Customer Reviews
Trent's best?? Maybe.... - By: Mr. Samuel Floyd, 03 Jun 2008 
I first got the album on cassette not long after it came outin 1994 at the age of 14, & I am not ashamed to say I was pushed towards it by seeing NIN tracks on beavis & butthead!!
At the time, I think I was listening to Jesus Jones, Blur, some metal, Megadeth, Anthrax etc. Putting it onin mother's car on the way back from town I think it nearly made her crash it. Mr Self Destruct was a nasty piece of work to say the least, but now it just seems the norm. Then we had Piggy, not a bad little slow one. By the time we got to Heresy, I think it got turned off to be "listened to at home".
Anyway, that's enough sentimental rubbish, this album has stood the test of time, definitely. Don't get me wrong, I still dig the hard Depeche style sound of Pretty Hate Machine, & I will never get bored of Fragile, but Downward Spiral is where NIN set the mark for everything that followed, & probably why Trent has never silenced the critics since.
The arrangement, layering, samples & effects on this album make it that little bit cleverer, deeper & more empathetic than his more recent efforts.
It took me a couple of years of the odd listen to get what was going on, that may have been my own naivety or just getting into more electronic luminaries such as Orbital, Erasure & the more creative aspects of Pop Will Eat Itselfin the meantime.
In the last couple of years, I probably haven't given the record as many listens as I may have done say 5 years ago. That may be due to me discovering Foetus - Nail, all the shoegazer bands (Ride, Swervedriver etc), Luke Haines, Julian Cope & Cathal Coughlan, my 8 year love for Nitzer Ebb & co, & my general disappointment at With Teeth & other releases.
But what I will say is, The Downward Spiral is a fantastic piece of art, & if you are just a little bit curious, get hold of a copy & just see what you think.
Oh, for people who say, "yeah yeah, this is really depressing music", it isn't. It's just realistic, a little understanding always helps, don't you think??
much imitated, never equalled - By: cmdrdeathguts, 18 Dec 2007 Let's get one thing out of the way - this is not a rock album, or a metal album, or anything like that. It falls neatly into that rather overcooked category "electronic dance music"in almost all respects, & certainly isn't the only such album to make prominent use of the old six string (as do everybody from Daft Punk to Redanka to Skazi).
I say this, because to judge this as a rock album is to completely miss the point of NIN main-man Trent Reznor's abilities - there are only a very few producers (in the EDM sense) as imaginative & immersedin the finest details as Reznor, none of which workin the various genres termed "industrial". The lyrical obsessions with control & domination are only half the picture. Reznor seeps into every second of this record; samples & found sounds aren't just thrown in, but meticulously weaved into the mix. He is matchedin this perhaps only by the more cerebral minimal techno producers, such as Richie Hawtin. That he was doing thisin 1994 (and before),in the era before dual-core Logic 8/Cubase 4-powered, soft-synth loaded mega-computers,in nothing short of remarkable - this record sounds completely perfect, timeless, permanently modern & impeccably loud.
Forget the massive hits. "March Of The Pigs" rages nicely, of course, & "Closer" is a grinding slo-mo club-banger of the first order (yet was thrown into the "modern rock" playlists!). But it's all about the lumbering, crescendoing waltz of "Eraser", indisputable album highlight - building from a couple of reedy, wheezy FX, through a cavernous beat & layers of detuned synths, dropping into a vocal breakdown, & only then launching one of the clipped-to-death snarling guitar riffs that make up Reznor's claim to alterna-rock royalty. (I barely need to tell people to ignore the lyrics, which are portentiously angsty & more-or-less wafer thin. But then, dance music fans are used to ignoring dreadful lyrics.)
Also pay close attention to "Hurt". It may have escaped many people's attention, given the now-popular myth (in the sense of its social role, rather than the sense of a lie or untruth) building around the Johnny Cash cover. If you want an object lessonin why Trent Reznor is great, forget about the Manin Black & compare him with his 'rival' producer, Rick Rubin. While the latter piles on the string section, records everything with the bright & clean sound beloved of American Idol finalists & generally does all he can to make Cash sound completely out of place, Reznor tweaks everything & sits itin a gentle bed of resonating noise. The big momentin the second chorus is provided by a semi-monotonous guitar thump. Reznor doen't need the string section to get a bit of drama.
A classic of the producer's art, & a classic electronic album anyway.
in response to review below. - By: D. Thompson, 24 Aug 2007 I was a moody teenager who LOVED NIN with a passion - the angst fell away & i got into a much wider range of music.
but having revisited this after what must be at least 10 or more years since i last heard it - i have found i still beleive it is a really good album.
ignore the self loathing & 'i hate the world' attitude & you still have a very very good set of songs that are perfectly crafted. This really is his masterpiece - i cant think of anything you could add to this album to make it a better slice of commercial heavy metal??
an angt ridden teen - (although you won't admit it)?? - buy it!
into white noise....buy it!
appreciate well produced music?? Buy it!!
2 stars... here's why - By: beansprout, 01 Jul 2007 
This album is like suicidal depression set to music. In that context, it works, & perhaps even deserves to be lauded as a "classic". However, I found the album far too bleak & nihilistic to listen to once I left behind my "angsty teenager" phase, so I gave away my copy.
In short: if you're depressed & want to make yourself feel worse, get this. If, like me, you don't want to wallowin depression & self-pity, don't bother.
good for depression - By: James Ward, 26 Jun 2007 
The best from trent, easily. Every track is passionate & melodic with that rasp & bite you'd expect. There are things to dance (well fling yourself around the room to anyway); piggy, march of the pigs, eraser, big gun; also some real serene momentsin the album; hurt, warm place (used to wonderful effectin Natural Born Killers), i do not want this.
Hard to listen to the first time, especially with such a painful openerin mr self destruct, the guitar may as well be a chainsaw; but every time after that is a joy.
4 stars for one reason, piggy & hurt, great songs, but a lot better on the one version of further down the spiral, the one with the live hurt on, can cry to that version for days, his voice cracks wonderfully.
