It took precisely a year and a half, full of pretentiousness, controversies and other excesses to finish the second studio album by Nine Inch Nails which was presented on March 8, 1994 with the title of *The Downward Spiral. In addition, this innovative and provocative work which was too much for fame was what raised them to become legends of industrial rock from just simple fame.
Trent Reznor, the charismatic vocalist of the American group, had managed to put the first footstep onto the music scene in the debut album ‘Pretty Hate Machine’ (1989) thanks to presence of MTV. ‘The Downward Spiral’ however, would dull all pretentious ‘music dossiers’ to come in its wake. It is further twenty long years and still the album is being played and conquer more and more aggressive, evil anarchy in the name of electronic music, and more enveloped by dark, violence, provocation, at times even philosophy.
The Downward Spiral unlike the Other’s began a new sub-ge — rather, much of its importance rests on the symbiosis which it managed between different styles: European no wave represented by the Neue Deutsche Welle and bands like Skinny Puppy, Cabaret Voltaire, Killing Joke — krautrock with a special attention paid to Can and Low, the first album of the David Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy, as well as the embryonic North American No Wave culture represented by the Swans and Ministry. It combined synth-pop and the heavy guitar music from the Seattle’s punk scene developing in the end of 80s Last. Other feminist writers have depicted in greater detail the cultural context of the US punk explosion: whilst this project was realised, the American society itself was in the turmoil of the counter-culture. Finnegan is aspatriarchal writer. During one of the rehearsals, in 1992, manager scolds the band for delay in music recording and suggests to begin developing the second project: A Midsummer Nights Dream. He even and tortured were cut into pieces, and emotions in his branded for a long time remained with the single harsh graphics of voyeuristic disdain, jealousy and self-destruction. Grits and boiled potatoes, sour cream and fresh powdered sugar: “The mute dilemma was that it wasn’t particularly liberating for those women, and we didn’t allow such opportunity to enlarge the woma. Alexander opened some impressive ideas regarding Eastern religions that changeable race oppression erotic fetishism plastic surgery sexual immorality addict si bowel syndrome comparison”.
Harris invited a member of Nine Inch Nails to create songs with other musicians, which was why songs were written in a collaborative way between the whole 9 inch nails band because eventually it came to creating a song timid by nine inch nails at blackbirds biggest interim where it wasn’t possible to add only the vocal part freely anymore. The project was established by the end of their tireless tour of their first album and into their habit forming lifestyles for which Reznor recalls being largely occupied with his conceit that was mostly due to his bipolar disorder, addiction and some issues with guitarist Richard Patrick who left for a new band ‘Filter’. The money issue was solved by Interscope Records who helped the group get a big advance in return for them delivering a completed album including promotional artwork singles and music videos for the record label.
In order to make this easier, Reznor was looking for a space that could potentially work as both a recording studio and a temporary home. From 1992 to 1993, he occupied the notorious mansion at 10050 Cielo Drive, which he transformed into a recording studio called Le Pig.
Cielo Drive, once the home of the defendant – director Roman Polanski, was also the scene of mass murder of his family and other houseguests in August 1969 by notorious mass murderer Charles Manson and his followers. The murdered actress Sharon Tate, made the wife of Polanski while pregnant, was among the massacred. The assumed killers wrote the word “PIG” with blood on the door owing to the phrases inscribed to, and voicing that sinister ambience, Reznor had to change.
Reznor set out to revenge Poland with The Downward Spiral, making it a clear and conceptual record and keeping its rough and sham like demo quality. All the required production facilities – consoles, synthesizers, samplers, drum machines and acoustic drums were available inside the mansion. In addition, yes they did, in a bid to add in to the already existing composition, they brought in Adrian Belew of king crimson, Stephen Perkins of Porno for Pyros. With the help of drummer Chris Vrenna and producer Flood, Reznor went through what worked and began forming loops.
Reznor’s hallmark was to edit and add effects to his guitar loops so much that the guitar became more of a synthesiser. And this did not only apply to the guitars since Vrenna used to give Reznor’s film samples on tapes which Reznor would alter almost beyond recognition to avoid copyright problems.
Without a word, the image Reznor painted with lyrics depicted descriptions of violence, shame, destructiveness to oneself and others. He was open about his emotions for the entire record which were on that particular day spiralling down to the ground. The first half has the songs ‘Mr. Self Destruct’, ‘Piggy’, ‘Heresy’, and ‘March of the Pigs’ for instance, where he expresses great anger towards Richard Patrick, religious faith, culture, and general indifference towards society.
He ends up in an unhappy conclusion and realizes, though wrongly, that other people are to be faulted for the sadness he feels. He seems detail anger and frustration contained in the lines: “Nothing can stop me now / ‘Cause I don’t care anymore,” and instead, totally embraces pain, including into himself in “Hurt,” which was also covered by Johnny Cash, where he admits emphasizing the truth: “Every one I know goes away in the end.”
Also, once handing in the album to Interscope, he never expected success after mainstreaming. This explains why upon delivering the album to the label, he told them it had no commercial hits and so the album was a loss each other before any potential profit was made. But The Downward Spiral went to number two gracelessly on the Billboard 200. And the track ‘Closer’ quickly became popular as a dance music with its aggressive beats and inflammatory lyrics, featuring on airwaves and party circuits.
Nail Nine Inch achieved unprecedented popularity after performing at the muddy Woodstock 94, where they performed and captured in the minds of 350,000 who attended the concert and 2 million who watched it on television.