Band:	Nine Inch Nails
Album:	The Downward Spiral
Style:	Industrial metal, Industrial rock
Release date:	March 1994

Disc I
01. Mr. Self Destruct
02. Piggy
03. Heresy
04. March Of The Pigs
05. Closer
06. Ruiner
07. The Becoming
08. I Do Not Want This
09. Big Man With A Gun
10. A Warm Place
11. Eraser
12. Reptile
13. The Downward Spiral
14. Hurt

Disc II [bonus]
01. Burn
02. Closer (Precursor)
03. Piggy (Nothing Can Stop Me Now)
04. A Violet Fluid
05. Dead Souls
06. Hurt (Quiet)
07. Closer To God
08. All The Pigs, All Lined Up
09. Memorabilia
10. The Downward Spiral (The Bottom)
11. Ruiner [demo]
12. Liar [Reptile Demo version]
13. Heresy [demo]

What an experience! Nine Inch Nails, still in the early days of an promising career, but already pretty established in the musical scene with the very well received Pretty Hate Machine strike this time with one of the best concept albums ever released. An album that cannot be judged by analysing each track individually (although the high number of Singles released may disagree with that statement), since by doing that you may miss all the beauty of the detailed downfall of humanity.

Yes, this album is just as you may guess, stuffed with metaphors, existentialism ideals, always tending to the nihilism. And despite having Trent Reznor as ''man in command'' in many aspects, The Downward Spiral does not represent him in essence. It is a conceptual story, where Trent describes a character enlightened by his views of society, religion and the whole existence to a latent nothingness, and through these ideals ended up drowned in depression.

Clearly Trent's own beliefs and thoughts had a huge influence in the lyrical production, as he states that the record was about an extension of himself, but ended up becoming ''the truth fulfilling itself'' according to some internet rumours. Either way, we can safely accept this album as a representation of a specific facet in the human behaviour, the one who will apparently lead us to decay.

Leaving all the melodrama and Nietzsche quotes aside for a moment, the sonority of the album supports the concept perfectly. As an important representative of the Industrial genre growth in the early 90ths, we have a large use of synthesizers affecting the sound of guitars and drums, which mixed with the harsh (yet sometimes seductive) voice of Trent, create a unique atmosphere. A tragic-comic, many times obscene atmosphere, dealing with the variables changes in the state of mind, especially through the lyrics.

And that's where we find the weakest part of the album, in the lyrical department. They are exaggeratedly simplistic, away from the complexity that the concept should require (post-punk influences are clear here), usually representing angry statements without apparent depth. But I am still torn into considering the lyrics good or bad, since despite seeming shallow, they successfully fulfil the music, and their repetition and shortness were embedded into the songs in an intelligent and impacting way.

This album is as classic as it is powerful, a little away from metal, but recommended to anyone who slightly sympathizes with music. Industrial rock drained to the extreme, in which the lyrics are the only (and doubtful) imperfection. Too bad that the sequence of great albums in Nine Inch Nails discography was never able to surpass this excellent piece of art.