Changes

Like other NIN releases, some songs never made it to the final album. In this case, some songs were "[[The Beauty Of The Drug]]", which was a general out take, and "[[Just Do It]]", which was a track prompting the album's protagonist to kill himself. The latter was axed at the request of [[Flood]], who refused to have anything to do with it.

<blockquote>"The studio was equipped with a 56-input Amek Mozart console with Rupert Neve modules, two Studer A800 Mk3 multitrack machines, Mac-based Pro Tools and a host of outboard gear, in addition to Akai S1100 and Kurzweil K2000 samplers; Prophet VS, Digidesign Turbosynth, ARP Odyssey, Oberheim Expander, Oberheim OBMx, Roland MKS80 and Minimoog synthesizers; Doepfer and Oberheim sequencers; a Mellotron MKIV polyphonic tape replay keyboard; a Roland R70 drum machine; and assorted Jackson and Gibson guitars."[http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep12/articles/classic-tracks-0912.htm]</blockquote>

The double vinyl release splits sides between "March of the Pigs" and "Closer," "The Becoming" and "I Do Not Want This," and "Eraser" and "Reptile." Rather than completely separating the songs, the transitions are retained: "The Becoming" still contains the fade-in of the "I Do Not Want This" beginning, but fades out; the introduction of "Reptile" is tagged onto the end of "Eraser."

[[Image:TDSinnercover.jpg|thumb|''The Downward Spiral'' inner cover art]]

On his website[http://www.russellmills.com/mills/installations/committere.html], [[Russell Mills]] explained the ideas and materials used for the paintings that became the album cover and the inner cover/j-card insert.