Album of the Week #6 - Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral

Karl Hungus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dC0IAyUnCfA

Interesting choice this week, and quite a bit different from other Albums so far, but definetly a good one.

Malice

There's an error being displayed when the video is clicked on. It's not allowed to be embedded for some reason.
As for the album, I've never been a big fan of Nine Inch Nails. Hurt is a good song however. I think I'll give The Downward Spiral another listen this week

JC 2K3

Great album. Different, innovative and raw. I can't praise it highly enough.

It wasn't me!

Agreed, excellent album. Unexpected, I must say, as I haven't been watching the voting, but excellent result.

eddyc

Great choice, definitely a ground breaker, sounds fresh still today and one of NINs finest moments

Devious

Fantastic album from start to finish. Standout tracks include Closer, March of the Pigs, Becoming and of course, Hurt (which I personally prefer to the Johnny Cash cover).

projectmayhem

stunning album. trent on top of his game (apart from the fragile, )... love every track on this album. it has a way of being exhilirating, uncomfortable, melodic and heavy all at once. if there's anyone still out there that doesn't own it, shame on you.

stcatherine

Fantastic, aquired a copy today ! Decided to go back and look at stuff I wasn't really listening to in my 20's and have found a few great bands I missed out on. I remember loving 'Closer' on the Dance floor but never bought any NIN albums at the time. Thanks !

senordingdong

Definatly an album that will not fade with time.
It's an old reliable that never disspoints no matter how often I go back to it.


One thing I really love about NIN, (and Manson too) is that so much of their work has countless little sound bites and things added in that you wouldn't notice without headphones or listening to the track a few hundred times.
Seemingly pointless bits of effort like that really help this album remain fresh in my ears after so long.

flogen

senordingdong wrote:

Seemingly pointless bits of effort like that really help this album remain fresh in my ears after so long.

Well they're not pointless then!! Seriously though, those little samples and the very brief instruments and sounds that are hard to catch - they're all part of discovering the album again and again.

TDS is a superb album in my mind, easily NIN's best and probably one of the top albums in my collection.

I had the album for a good while and loved it but I still remember the day I actually listened to it as an over-arching piece rather than a collection of tracks and I got goosebumps.

I do think Big Man, Big Gun is the one clanger on the album (and I read an interview with Reznor where he said he does regret it to some degree but it was supposed to be an ironic and sarcastic commentary on the rise of gangster rap) but otherwise it's pretty faultless and great to listen to as individual songs or as an entire piece.

By the way, may I recommend to fans to check out the remix album Further Down The Spiral, which is probably the best of its kind in the NIN discography. The mixes of Ruiner and Heresy are probably the best of all; like dance and industrial music's bastard child.

Creature

Excellent album. Even though I'd say the Fragile is his best work and my personal favourite I still have a lot for time for this one. Even though I find it a tad depressing listening to it all the way through, the atmosphere and sheer range of raw emotion still amazes me. Stand out tracks for me would be Closer, A Warm Place, Reptile and Hurt.

senordingdong

flogen wrote:

Well they're not pointless then!! .

That's why I said 'seemingly'!

nyarlothothep

I love it, the songs are great and the sheer rage and despair that comes across is brilliant. The album conveys a descent into personal hell and it makes no compromises musically. It can be both terrifying and beautiful at the same time, which is pretty much evident with songs like The Becoming and Hurt. Its an outstanding piece of art from a great (musical) artist.

Numina

I wasn't expecting this as the album of the week! this is the first NIN album I bought that then set me off into NIN-freak mode and is the reason I've spent quite a bit of money on a small monster that is my NIN collection.

I still come back to this album pretty regularly even after all this time, I usually get a craving for a certain song from time to time too. and I've dedicated quite a bit of time trying to just follow a single sound in the songs, which is quite fun to do. It still seems somewhat ahead of it's time even nowadays, which i find a bit surprising. everything album the album is perfect to me, just the sheer sound of March of The Pigs is beautiful, and not to mention A Warm Place (which I'm afraid is partially ripped off from Bowies B-side "Crystal Japan") and the chorus of Ruiner.

This is one album that'll never get old.

j0e

yeah had the original one for ages just noticed a 5.1 remixed verison when i was in hmv the other odd, any1 heard the remixes on cd2?

Numina

j0e wrote:

any1 heard the remixes on cd2?

yeah, they're all taken from various releases except for the 3 demos at the end of the cd. they're all from the TDS era, so it's all good

Mental Mickey

Numina wrote:

yeah, they're all taken from various releases except for the 3 demos at the end of the cd. they're all from the TDS era, so it's all good

Numina. LOL. That's what my niece calls her soother!!!??

Phantron

AMazing, amazing album. Then 10 year anniversary release was amazing too. And Further Down The Spiral is worth a look if you're into the remixes.

Numina

Mental Mickey wrote:

Numina. LOL. That's what my niece calls her soother!!!??

ehh...what? (you're called mental mickey for a reason???)

1-9-7-7

Album of All time - The Downward Spiral.

No matter how much I get into Death metal, no matter how much hardcore I get into, TDS will always be that one album that sparked my love for music into an insane life consuming tangent.

In Comic Book Guy fashion.
Best.
Album.
Ever.

King of Kings

i love NIN but I must say the last album was a let down.
more U2 than previous stuff which I thought to be th best around.
The fragile being my fav

John

I was on holidays when this was Album of the Week so I only see it now. I love this album. There's not much I can add to what has already been said; yes it's heavy when it needs to be, Trent pulls no punches and the album is bleaker than a blizzard during a famine. I remember buying this and being completely blown away. I've just put on the album now and it still sounds completely unique, it hasn't really aged at all (although the cardboard sleeve is a bit worse for wear ). I think Trent slightly topped this with The Fragile but only slightly, they are two very different and equally compelling albums.

NIN quickly became one of those bands became a musical springboard, I ended up finding many amazing bands via his influences. Aside from the excellent remix albums (there are two versions of Further Down the Spiral, only about 50% of the material the same on either disc, both are highly recommended) and the various singles and their b-sides, there are lots of albums similar to this that you lot should check out. Einsturzende Neubauten's Tabula Rasa is a direct influence on some of the sounds and textures of TDS (there was talk for a while that NIN had actually sampled EN) and their Ende Neu record was later released on Trent's label. Coil's Horse Rotorvator and Love's Secret Domain are both heavy influences on all of NIN's work (Coil's remix of "Closer" became the theme tune for the movie Seven) and they worked with Trent on an album (Backwards) that never got released but got reworked and released as Coil's final album, The Ape of Naples. Throbbing Gristle are another definite influence on the rawer sounding NIN tracks (they invented Industrial music in the 70s), their live albums are recommended in particular. Peter Christopherson (member of both Coil and Throbbing Gristle) filmed all the creepy footage on the Closure double video set and did a video for "March of the Pigs". There's also the industrial mega group Pigface who Trent co-wrote the song "Suck" with. I'm going to leave it at that as I'm getting carried away.

Secretpint

A stunning album, an album thats a real gut punch, vivid memories of hearing mr self destruct for the first time and thinking "what the hell was that that was awesome"

didnt realise it was a concept album until recently too