Rating 5.0
The day NIN came of age...The Downward Spiral (1994.) Nine Inch Nails Halo Eight. Their second full-length album, and third source of original material.
Trent Reznor assembled his musical project, Nine Inch Nails, late in the eighties. It's not likely he knew just how successful his group would become, though. Even after just five years, Reznor had changed his musical sound drastically. What started as a techno-rock experiement (as chronicled on 1989's Pretty Hate Machine) was quickly shifting toward the darker, more sinister grounds of goth/industrial music (1992's Broken EP was the first release that hinted at this new sound.) The second full-length Nine Inch Nails album arrived in 1994. How would The Downward Spiral be received? Would it become revered as an industrial rock masterpiece, or would it literally be Reznor's downward spiral in the music business? Read on for my review of the album.
This album is a masterpiece of industrial rock, no questions asked. It's this album that gained Nine Inch Nails the vast majority of their fame and audience, so it's not surprising to see just how high of a level some fans of the group hold it on. In just five short years, Trent Reznor had shifted his musical stylings drastically. Although I personally preferred the band's earlier sound (the techno-rock one featured on Pretty Hate Machine), I feel that this change in sounds did the band a lot of good. This is a much darker and more agressive album than anything that came earlier, and perhaps that's the reason it won the group so many fans. The most popular song on here would have to be the radio hit Closer, but it's far from being the only good song Trent and company have to offer this time around. Kicking things off is the hard and heavy industrial rocker Mr. Self Destruct, which will grab a tight hold of your attention and never let do. It's immediately followed by the bass-heavy Piggy, which is one of the band's most unique-sounding tracks. And who could forget classics like Heresy and March Of The Pigs? And the gloomy ballad Hurt? Every track on here is unique; no two sound alike, further establishing Trent Reznor as a musical genius. Where this album succeeds, it succeeds beautifully. And where it doesn't succeed.... never mind. It succeeds in everything it does. This is a Nine Inch Nails masterpiece, and millions of fans will back me up on that claim. If you only want to buy one Nine Inch Nails album, and you want to get one that epitomizes everything the band stood for in their prime, The Downward Spiral is the one you should get.
There are many different editions of The Downward Spiral available. There's the original CD release, the Dual Disc version, and the Deluxe Edition. The original CD release has no bonus material, but it is the cheapest version, so any new/potential fan should get that version of the album. The Dual Disc one costs more but has a whole DVD side worth of interesting band info. However, there aren't any bonus tracks, so that version is for die-hard fans ONLY. The Deluxe Edition has a whole second disc worth of bonus material, but it is ridiculously overpriced, as are most CDs in the Deluxe Edition series. However, despite it's overpricing, the Deluxe Edition is best, since you get a whole bonus disc worth of Nine Inch Nails rarities. Still, whatever version of the album you decide to buy is up to you.
This was Trent Reznor in his prime, both commercially and musically. It's not surprising that this is the release most people remember Nine Inch Nails for. If you only buy one album from the group, and you want one that shows you everything the group stood for in their musical prime, this is the album to buy. I give it my highest recommendation and a five-star rating. No other industrial rock album even comes close (except, of course, other Nine Inch Nails releases.)
Superb reissue.A masterpiece of sound and one of the most popular and praised albums of the mid-90s, "The Downward Spiral" has aged well. Trent Reznor has crafted an album that successfully fuses the sounds he experimented with in the past, the pop/industrial and dark balladry of "Pretty Hate Machine", the sexual tension of his covers of "Get Down Make Love" and "Physical", the angry blast of "Broken", even the overproduction of the remixes, all come together on this album, with a healthy dose of Berlin-era David Bowie thrown into the mix. But the strength is in the lyrics-- themes of alienation, pain, self-deprecation, but with a universal feel to it-- everyone has felt this way, maybe not to these extremes, but they have.
Opening with a salvo of anger and rage ("Mr Self Destruct"), "The Downward Spiral" at first sounds like the logical successor to "Broken", but there's something else, an odd, textured bridge and an undercurrent of sexual tension that informs itself throughout that song and the rest of the record-- from the funky rhythms of "Piggy" to the chorus "March of the Pigs" to the overtness of "Reptile". The sexuality of the record comes to a head (clearly) with "Closer" before becoming mixed with pain and despair-- effective on such cuts as "The Becoming" and "The Downward Spiral" before culminating in "Hurt", an expression of anguish and loss. The strength on the record lies not with the clever construction or the impressive musical arrangements, but with Reznor's vocal, infused with all the intent of the music and way up in the forefront, framed and supported well by the song arrangements.
The real point is, start to finish, the record is superb, and it works as a whole. The deluxe edition remasters the record, remarkably improving the sound drastically enough to make it worthwhile and adds a disc of "remixes, b-sides, demos, and non-album tracks.
While its probably of minimal value to a long-time fan, the material certainly augments the album nicely and really does collect most of the best material from the era (mind you, I would have made some changes, but I think anyone can argue that). Selected for inclusion are two songs featured on soundtracks (the slab of rage "Burn" from "Natural Born Killers" and a cover of Joy Division's "Dead Souls", which if you like you should check out Joy Division), two tracks from the "March of the Pigs" single (the extended MotP remix "All the Pigs, All Lined Up", similar to Reznor's live performances and the brief and stunning instrumental loop "A Violet Fluid"), three tracks from the "Closer" single (the intriguing precursor remix that adds depth and mystery to the piece in place of its funkiness, "Closer to God", agressive retake on the track, and a fantastic dark and haunting cover of Soft Cell's "Memorabilia"), three tracks from the remix album "Further Down the Spiral" (the fantastic Rick Ruben remix of "Piggy" featuring fantastic guitar by Dave Navarro, a great, bleak remix of "The Downward Spiral" by Coil/Danny Hyde that is vastly superior to the original and the single edit/remix of "Hurt"), and three demos from the era. The demos are all very interesting, but of limited value-- typically the only real difference is in inferior vocal delivery.
In the day of endless remasters, repackagings, reissues, its great to see one thats worthwhile-- this one gets it right. Highly recommended.The masterpiece rebornThis re-release of TDS is like listening to the album again for the first time. The excess of this type of thing might lead you to believe it's just a marketing gimmick, but that is simply not the case here. Of course, if anyone could perfect something that was already perfected, it's Trent Reznor. First of all, the 13-track bonus disc is reason enough to buy this deluxe edition for any NIN fan since it has three previously unreleased demos. That might sound like peanuts to fans of any other band, but NIN fans know that on the rare occasion you get to hear something you've never heard before from Mr. Reznor, you cherish it. Also contained within are a handful of the best remixes from the singles and the "Further Down The Spiral" versions which are nice to have on one disc. Then you have the Joy Division cover "Dead Souls" and "Burn" from The Crow and the Natural Born Killers soundtracks, respectively. Last but not least is the Soft Cell cover, "Memorabilia" which is an excellent track and it sounds fantastic here. Getting on to the good stuff, the album itself is a whole new listening experience. Everything feels more alive, more crisp, more precise than it did before. When you've listened to The Downward Spiral as much as the average NIN fan does, you start to pick up on things you never noticed the first 50 times you heard the song. Well that is what the deluxe edition feels like. Hearing new things all over again, letting your senses soak up the layers upon layers of... well, noise. There was a lot of it to begin with, and here it just becomes even more evident, and beautiful. You can never truly appreciate the artestry and brilliance put into the masterpieces which are Nine Inch Nails albums, until you hear them multiple times. That said, we are now able to let it happen all over again. Reznor couldn't have marked the 10-year anniversary of The Downward Spiral any better, and it is definitely a must have for any Nine Inch Nails fan, or someone who just never owned the album in the first place. It sounds great even if you don't own an SACD player or have 5.1 surround sound. Highly recommended. |
![The Downward Spiral [Deluxe Edition]](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00066N8JS.01.MZZZZZZZ.jpg)