"The Downward Spiral" Record Review

Nine Inch Nails is solely Trent Reznor. Trent Reznor performed and arranged his electronic style of music in the studio and then he would have a live band back him up during live performances. This is why the "band" has frequently had rotating members since their start.

Trent Reznor (legal name Michael Trent Reznor) grew up in the conservative small town of Mercer, Pennsylvania. His grandparents raised him. (His grandparents were so supportive that he later wrote the song "I'll Be Looking Forward To Joining You, Finally" as a memorial track to his grandmother on "The Fragile".) The small-town atmosphere of Mercer contributed to interests in horror movies, David Lynch films, and experimental music.

Reznor grew up listening to Prince and XTC. When he was in high school he took band class. He performed in musical theater on his campus, starring in "The Music Man" and playing Judas in his school's production of "Jesus Christ Superstar".

Mercer's quaint atmosphere helped Reznor discover music from the goth/industrial genre. He was heavily influenced by Bauhaus, so much so that Bauhaus-frontman Peter Murphy eventually performed frequent live sessions with Trent Reznor's band. Reznor liked industrial acts like Throbbing Gristle, Nitzer Ebb, and Skinny Puppy. It's no wonder that Reznor's musical tastes drew him to record electronic-based music under solitary conditions relative to the recording process Daniel Miller used to record "Warm Leatherette" for Miller's own Mute Records label.

Nine Inch Nails's debut album, "Pretty Hate Machine", received immense critical and commercial notice. The most surprising factor was that an album with such musical pop/dance sensibilities could be so poignant. Praise was given to how an electronic-music album can have lyrics so emotive and musical scales that were so danceable. It was like doing the inverse of IDM (intelligent dance music): When IDM was a countercultural response to counteract the monotonous musical and lyrical pop sensibilities of club music like trance and techno.

"Industrial" music was a name given to a particular genre of music inspired by Throbbing Gristle around the late 70s. The name came about from Genesis P-Orridge (of Throbbing Gristle) starting the "Industrial Records" label. From then on the genre was synonymous with bands that either sounded or marketed like Throbbing Gristle.

The difference in Reznor's oeuvre was that he broke the "industrial" tenets of atonality and lack of melody. Instead, Reznor did something like his mentor David Bowie had done by introducing catchy danceable and melodic elements into a style of music that was experimental to the extreme. In the words of alternative-culture commentator Gavin Baddeley, "Reznor's great alchemical trick was to create a barbed musical bouquet of truly danceable expression, heavy metal disco if you will." ("Dissecting Marilyn Manson", Page 70, Gavin Baddeley)

The most well-documented roots of "industrial" music are not as related to the danceable synth-music of later "darkwave" acts played at gothic nightclubs. Rather, the inspiration for the industrial genre has to do with jazz and its offshoots from the Beat Generation. This influence can be credited to the audio "cut-ups" of Beat novelist William S. Burroughs.

Prior to his influences on Patti Smith and Sid Vicious from the "punk" music scene, Burroughs utilized his "cut-up" method on audiocassettes. These were some of the first experimental techniques on audiocassette recorders in the second half of the 20^th century. For these audio experiments Burroughs would rewind and fast-forward a cassette, randomly over-dubbing it with other audio material (a precursor to scratching records in hip-hop). Burroughs's cut-ups effectively used collage techniques so that jazz principles could actually be performed in text, rather than simulated textually- as in the rhythm and beat of Jack Kerouac's Beat Generation prose. It was the Beat principle of taking media off the page and introducing textual influences to audio/video multimedia that caught P-Orridge's attention. As a devotee of Burroughs and Burroughs's collaborator Brion Gysin, P-Orridge helped inspire a new genre of music that included bands such as NON, Nitzer Ebb, and others. Einsturzende Neubauten was especially up-front about the post-jazz influence in industrial music by practicing atonality, lack of melody, and playing notes with bizarre musical "instruments" such as jet engines and cigarettes.

The principles of "industrial" music are further expounded on in "The Industrial Culture Handbook" published by RESearch:

"Apart from mainstream popular music's impact, 'New Musick' had opened a pandora's box. All manner of ideas and mutations flew out. -- These included:

1) Organizational Autonomy

2) Access to Information

3) Using Synthesizers, and Other Forms of ''¹..."Anti-Music'

4) Extra-Musical Elements

5) Shock Tactics" ("Introduction", Page 5)

P-Orridge further expounded on this definition in the same publication. In the "Throbbing Gristle" chapter, he states, "Until then, rock music had been based on the blues and slavery, and we thought it was about time to update it to at least Victorian times- the Industrial Revolution."

He continued, "Rock had been from a place far away in the sugarcane fields of the West Indies and cottonfields of America, so we felt it was about time to update it somewhat." (Pages 9-10)

Section 2

"Closer", "Mr. Self-Destruct", "Eraser", "I Do Not Want This"

Nine Inch Nails' "The Downward Spiral" was released on March 8, 1994- soon after "Broken". The album was released by TVT and recorded at Interscope studios. Flood and Trent Reznor both produced the album. The album was recorded after John A. Malm and Trent Reznor established the vanity label called Nothing Records in order to escape a contract with TVT Records.

The album is 14 tracks long. The songs recorded for the original U. S. non-import version of the album are (in order of listing) "Mr. Self Destruct", "Piggy", "Heresy", "March of the Pigs", "Closer", "Ruiner", "The Becoming", "I Do Not Want This", "Big Man With A Gun", "A Warm Place", "Eraser", "Reptile", "The Downward Spiral", and "Hurt". "Reptile" originally had gone under the working title "Liar", and that demo appeared on the deluxe re-release of "TDS".

The original Japanese import included a cover of Joy Division's "Dead Souls". Frontman Trent Reznor frequently covered Joy Division live and acknowledged his influence from their music. Initially this cover song was an exclusive on the soundtrack for "The Crow" (starring Brandon Lee). The reason for the import version carrying the track is likely a deliberate one, since the hit single from "TDS" was "Closer"- a song that shares the same title as the influential Joy Division album.

"Closer" took the same imagery of sexual taboos from the 1970s and revitalized it for another generation. (This is especially since one of the two main albums Reznor cited as being influential to the recording process was "Transformer" by Lou Reed. Reed was lead vocalist for Velvet Underground- a band that wrote and performed the song "Venus In Furs", named after the classic S&M novel of the same name.) Images of siamese twins and circus freaks were displayed on the music video for the single. But the visuals were not made for shock, unlike the purpose for the "Broken" movie. While the "Broken" promotional film was deliberately "leaked" as a surrealistic mock "snuff film", it made sense how special effects of fetish-scene hero Bob Flanagan getting his testicles grinded would be filmed in order to irk the over-controlling TVT label.

But in this case the sadomasochistic motif went so much deeper. For one, visual artist and web designer Nick Kushner (of the "Nachtkabarett" site and "The Third Angel Sounded" web presence) noticed a visual allegory to the crucifix-adorned, darkly erotic mask of photographer Joel-Peter Witkin. Nine Inch Nails' protege Marilyn Manson seemed to sense the social, political, and sexual connotations of the imagery. In Gavin Baddeley's "Dissecting Marilyn Manson", Baddeley wrote, "Masochism as a spiritual practice isn't new. Aleister Crowley conceived of a faith with sadomasochistic sex as a sacrament" (Chapter: "Principles of Pleasure and Pain", Page 115).

On a baser nature raw meat from farm cadavers appears strikingly in the background (a visual metaphor for recording the album in the same house as the Tate/LaBianca murders perhaps). The relationship between BDSM and a private social commentary on capitalism can be further noticed when reading about the philosophy of bondage in Richard Davenport-Hines nonfiction work "Gothic":

"Hegel propounded a new idea of the relationship between Master and Slave. He argued that the tyrant extorts the recognition of his powers in the way he threatens violence on the slave, but the domination's merely theoretical or superficial. In practice the Master cannot enforce superiority by constraining or killing others without outraging properties and risking what he most desires: recognition. The Master assumes he's free and in control, yet depends on the Slave for his status. Once the Slave discovers this dependency, the power-relationship becomes inverted. The Hegelian Slave's terror of the Master- like the S&M 'bottom' cringing below the 'top'- develops into quite empowering and exhilarating emotions." ("Introduction", Page 9)

On "Closer" the percussion of the synthesizer or the drum machine matches the same "snake-charming" type of rhythm of Iggy Pop's classic "Nightclubbing". (The rhythm draws from Iggy Pop so much that years later Reznor performed a cover of "Nightclubbing" with Peter Murphy and Jeordie White for a radio session.)

However, the thematic wrestling with social/sexual taboos was more philosophy than camp. Reznor stated:

"The idea of the album is of a person who sheds everything around them to a potential nothingness, but through career, religion, relationships, belief and so on." ("Select" Magazine, April 1994. "Who Really Is Trent Reznor?" by Gina Morris.)

To understand the philosophical ramifications of this concept album one can compare them to the definition of "existentialism" in "Existentialism for Dummies":

"Existentialism is a philosophy that makes existence possible -- On a general level, existentialists were concerned with the problem of 'meaning'. Human beings crave that meaning." (Chapter 1, "What Is Existentialism?" Page 9)

It was the same meaning that Friedrich Nietzche craved, with the exact same amount of passion that the protagonist of the "TDS" concept-album craved a deeper understanding. Colin Wilson articulated the principles of Nietzche's brand of Existentialism very well in the chapter of "The Outsider" titled "The Pain Threshold". "Experience is perceived as an enemy, not conquered by turning away from it -- but only by an act of assimilation. If experience is conceived as an enemy, the question becomes: Master or slave? Master of experience or slave to it?" (Pages 133-134) And so it goes with the manic and purposefully self-debasing self-indulgence of the album's protagonist in the opening track, "Mr. Self-Destruct".

In the online James Salvatore & Brian Cancellieri dissertation "Ninterpretations: The Downward Spiral", Salvatore/Cancellieri discuss the relationship between the songs "Mr. Self-Destruct" and "I Do Not Want This".

Salvatore & Cancellieri write, "Note the stress on the phrase, 'I want to know everything, I want to be everywhere.' The desires to 'know' or 'be' don't lead to one's downfall by themselves, but the absolute forms of those desires will. This means that man, who cannot accept his limited and finite state as a human being yearns for the attributes of a god.

"[Several tracks earlier in the album] 'Mr. Self Destruct' promise[d] the fulfillment of those desires, promise[d] to be an exit, and place[d] the character on a path to ruin. The album's protagonist accepted this path with the same blindness that he attributes to followers of organized religion in another track, 'Ruiner'. 'You let me do this to you,' the voice of self-destruction whispered to him [seven tracks prior to 'I Do Not Want This']."

In other words, Salvatore/Cancellieri are describing a character arc coming from the influence of the ultimate Existential "superman" (in the literal symbolic sense), Friedrich Nietzche.

Gavin Baddeley writes this about the history and influence of Nietzche:

"Friedrich Nietzche concerned himself with the individual's struggle to escape the philosophy of nihilism and transcend the decadent school of thought. He proposed what he called a 'will to power'. In other words, a quest to overcome individual weaknesses and evolve into a being that would be more than human: The ubermensch (translated as 'the superman')." ("Dissecting Marilyn Manson" '" Chapter: "The Fascist Freakshow", Page 131)

Even the lyrics from "Mr. Self Destruct" that propel this large arc in the album can be related very closely to a Nietzche quote. "I am an ancient," is whispered later in that beginning track.

From those lyrics, a philosophy scholar can faintly recognize the quote H. L. Mencken cited from Nietzche, in Mencken's introduction to "The Anti-Christ":

"'In me,' [Nietzche] once said, 'the christianity of the forbears reaches a logical conclusion. In me the sternest intellectual conscience that Christianity fosters and makes paramount turns against itself. In me -- Christianity devours its own self.'" (Nietzche, "The Anti-Christ". Translated & Introduction by H. L. Mencken. From "Introduction", Page 5.)

"Eraser" is another track that branches into esoteric existential and metaphysical connotations:

On his website, Nick Kushner writes about how the t-shirt for "Eraser" further emphasizes the lyrical roots of the song.

"The symbol on the back of the ''¹..."Eraser' t-shirt is of a Norse rune representing 'ginnir'. Translated from Icelandic, the etymology of 'ginnir' means 'seduction', 'to tempt', or 'to entice'. Even though the word is antiquated today, it finds its origins in the Old Norse language and also in the Icelandic Bible. This illustrates the first half of 'Eraser' in the lyrical aspect of longing and the desire for lulling a partner with a rune meant to seduce:

'Need you / Dream you / Find you / Taste you / Use you / Scar you / [Expletive] you / Break you'"

The second half of the lyrics is represented inversely on the other side of the shirt. In the same essay Kushner writes, "The symbol on the front of the t-shirt is the emblem for the Vehmic Court, a 12^th century German tribunal that ruled through terror so that it could impose order on the lawless feudal society of Northern Europe. In this manner the symbol denotes both punishment and retribution for the sins incurred."

"In secret courts, the Vehmic Court's sentences ranged from charges of murder and rape to sentences of witchcraft and heresy. In this way the Vehmic emblem represents the second half of the song's lyrical content- as punishment for a betrayal by means of death, as the repetition of 'Kill me', until the song's closing articulates into an increasingly inaudible scream of anguish, even if the fate of the punishment was initiated by self-sentencing:

'Lose me / Hate me / Smash me / Erase me / Kill me [8x]'"

In the beginning of his essay, Kushner explains the reasoning behind using such esoteric imagery to advertise the song. "Lyrically, 'Eraser' is a dual-sided composition beginning with one extreme (having longing and romantic desire for a partner), then reaches an apex after the act of conquest (feelings of betrayal and hurt), only to come back full-circle to destitution (guilt-ridden, empty, and broken again under another's whim). Each symbol on the shirt illustrates this, with one symbol representing the first placid half of the lyrical content and the other symbol representing the song's second half: Concepts of guilt, punishment, and death for betrayal."

Section 3

Hopefully I've been able to portray the tracks on this album that involve the greatest intellectual and poetic depth.

I believe that if one listens to this album enough times with an open enough mind, one can see that there are deep philosophical traditions that link this album to a more moving and visceral experience than "protest" songs of singers/songwriters from years before. The collage effect of the esoteric elements, particularly the motifs of antiquated sigils and symbols, make "The Downward Spiral" much deeper and more resonant than the "snot and sneer" attitude of punk rock songs like The Sex Pistols "God Save The Queen" or The Ramones' "53^rd & 3^rd".

If you like a lot of "art-rock" like Lou Reed, Velvet Underground, or David Bowie, you'll get quite a lot out of "The Downward Spiral". In Martin Huxley's biography "Nine Inch Nails" (Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin), Trent Reznor is quoted as saying, "One of the biggest influences on 'The Downward Spiral' was David Bowie's 'Low' album -- Actually, everything of Bowie's from 'Hunky Dory' through 'Scary Monsters'. Also, the album was influenced by old Lou Reed music and albums by Iggy Pop."

Like the collaboration between David Bowie and Iggy Pop for "The Idiot", Trent Reznor's solitary endeavor to merge the anguish of his "Broken" EP with the electronic experimentalism of "Pretty Hate Machine" created an album that was a new musical effort which could stay fresh more than ten years after the fact. Most importantly, it brought Trent's fall-out with his old record label to audiences in a way that was universal and not solitary. It was a recording effort that could agree with both high-brow and low-brow audiences. The conditions of recording were done after many legal and contractual battles, but in the end the lyrics were so concise, broad, and archetypal that one didn't have to play music to understand the alienation of starting a record against all of your record-labels' and agents' wishes.

Works Cited

"Nine Inch Nails", Martin Huxley, Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin, Copyright 1997

"Dissecting Marilyn Manson", Gavin Baddeley, Publisher: Plexus, Copyright for this Edition: 2005 ("Revised & Updated" Edition)

"The Anti-Christ", Friedrich Nietzche (Translated & W/ an Introduction by H. L. Mencken), Publisher: See Sharp Press, See Sharp Press Copyright: 1999 (Reprint of the 1920 Knopf Edition)

"The Rock History Reader", Editor: Theo Cateforis (Syracuse University), Copyright: 2007 '" Taylor & Francis Group, LLC; Published by Routledge (An imprint of Taylor & Francis Group), Article cited: "Roll Over Guitar Heroes; Synthesizers Are Here" by Jon Young

"Industrial Culture Handbook", All Contents Copyright 1983 by Re/Search and Respective Contributors, Editor: Vale, "Industrial Culture Handbook" is RE/Search #6/7 of the RE/Search publications

"The Outsider", Colin Wilson, Publisher: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam (a member of Penguin/Putnam Inc./NY), Copyright 1956, 1967; Copyright to This Penguin/Putnam Edition: 1982

"Gothic (Four Hundred Years of Excess, Horror, Evil, and Ruin)", by Richard Davenport-Hines, Copyright: 1999, First U. S. edition by North Point Press (A division of Farrar, Straus, and Giroux publishing, NY); Original first edition copyright: 1998 by Fourth Estate publishing, Great Britain

"Existentialism for Dummies", by Christopher Panza Ph. D. (Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Drury University) and Gregory Gale, MA (Adjunct Professor of Philosophy, College of Southern Nevada), Wiley Publishing Inc., Copyright 2008

"RE/Search #4/5: William Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Throbbing Gristle", Editor: V. Vale, V/Search, 1^st Edition, Copyright January 1982

"Wising Up The Marks: The Amodern William Burroughs", By Timothy S. Murphy, Published by University of California Press, Copyright January 5, 1998

"Ports of Entry: William S. Burroughs and the Arts" by Robert A. Sobieszek, Published by Thames and Hudson, Inc. and The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Copyright 1996 by Museum Associates, Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

"NIN '" Joel-Peter Witkin & ''¹..."Closer' Video Influences '" The Nachtkabarett", http://www.nachtkabarett.com/NIN/Closer , All Writing & Content Copyright Nick Kushner Unless Noted Otherwise. Film clips, artworks, etc. respective to original creators and copyright holders. All writings and content except for content expressly used for the purposes of fair use is Copyright 2004-2011 Nick Kushner.

"NIN '" ''¹..."Eraser' / ''¹..."Dissonance' Occult Imagery '" The Nachtkabarett", http://www.nachtkabarett.com/NIN/Eraser , All Writing & Content Copyright Nick Kushner Unless Noted Otherwise. Film clips, artworks, etc. respective to original creators and copyright holders. All writings and content except for content expressly used for the purposes of fair use is Copyright 2004-2011 Nick Kushner. Translation of ''¹..."ginnir' and etymology of the word courtesy of Magnus Thor Johannsson, as expressed by Nick Kushner.

"Who Really Is Trent Reznor?" '" "Select" Magazine (April '94), Article by Gina Morris, Retrieved from "The NIN Hotline" Articles archive: http://www.theninhotline.net/archives/articles/xart5a.shtml . Article provided courtesy of Keith Duemling and Tracy Thompson from the article collection previously located at http://www.smashedupsanity.com .

"The Trent Reznor Star Profile" (Book from Book/CD set cited. No citations from included "audio documentary"), By Paul Bromfield, Published by Star Profile (A trademark of MasterRights Ltd.), Distributed by Point Entertainment Ltd., Copyright 1999 MasterRights Ltd.

"Ninterpretations: The Downward Spiral (Album)": http://www.4degreez.com/nailz/ninterpretations/downspiral.html , ("A Dissertation on ''¹..."The Downward Spiral'"), by James Salvatore & Brian Cancellieri, Original Dissertation Concept by Salvatore, Cancellieri, and Charles Pierce.