YMMV / The Downward Spiral

Nine Inch Nails Main YMMV Page
The Downward Spiral | Year Zero

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• Covered Up: Most people tend to be more familiar with Johnny Cash's cover of "Hurt" than with the original version from this album; even Trent conceded that the song became more Cash's as a result of the cover and especially its music video.
• Epic Riff:
  • In terms of guitar riffs, "Heresy" and "March of the Pigs".
  • The drums in "Eraser".
  • The remixes of the title track, "The Downward Spiral (A Gilded Sickness)" and "The Downward Spiral (The Bottom)", also deserve a special mention.
• Even Better Sequel: While both Pretty Hate Machine and the Broken EP were well regarded, both fans and critics regard The Downward Spiral as an even greater step up, leaning further into the industrial metal sound of Broken while also introducing a greater degree of artistry and complexity by incorporating elements of Progressive Rock and Krautrock. Consequently, while Broken is seen as the point where Trent Reznor grew the beard, this album is considered the point where the beard reached its full bushiness.
• Fridge Brilliance:
  • "Mr. Self Destruct" and "Big Man with a Gun" both have the same tempo (200 BPM) and similar melodies. It could be chalked up to coincidence if not for the fact that "Big Man with a Gun" is the moment where the protagonist becomes fully corrupted and seemingly irredeemable, the very thing foreshadowed in "Mr. Self Destruct". Also, "Mr. Self Destruct" and "Big Man with a Gun" open and close the first "section" of the album (tracks 1–9, according to Trent).
  • If you pay attention to the Title Track's length, you'll realize that it clocks in at 3:57, as in ".357 Revolver" (which is presumably used by the protagonist during his suicide attempt).
• Funny Moments: The Downward Spiral is the furthest thing from a funny album, but does have a couple of darkly amusing moments.
  • The Mood Whiplash instances that comes out of nowhere in "March of the Pigs".
    All the pigs are all lined up
    I give you all that you want
    Take the skin and peel it back
    (cheerfully) Now doesn't that make you feel better?
    • The music video for "March of the Pigs" is also weirdly funny, featuring Trent and his backing band performing the song live, and Trent constantly throwing his microphone and running into other band members.
  • Not overtly funny in what might be one of the grimmest moments on an already grim album, but there's the protagonist's little self-reassuring "I am a big man (yes I am) and I've got a big gun" shortly before he (possibly) crosses the Moral Event Horizon.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The title song became even more disturbing after Kurt Cobain's suicide on April 5th, 1994, since it's about the main character losing his sanity and shooting himself with a firearm. Keep in mind that the album was released one month BEFORE the actual event happened.
  • Trent would later admit that he was suicidal himself while working on The Fragile.
• Jerkass Woobie: The protagonist of the album may be (or may not be) a self-destructive megalomaniac who has hurt a lot of people in some absolutely horrific ways, but he clearly has some severe issues, and his self-loathing often clashes with his ego.
• Misaimed Fandom: The public's response to "Closer." What was meant to be a dark deconstruction of the concept of Sex for Solace is now one of the most popular song choices for stripping in and out of the club.
• Moral Event Horizon: "Big Man with a Gun" could be this, depending on whether you interpret it as depicting a rape, a massacre or... both.
• Narm:
  • "Closer" can drift into this territory if you happen to mistakenly hear the chorus' first line as "I wanna fuck you like an Elmo!" You might try to listen to the song without picturing Elmo laughing in the background and cracking up.
  • The line "I wear this crown of shit..." from "Hurt". Johnny Cash decided to change it to the more effective "crown of thorns" for his cover of the song.
• Narm Charm: "Hurt" is this through and through. The lyrics are extremely Wangst-y... and yet they still really work anyway, especially if you've dealt with severe depression or know someone suffering from it.
• Nausea Fuel: The Title Track. The detuned guitars, the watery droning noise, the flies, the screaming, the ugly, clipped backing music in the distance... The lyrics...
• Refrain from Assuming:
  • "Closer" is sometimes referred to as "Help me" (the most repeated line in the song) and "I wanna fuck you like an animal" (the most obvious and memorable line in the chorus). "You get me closer to God" (the chorus' last line, which is closer to the actual title) is also included, which is not helped by the fact that the single featuring remixes of the song (plus one of said remixes) is called Closer to God.
  • While "Closer" at the very least contains its title somewhere in the lyrics, "Heresy" is most applicable to the trope, as it does not contain the word anywhere in the song and often gets referred to by a line from the chorus — "God is dead" (or "Your god is dead").
  • "Piggy" prominently repeats the line it's commonly misattributed as its title ("nothing can stop me now") at least twenty times, and only utters the actual title twice in the first verse. "Nothing can stop me now" is also used as a subtitle in a remix of the song.
• Spiritual Successor: If Radiohead's OK Computer was Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon of the '90s, this album could be The Wall, as an angsty concept album about mental decay that generated a major Black Sheep Hit.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: Reznor himself admits that "A Warm Place" is very similar to David Bowie's "Crystal Japan" (a non-album track that Bowie wrote for a Japandering Jun Rock Sake commercial in 1980).
• Sweet Dreams Fuel: "A Warm Place", a beautiful ambient/new-age composition that provides a break from the album's chaos. Though in a roundabout way, the fact that it isn't scary like the rest of the album, as one might expect, still makes it scary. Not an easy feat.
• Tear Jerker: Even though it's mostly nightmare-fueled, the album also has plenty of somber tracks:
  • "Mr. Self-Destruct" is Nightmare Fuel through and through, but the last verse can hit pretty strong especially for those who suffer from depression. The fact that the repeating "And I control you" line goes from being mocking to somber only makes it worse:
    I am the bullet in the gun.
    I am the truth from which you run.
    I am a silencing machine.
    I am the end of all your dreams.
  • The lyrics to "Closer" are even worse, describing the protagonist engaging in sexual sadism in order to fill the empty void of depression in his life while being completely horrified and disgusted by himself and desperately begging the subject of the song to stay with him.
    I broke apart my insides
    I've got no soul to sell
    The only thing that works for me
    Help me get away from myself
    • The song's outro. After a multi-layered and chaotic musical climax, it segues into a heartbreaking detuned piano version of the "Downward Spiral motif".
  • "A Warm Place", especially at the end — when it starts fading into "Eraser" and you see the brief glimpse of hope is over.
    • The slam cut from "Big Man With a Gun" to "A Warm Place" can be rather gut-wrenching as well, given to what just happened in the context of the album: the character went insane and either raped someone or committed a massacre (or at least got into a grandiose, depraved mania and tried to do so, or believed that they were doing so), then has retreated into his mind, the only place where he can find any sort of peace (and even that peace doesn't last).
  • "Hurt", especially in the context of the album — particularly because Trent's vocals are haunting. It only doesn't reach much Tear Jerker potential due to its Last Note Nightmare... but those fucking lyrics....
    And you could have it all,
    My empire of dirt
    I will let you down.
    I will make you hurt...
    If I could start again,
    A million miles away,
    I would keep myself...
    I would find a way.
    • Johnny Cash's cover is even worse, if only because it was being sung by a man in the twilight of his years, reflecting on his real-life failures. Trent himself said that the song wasn't his anymore when he reacted to the cover.

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