s themes express a feeling of losing oneself to a deep and foreboding depression that fuels hedonism, self-destruction, hatred, and despair, eventually leading to complete dehumanisation.
Two key songs from this album skyrocketed the band’s fame following the album’s release: Closer and Hurt.
Closer’s depraved porn groove found itself at home in clubs, despite Reznor deeming the song to have been misconstrued to be found in clubs and to be a hit in such environments. This song is eternally catchy and entrancing, its funky bassline and the use of a sample from Iggy Pop’s “Nightclubbing” forming a deep and breathy sounding beat to the track, making it danceable and almost alluring. The unlikely single- the second from the album- has become the band’s biggest hit and reflects the record’s protagonist’s descent into hedonism and self-hatred through sexual gratification and objectification. The protagonist finds himself perpetually unfulfilled, isolated, and soulless with his sexual drive being the only thing keeping him alive. He’s desperate to feel any emotion and sex is his only escape. The protagonist is destroying himself from the inside and grasping at straws as he desperately attempts to fulfil himself.
Closer is coupled with an equally disturbing and hedonistic music video, full abstract and obtuse sexual imagery and almost religious connotations. Filmed by famed director Mark Romanek, the music video found very little airplay on MTV due to its graphic nature but this only added to the cult appreciation of the band and reflected Reznor’s creative freedom throughout the creation of The Downward Spiral. The mad scientist’s laboratory setting of the music video reflects a feeling of desperation within the protagonist’s sexual drive and hedonism and no matter what pain and suffering himself and those around him go through, he will get what he desires. The song’s blunt and obvious sexual lyrics reflect this too, his only thoughts are that of gratifying his desires, stating that it will get him “closer to God”. This can either be seen as a sense of being satisfied or can be seen as an innuendo of climax. Here, the Downward Spiral “motif” appears close to the end of the song; this musical phrase appears throughout the album.
The other famous track from The Downward Spiral is Hurt. This song is the final track on the album, acting almost as a “credits sequence” to the album. Despite the lyrics being sung quietly for much of the song the track has distorted noise throughout, a static that makes even the most solemn lament on the album feel overwhelming and heavy. The album doesn’t give much respite throughout other than this song and A Warm Place, the feelings of overwhelming sadness and misery come greatly into the foreground in Hurt. The song reflects feelings of being stuck in depression, unable to move on while those around you do. The protagonist is reflecting back on himself, realising his mistakes and desires to be able to “start again a million miles away”. The song feels, in a way, redemptive, wanting to move on from one’s past and start again.
The song was made popular in the mainstream in 2003 by its cover by Johnny Cash in his final album released before his death, American IV: The Man Comes Around. Covered at the recommendation of producer Rick Rubin, the song became immensely famous with its music video (also filmed by Mark Romanek) winning a Grammy and an MTV Video Music Award for Best Cinematography. This cover was so influential and famous that Trent Reznor himself admitted that song wasn’t his any more and that he was “flattered” to see his own song covered by the legendary Johnny Cash, despite initially feeling like his most personal song had been taken away from him. However, this version of the song feels like it has a different interpretation than Nine Inch Nails’ original version. Whereas the original version can potentially represent a rebirth of sorts, a broken man emerging from the deepest depression anew, Cash’s cover is more of a reflection on a long life, a reflection on life’s regrets at the very inevitable end. Both songs are immensely meaningful but can have different interpretations depending on the listener.
Following the album’s release, the band set off on the Self Destruct tour to promote the album. One of the most infamous events of the tour is from their performance at Woodstock 1994, where Reznor and his live band emerged on stage covered in mud, making the festival go down in history as “Mudstock”. Photos taken by Joseph Cultice emerged following the band’s performance cementing the performance in legend. Nine Inch Nails also performed with David Bowie for select dates in 1995 for the Dissonance Tour leg, with select songs from the NIN discography being performed as a duet, notably Hurt being one. These shows formed the beginning of a friendship between Bowie and Reznor, leading to collaborations in Bowie’s album Earthling, with Reznor appearing in the music video for “I’m Afraid of Americans” and the two’s music appearing in the 1997 film Lost Highway, directed by David Lynch.
The Downward Spiral is a monumental album in industrial music, a masterpiece whose songwriting and production still hold up today, thirty years following its initial release. The record is a testament to Trent Reznor’s excellence as a musician. The album’s combination of metal riffs with funk and experimental synthesisers creates a phenomenal listening experience. It is a masterpiece of heavy, deeply emotional music, forever cemented within music culture as a controversial and personal album. Regarded by many to be Nine Inch Nails’ greatest album, it certainly lives up to that.
