Customer Reviews

Downward Spiral

5 star:		(473)
4 star:		(91)
3 star:		(32)
2 star:		(18)
1 star:		(36)

 

 

This is one of the best re-issues to date. The 5.1 and advanced surround mixes are A+, which is what one would expect from Trent Reznor. Im assuming you know how good The Downward Spiral is , so i wont go into to that, suffice to say, it rates as one fo the best albums of the 90's and one of my personal favorites, this album got me through many a breakup and hard time. Ive never heard NIN sound so good, i do have the concert dvd so i knew beforehand how good this medium can sound in surround, but in album form its breathtaking. Sounds revolve around me and im hearing things ive never heard before, it makes me wish more albums were mixed in 5.1 The clarity of the sound is as such you can hear him draw breath before some verses and the difference between this and a regular cd is that with a cd you always sort of know that its a cd playing...with this if you close your eyes its like the band itself if playing in front of you. Industrial/electronic music like this is perfect for surround because of all the layers of sound and this , i promise you will not dissapoint. It blows most of the trash on today out of the water.'The extras are the best ive encountered of all the dvd's i have... in the discography , there is one or two songs (in cd quality) you can listen to from each album! Considering the amount of albums,singles and remix projects NIN has , this is quite a bonus, also you get concert footage from both his previous dvd's. To top it off there are 3 vidoes on this...closer (in stereo and surround), march of the pigs and hurt. Considering i paid less for this than most dvd's out now, it has to be the best value for money musicwise i got all year....very highly recommended...enjoy!

"Roar Of Machines" might have been a good name for this as well. Dark, moody, loud, angry and groundbreaking, these five words best sum up "The Downward Spiral" in all it's bloody glory. When you listen to this album, listen to it all the way through, then you can pick out your favorites and hit repeat. Why? It's a concept album. Kinda like a book or a movie, you wanna see, read, hear it all in sequence. To start off this masterpiece is "Mr. Self Destruct". The song is so heavy that you will not believe your ears, it has enough distortion to make Jimi Hendrix turn in his grave. The song then leads directly into "Piggy". The exact opposite of "Mr. Self Destruct", it has an almost jazz feel to it with Trent Reznor whispering "nothing can stop me now". "Heresy" is the closest thing to "Closer" on this disc, so if you bought it for "Closer", chances are you'll like this song too. Especially the "God is dead" chorus. "March Of The Pigs" is one of NIN most solid songs ever, definate perfection. "Closer" is NIN biggest hit and I can see why. This is a classic sing along. "Ruiner" has the greatest chorus I've ever heard in a song. Lyrically it's okay but musically it's perfect. "The Becoming" might be my favorite track here. "Annie, hold a little tighter I just might slip away", that floors me every time. "I Do Not Want This" is the worst song here but NIN worst is still better then other artists best, it's still a good song too. "Big Man With A Gun" is the controversial song here, it's hilarious though, good, but short. "A Warm Place" maybe NIN best instrumental, very heavenly. "Eraser" starts off very annoying but song bulds up and explodes everywhere, nice. "Reptile" is, simply put, amazing. "The Downward Spiral" is a crazy song, when tat scream comes in... "Hurt" is probably the saddest song ever, really touching. It's easy to see why Trent Reznor is the best at whatever he does, he really is a genious. In an artical I read about Trent, it said with this album Trent killed off the industrial genre. At first I didn't know what they meant, but then it struck me, Trent did everything in this genre that could possibly be done. This is one twisted tale about a sick puppy who does all the wrong things, yet you still feel sorry for. A classic.

A dark, intense, brutal, profane and graphic album, _The Downward Spiral_ is not for those who can't stand sonic overkill, but for those who love intense, explosive and frighteningly loud music - added with some depressing lyrics -- and/or vice versa.

Like the title suggests, this is not a happy album. If you like songs about cruising on the beach, and picking up the hottest girls, then I advise you to leave this page. Featuring such guest appearances from guitarist Adrian Belew (Frank Zappa, King Crimson etc) and Stephen Perkins (Jane's Addiction), this is a wallowing, disturbing, hellish and thought-provoking portrait of (Trent Reznor's?) descent into the most hellish places of the human psyche. Some of the tracks:

"Mr. Self Destruct"--An abrasive, aggressive industrial number. Turn this up loud if you want to abuse your eardrums, or to annoy your friends, parents, neighbors or anyone else.

"Piggy"--One of the slower pieces on the album. The ending features a bunch of seemingly different drum and synthesized parts spliced together to form typical drum patterns, making it sound like a really messed up remix. But, it's really cool.

"March Of The Pigs"--Another explosive industrial number. This time, with an odd rhythm, and some unpredictable shifts into gentle piano and voice modes.

"Closer"--The hit of the album. Seems to be the most 'accessible' and radio-friendly on here. However, it's doubtful that fans of the radio heard the full 6-minute version contained on here.

"Ruiner"--An industrial number with some funky beats. Love the dimly audible vocal production from Trent on here. Also features an ominous and cinematic keyboard/synthesizer sweep during the sexual innuendo-filled chorus.

"The Becoming"--This features a very strange rhythm (which I think is in 13/8.) The main beat is pretty much repeated throughout the song, with the exception of an acoustic break in the middle. Behind all of this are sounds of people screaming, or laughing. Whatever's going on, it's pretty disturbing.

"I Do Not Want This"--A very disturbing piece lyrically, fronted by some techno beats. It finishes with an intense climax, as Trent's vocals are smothered in a computerized wash of synthesizers.

"Big Man With A Gun"--A short, explosive, explicit and somewhat funny number. Crank it loud!

"A Warm Place"--A new age-esque instrumental which is beautiful and moving. The thing that I find disturbing about this track is that instead of ascending two half-steps to close out the track from the main key, it descends two half-steps to finish out the track. Either I'm superstitious, or that just represents something very ironic, disturbing and depressing. Plus, I rarely hear this used in music. Almost genius.

"The Downward Spiral"--Trent must have really been "cooked" when he made this track. This is the most bizarre, disturbing, jarring and bothersome track on the album. Not only are the suicidal lyrics graphic (and voiced in a snaky, spoken word manner by Trent), but the haunting and almost devilish cries/screams in the muffled background just really give me the shakes. As I listen to this track at this very moment, I'm getting the shakes. It's that unsettling. Before all this happens, you get about 2 minutes worth of sound effects, which sound like bitterly cold winds blowing.

"Hurt"--A slow, honest, depressing ballad to close out the album. The ending is one of long, noisy distortion.

As noted, this album is not for the faint of heart, for so many reasons. If you're on the verge of suicide, this is probably not the album to listen to - or conversely, after listening to this (especially the title track), you may just want to stay alive -- fearing that you'll end up in a world like the one featured in this album. If it scares the daylights out of you, it's probably a good thing. I'm probably making no sense, but this is a dark, intense and scary masterpiece. Recommended for the designated listener.

This album is considered Nine Inch Nails' most controversial and disturbing work. They completely change their image that was first seen on "Pretty Hate Machine" to something much more darker and emotional. The result is a very successful and complex masterpiece that takes you to places you have never been in the music world. With each track you step in further and further into Reznor's mind. "The Downward Spiral" is an outstanding album and will always remain a classic.

The songs are much more complex and have more structure to them than the ones that appear on "Pretty Hate Machine" and "Broken." There are heavy songs, and there are soft songs. There are disturbing songs, and there are beautiful songs. You get to experience something different with each song.

The great thing about this album is, just like with any other NIN album, no two songs are the same. Each one has its own identity and feeling to it. Another plus is that there is not a single bad song on the entire album. My favorites are "mr. self destruct," "march of the pigs," "closer," "the becoming," "a warm place," "eraser," "I do not want this," "ruiner," and "hurt."

"The Downward Spiral" is an amazing album. Reznor knows how to make great music and continues to impress us even to this day. Be warned, though. This album isn't for everyone. It is indeed a very controversial and even sometimes offensive album. But if you love Nine Inch Nails, then this is a must-have. It is a CD I continue to listen to over and over again. It never ceases to amaze me. A classic to the very end.

Words cannot begin to describe The Downward Spiral. This is a perfect recording, the divine Nine Inch Nails album. I've listened to each and every one of the halo's, and without a doubt, this one is the best. The message and mood of the songs are practically a suicide note written in music. Musically and lyrically it is the best album I have ever listened to.

NIN's breakthrough hit "Closer" is in here, but believe me, that's not all the album has to offer. It contains a lot of variety while sticking to the basis of Industrial. "Ruiner" is a haunting song that will stick with you for a long time...music-wise it nearly reaches perfection. "The Becoming" is one of the most abstract Nine Inch Nails songs ever written, and that's saying a lot. "A Warm Place" is a very beautiful and heavenly instrumental, perhaps the best instrumental Trent has ever recorded. "Hurt" is the most moving ballad I've ever heard. "March Of The Pigs" is probably the greatest Hard Rock song of all time. The list goes on and on. Each song is so amazing that I'd be hard pressed to choose a favorite.

What more can be said that I haven't already said? This album is closer to perfection (no pun intended) than any other album will ever hope to be. Trent Reznor is a music god, and if this album doesn't solidify that statement, then...well, I guess the world deserves to go to hell.

My name's Jonny. Nine Inch Nails has been my favorite band since I was 12, when the first Downward Spiral came out. Now it's been re-released in Dolby Digital Surround Sound and High Resolution Surround Sound, both of which are in 5.1. Do yourself a favor, get a set of surround sound speakers (mine cost $50) and GET THIS ALBUM! you can play it on any dvd player on the dvd side in 5.1 or 2.0 (or most cd players if you play the stereo 2.0 cd side).

The only negative thing I can possibly say about this re-release is that since all the sounds were so cleaned up and separated into 6 channels (including the sub-woofer), it sounds a little cleaner and less mangled than the original, which to me was always part of its charm. However, if you're like me you should already have the original of this to listen to whenever you miss the chunky collision of 8 or 9 sounds at once.

This album has come alive. Instead of sounding like one band working together, the dualdisc version of this album sounds like a half-dozen or so seperate things coming together and making some eerie kind of sound; some bizarre collaboration of noise and music. There were at least 7 or 8 songs in which I heard 4 or 5 sounds I'd NEVER heard before, and I've listened to the original version literally thousands of times.

One of the best examples of the use of remastering and surround sound is actually in Closer. That chainsaw-kinda sound near the end starts in the front left speaker and makes a full circle around you (front left, rear left, rear right, front right) and blends perfectly in almost 360 degrees. Everything is cleaner and spread out and like you've never heard it before.

A word on techie stuff. CD's are generally recorded at 16-bit quality with 44100khz, 2 channels (left and right). This version of The Downward Spiral was recorded (or so claims my dvd-audio player) at 48000khz with 24-bit quality and 6 channels (front left, front right, rear left, rear right, center and subwoofer).

Besides everything new on this album (this version also includes three music videos, better artwork on the book, an image gallery, and a discography), The Downward Spiral is in and of itself an amazing CD. It's an industrial-rock concept album about the main character's life falling apart, piece by piece. Great instrumentation, great songwriting, great lyrics.

Buy this album folks. Cheap at twice the price.

It's a little terrifying to roll down through the reviews on this CD and see the way people unintentionally tell you more about themselves than about the album. So i'm going to cut to the chase. The following is opinion, not fact. I don't think presenting what i think about this album as the gospel truth is going to sway anybody, anyway, so this is what this record means to me.

In Stephen King's "On Writing," he mentions that some authors are "your" authors...you hear exactly what they say, and bridge the gaps in what they don't say effortlessly, and regardless of whether or not you think they're the most talented writers, you're stuck with them.

That's how i feel about Trent Reznor. I don't mean that this album represents my outlook on life (God forbid) or that i think "i'm just like Trent!" or anything silly like that. But i do think i've come to understand and love his work with all its glories and glitches (i'm certainly not going to say that all the lyrics on PHM are great, or that his voice isn't occasionally whiny...nobody's perfect, guys, and we all just give it the best shot we can when it comes to creating somethign.) I've had eight years to ponder over why i like this record, and it comes down to the following four points:

1) Production. There is simply nobody like Trent when it comes to CREATING NEW SOUNDS, not in the quirky, masturbatory way that "experimental" musicians like Aphex Twin (who i love, don't get me wrong) do, but in the sense of translating emotion directly into music (or noise.) This album is the height of his accomplishment on this front to date.

2) Lyrics. Trent is not one of the great poets of our time in terms of imagery or lyrical language; he's never troubled much with alliteration or even rhythm. But he consistently and intelligently cuts his lyrics to the bone of what he means and builds songs out of simple, shocking honesty, saying terrible, terrible things so baldly, but without ever resorting to idiocies like "i'm so depressed," or "i feel so much pain" that seem to characterize rap/emo/new-metal. At 16 years old, i had never heard anyone lend these kinds of sentiments any modicum of likeability. When i heard this record, i was forced to see some of this stuff in myself. I had NEVER had the thought "I want to f*ck you like an animal" until he said it. I had never realized how much i hated the other humans on this planet, sometimes, until i understood March of the Pigs.

3) Music. Trent is not, in terms of finger-speed or vocal range, a virtuoso. But he ties together songs better than anyone else. He builds structure and layers and variation in ways that other musicians miss entirely. I've heard some complaints about the "Loud/Soft/Loud" pattern of NIN songs. First of all, i think this is captious over-analyzing. Almost every band (indeed, almost every piece of music) does this to varying degrees, and moreover, Trent is smart enough to know that there's only so loud you can get without needing to tone it down and start over. Loud/Loud/Loud = death metal. I'm not arguing for or against death metal, but it's not exactly the best forum to intelligently discuss emotions, and it tends to kind of run together. Soft/Soft/Soft = elevator music. Enough said. Moreover, which is better...extremely talented *performers* who don't have much to say for themselves and spend all their time soloing, or moderately talented people who put loads of thought, effort, and emotion into their work?

4) Redemption. This album is NOT a guidebook to self-destruction or teenage nihilism. To me, it's a dissection of all the reasons to end it all that we face every day, the necessary following of that path to its logical conclusion, because otherwise YOU DON'T KNOW YOURSELF. You either admit you shadow's there and learn to live with it, or it sneaks up behind you and hits your better judgement over the head, one day. It's not redeeming in the sense of saying "but, because of (insert girl, jesus, rock 'n' roll, inner enlightenment etc.) I'm now HAPPY and don't have to spiral downwards ANY MORE!" but rather it's necessary catharsis and confrontation. ALL the dirty laundry comes out to air in this record, in its rawest, most harrowing form, and forces you to let out some of your own; the artist and the listener face down self-destruction and, at the end, if they were paying attention, the very truthfulness of the record *is* a reason to go on. You are not whole if you can't admit that part of you wants to rape, kill, have meaningless sex, ostracize and destroy everyone who isn't like you, spit in the face of God and every spiritual ideal, and senselessly hurt the people who care about you. This album lets trent's shadow chase itself out to its logical end (self-annihilation) and, at least for me, listening to that process keeps my own darkness sated and at bay, and lets me go on being a nice, friendly person who has been monogomous for the past five years, is kind to his friends, loves his family, always hears dissenting opinions out, and prays and reads the bible daily. Dichotomy? You bet. Welcome to humanity. That's why this is a great record, and i gave it five stars. Whew!

I got the Dual Disc because, while I love Nine Inch Nails, I really can't ever get into all the experimental remixing that comes with most NIN singles. The Downward Spiral is really what I was looking for to be remastered. I was really blown away by the upgraded quality of sound. I listened to both the CD and the SACD (DVD) 5.1 formats and both sounded exceptional. I could really hear so much more and from an album with so much compressed and dense sound this is a real plus compared to the original version.

Beyond the listening experience I was especially delighted to get the added bonus of a full-length uncut video for 'Closer' (in both Stereo and 5.1 formats), one of my favorite videos of all time. Having the album and videos together in one package is definitely worth the buy.

The recent reviews of this album have been horrible, either, "ITS GREATEST ALBUM OF EVER!" or "I don't like it because its dirty."

Okay this album will give back as much as you give to it. There is a tremendous amount of depth, lyrically and musically, on this CD.

If you want, you can just get the emotional rush from the driving beats and the screaming and the anger, which is the way I got into the album for the first time. If you're a angry adolescent male (and what adolescent male _isn't_), I can't recommend this album highly enough for you.

But rage and nihilism and hate isn't the point of the album, in fact, its very nearly the opposite. Its a warning. It tells the story of a person who systematically strips away all attachments to the world hoping to achieve some kind of personal divinity through solitary nothingness. Mr Self Destruct (track 1) sets the stage, explaining the path the album will take. In the songs, he rejects love, sex, religion, society, morality, and finally himself when he commits suicide in climactic title song, which is followed by Hurt, a very ambiguous epilogue to the album.

This isn't product, this is art. If you didn't like it before, listen to it again with an open mind.

After being entranced by "Closer" on the radio while driving my car home one night many years ago, I considered buying "downward spiral." I hesitated initially, not seeing any reason to buy an album with only one thing on it that I would like. It seemed dishonest, however, not to at least try the other tracks. As my musical tastes have matured beyond an unthinking prejudice for classical and opera (although they are still my favorite genres), I have come to appreciate Trent Reznor's iconoclasm as well. (My opinions on the similiarity of themes of all-consuming love in both "Closer" and Richard Wagner's opera "Tristan und Isolde" would constitute an entirely separate, and likely incoherent, essay. Sufficed to say that one must consider Reznor's agonized plea, "Help me think I'm somebody else..." It's Tristan without Wagner's newly-knowing, newly-glowing quasi-spiritual Romanticism, reduced to a panting animal. Listening to this, followed by Isolde's "Liebestod," is an almost heartbreaking experience.)

I found myself surprised by the consistently high quality of many of the songs, far surpassing much of what I've heard by Reznor's contemporaries. Sure "March of the Pigs" may have sections that put one in mind of comedy "Gen-X'rs" hurling themselves into a "mosh pit" circa 1994-95, and the occasional distorted guitars take getting used to, but this album has more substance than many skeptics may think. In "Heresy," Reznor repeatedly screams Friedrich Nietzsche's proclamation that "God is dead," adding that "no one cares!" Like his philosophical predecessor, Reznor descends in order to transcend, delving into a side of humanity that many of us are afraid to acknowledge (especially within ourselves).

Reznor creates a disturbing atmosphere of cybernetic and vampiric sensuality through the sinewy industrial pounding of his music, providing an aural analog to the visual work of H.R. Giger. "Downward spiral" is by no means a conventionally "pleasant" album, but there exists a strange beauty within the bleak subject matter. One of the most stunning juxtapositions occurs through tracks 9 and 10 when Reznor twists oral sex into a horrifying power play of impotent machismo in "Big Man with a Gun," then dissolves into the vulnerability and elegiac beauty of the non-vocal "A Warm Place."

Appealing to "teen angst" has become a hot commodity, and the music industry cranks out much mediocrity by untalented dullards to make money off of the teenagers for whom it allegedly speaks. These corporate conceptions of teen angst cheapen the very real and complex feelings of adolescents. One may feel tempted to lump Trent Reznor into that category, but he executes "downward spiral" with a skill that transcends such allegations. Many may associate Reznor with alienated youth, but, through the personal pain and strange beauty of this album, perhaps he expresses feelings of angst that transcend the generations.