The Downward Spiral by Nine Inch Nails

The Downward Spiral, Nine Inch Nails' second album, came out on March 8, 1994, on Nothing Records and Interscope in the US and Island in Europe, and it's a harrowing, pitch-black trip. Trent Reznor conceived it as a concept album tracing a misanthrope's slide into madness, dehumanization and suicide, a spiral that takes in alienation, addiction, religion, violence, sex, power and depression along the way.

He recorded it at the house where the Manson Family carried out the Tate–LaBianca killings in 1969, which he turned into a home studio he called "Le Pig". Wanting to move past the abrasive, head-on assault of the Broken EP (1992), he went for texture and atmosphere instead, with David Bowie's Low and Pink Floyd's The Wall in mind. Flood co-produced, Alan Moulder mixed, Chris Vrenna played drums, and Adrian Belew and Stephen Perkins sat in on guitars and percussion. Reznor ran guitars and vocals through samplers and computers until they turned into abstract, shattered textures, mixing industrial rock with techno, metal, ambient and electronica.

"Mr. Self Destruct" hits like a panic attack, "March of the Pigs" lurches in violent fits and starts, and "Piggy" simmers menacingly. "Closer" is a slinky, lurid industrial funk grind, and "Hurt" is a desolate, whispered confession that swells into a wall of noise. For all its rawness, the album debuted at number 2 on the Billboard 200 and went on to quadruple Platinum in the US.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.