238
edits
Changes
The Downward Spiral (halo) (view source)
Revision as of 04:42, 20 February 2007
, 04:42, 20 February 2007concept + recurring themes + samples + live
#"[[Reptile|Liar (Reptile Demo)]]" - 6:57
#"[[Heresy|Heresy (Demo)]]" - 4:00
==Concept and interpretations==
Most fans seem to agree that the "[[Closer|I wanna fuck you like an animal]]" song has meaning deeper than its surface lyrics (note the desperate dependency expressed by the final line, "you are the reason, I stay alive"). The entire concept album is interpreted to be about the journey of one man in dealing with religion, society, drugs, sex, and finally suicide. The narrator was not exactly modelled after [[Trent]]'s previous life, though he would later go through his own sort of "downward spiral" during the Fragility tour, battling issues such as drug abuse.
==="A dissertation on The Downward Spiral"===
This is a lengthy interpretation of the album's story written by a couple of guys back around 1998. Read it at:
* http://www.4degreez.com/nailz/ninterpretations/downspiral.html with feedback from several fans
* http://web.archive.org/web/20050920110644/http://www.sickamongthepure.com/files/2002/02/TDS/TDS.html archive of the article on [[SickAmongthePure]]
==Recurring themes and styles==
* The ending keyboard melody of "[[Closer]]" is repeated in the climax of "[[The Downward Spiral (song)|The Downward Spiral]]".
* The lyric "nothing can stop me now" appears in "[[Piggy]]", "[[Ruiner]]", and "[[Big Man With A Gun]]". The same phrase would recur on later albums in "[[La Mer]]" and "[[Sunspots]]".
* Quite a few of the songs end by repeating the same line or set of lines: "[[Piggy]]", "[[Ruiner]]", "[[I Do Not Want This]]", "[[Big Man With A Gun]]", and "[[Eraser]]". These deviate from the traditional chorus-chorus ending in that these lyrics are introduced near the end, and they are not sung, but rather whispered or yelled.
==Samples==
* "[[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 [[Trent]] 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" and [[Chris Vrenna]] on "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.
*The looping female voice that appears on "Reptile" (approx. 5:06) is from the 1974 film ''The Texas Chain Saw Massacre''.
==Live==
All of these songs have been played live with the exception of the instrumental "[[A Warm Place]]". Obviously, they were featured during the Self Destruct tours, though "[[Heresy]]" and "[[Ruiner]]" ended up on relatively few set lists.
Recently on the 2007 tour, The Downward Spiral era songs have been getting more frequent play time. A particularly extreme example is the February 15 show in Madrid, Spain ([http://www.echoingthesound.org/phpbbx/viewtopic.php?p=821572#821572 setlist]), when the first 7 songs from The Downward Spiral were performed in their exact order on the album.
==Re-release Rumors for other Albums==