THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL

When I first spent some time with NINE INCH NAILS next album "The Fragile" I was really surprised as I was expecting a depressing and dark record like this one. It rocked hard with great vocals and it left me pleasantly surprised that I was so into it. That was some months ago and the only other NIN's record I have is this one. This was Rezner's breakout album that made him even richer than he already was. He clearly wasn't in the best place mentally when he wrote this as we get some shocking lyrics that are anti-police, anti-God, anti anything good. Such a lack of reverence.

The music itself does little for me as we get this techno, Industrial and electronics flavoured record with fake drums for the most part. It just doesn't sound good at all when compared to the next one "The Fragile". This was inspired by FLOYD's "The Wall" and Bowie's "Low" and hours were spent in the studio to make the record sound this way. There were four singles released from this record and the most famous isn't Trent's original version but Johnny Cash's cover of "Hurt". Cash listened to that song over a hundred times and said it was the best anti-drug song that he ever heard. To each his own but I have no problem being the first collaborator to give this less than 4 stars. Not my scene.