* "[[Mr. Self Destruct]]" begins with a sample from the 1971 film ''THX 1138.'' It is taken from a scene in which a man is being beaten by a guard depicted on a holographic television. [http://www.discogs.com/release/4404]
* The frantic drumming at the end of "[[Piggy]]" played by Reznor himself—his first and only attempt at live drumming on a record, and one of the few "live" drum performances on the album ([[Stephen Perkins]] on "[[I Do Not Want This]]," [[Andy Kubiszewski]] on "[[The Downward Spiral (song)|The Downward Spiral]]," and [[Chris Vrenna]] on "[[Hurt (song)|Hurt]]"). He states that it was from him testing the mic setup in studio, but he liked the sound too much to not include it. [http://www.9inchnails.com/articles/articles.php?id=6]
* "[[Closer]]" uses a heavily modified sample of a kick drum from the song "[[Nightclubbing]]" from ''The Idiot'' album by Iggy Pop. [http://www.9inchnails.com/articles/articles.php?id=6]
* "[[A Warm Place]]" is based on the melody from [[David Bowie]]'s 1980 single "Crystal Japan." Some hear it as a complete rip-off, while others argue that from a music theory point of view that the structure has significant differences.