Changes

The piece consists of a dark and quiet introduction, featuring a beat with a wah effect, deep synthesizers, strings, and guitar. This section ends suddenly, quickly transitioning to a lone wah guitar melody. It is soon joined by a loud beat and percussive bass and guitar and the return of the guitar melody from the first section. This is followed by a buildup with a new distorted guitar riff, increasing in intensity until it gives way to a beatless reprise of the introduction. On the CD and presumably cassette versions of ''The Fragile,'' "The Mark Has Been Made" ends with a different melody and these whispers: I'm getting closer I'm getting closer I'm getting closer All the time This is a short fragment of the song "[[10 Miles High]]," a ''Fragile'' track only included on the vinyl edition (and later on part 1 of the ''[[We're In This Together (halo) | We're In This Together]]'' single and ''[[Things Falling Apart]]''). This may be here as a lead into "10 Miles High", which was cut from the CD and Cassette versions of the album, these formats but that appears right after "The Mark Has Been Made" on the vinyl versions of "The Fragile," albeit on a different side."

Backed by watery and flaming visuals, the live version is more in-your-face. While the structure remains remained basically the same, : the first section before the wah guitar is was shortened, and the buildup following it is was more concise. As well, erupting into an entirely new guitar riff ends the live version, seemingly based with Reznor wailing on the bassline from top. It segued directly into "[[The FrailWish (song)|Wish]]."