The Downward Spiral (halo)

The Downward Spiral's album cover.

The Downward Spiral (also known as Halo 8) is Nine Inch Nails' second LP. It was released on March 8, 1994. It is likely the most acclaimed and well-known of the band's discography, and is said to have brought "industrial" music to the mainstream.

For its tenth anniversary, The Downward Spiral was re-released in two new formats:

As a 2-CD "Deluxe Edition" (labeled Halo 8DE). The first disc is an SACD/CD hybrid featuring the album in high-resolution stereo and 5.1 surround sound. The second disc features various remixes, b-sides, and other non-album tracks that were available around the time of the original release.
As a DualDisc. The CD side features a digitally remastered version of the album. The DVD side includes high-resolution stereo and 5.1 surround sound versions of the album as well as videos for "Closer", "March Of The Pigs" and "Hurt" (live). Also included is artwork from The Downward Spiral era and a discography.

Concept and interpretations

Most fans seem to agree that "Closer" (noted for its "I want to fuck you like an animal" lyric) 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".
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. [1]
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. [2]
"Closer" uses a heavily modified sample of a kick drum from the song "Nightclubbing" from The Idiot album by Iggy Pop. [3]
"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 Year Zero Warm-Up Tour, The Downward Spiral era songs have been getting more frequent play time. A particularly extreme example is the 2007/02/15 show in Madrid, Spain, when the first 7 songs from The Downward Spiral were performed in their exact order on the album.

Track Listing (original release and DVD-A release)

"Mr. Self Destruct" – 4:30
"Piggy" – 4:24
"Heresy" – 3:54
"March Of The Pigs" – 2:58
"Closer" – 6:13
"Ruiner" – 4:58
"The Becoming" – 5:31
"I Do Not Want This" – 5:41
"Big Man With A Gun" – 1:38
"A Warm Place" – 3:22
"Eraser" – 4:54
"Reptile" – 6:51
"The Downward Spiral" – 3:58
"Hurt" – 6:15

Track Listing (SACD/CD release)

Disc 1

"Mr. Self Destruct" – 4:30
"Piggy" – 4:24
"Heresy" – 3:54
"March Of The Pigs" – 2:58
"Closer" – 6:13
"Ruiner" – 4:58
"The Becoming" – 5:31
"I Do Not Want This" – 5:41
"Big Man With A Gun" – 1:38
"A Warm Place" – 3:22
"Eraser" – 4:54
"Reptile" – 6:51
"The Downward Spiral" – 3:58
"Hurt" – 6:15

Disc 2

"Burn" - 5:00
"Closer" (Precursor) - 7:16
"Piggy" (Nothing Can Stop Me Now) - 4:03
"A Violet Fluid" - 1:04
"Dead Souls" - 4:53
"Hurt" (Quiet) - 5:08
"Closer To God" - 5:05
"All The Pigs, All Lined Up" - 7:26
"Memorabilia" - 7:22
"The Downward Spiral" (The Bottom) - 7:32
"Ruiner" (Demo) - 4:51
"Liar" (Reptile Demo) - 6:57
"Heresy" (Demo) - 4:00

Re-release Rumors for other Albums

The re-release of The Downward Spiral has started rumors (along with Trent's own words, shown below) that The Fragile, Broken/Fixed, and Pretty Hate Machine will be re-released in high definition stereo and surround sound.

2006/02/10 Spiral chat:

Russhudson: For Trent: I love the 5.1 mixes of "Downward Spiral" and "With Teeth."
The spatial element has always felt like an important part of your music.
Any plans on doing a new mix of "The Fragile"?
Trent_reznor: I'd love to. Maybe when this touring cycle is over I'll get it going.

2004/12/03 nin.com access: