Nine Inch Nails: The Downward Spiral (2LP) [NOTHING / INTERSCOPE]

Why you'll love it

The Downward Spiral debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, went quadruple platinum in the US and is regularly named one of the most influential albums of the '90s. "Hurt" was later famously covered by Johnny Cash.

This edition

• 2LP set, 14 tracks
• Nothing / Interscope pressing
• Produced by Trent Reznor and Flood

About the album

Nine Inch Nails' magnum opus The Downward Spiral became such a huge (sorta-surprising) pop hit and such a staple of mid-1990s popular culture after it arrived in March of 1994 that one can easily forget what a truly harrowing listen the thing is. A concept album about one man's ... yes ... downward spiral, Trent Reznor's second full-length album under the NIN alias was recorded in a Los Angeles house with a famously dark history, and it definitely absorbed a lot of spookiness from the surroundings.

Anyway, The Downward Spiral is an obsidian industrial-pop classic and probably the catchiest concept album of its kind ever to debut at No. 2 on the US Billboard album chart. Its singles, the blistering metallo-outburst "March of the Pigs," the profane death-disco banger "Closer" and the oblivion-here-I-come outro "Hurt" (later covered and claimed forever by Johnny Cash), don't do the full, chilling ride justice, but they do lure you into the spiral. And once you're locked in, it's hard to pull out. Good luck.

Also at Kops: more Nine Inch Nails on vinyl · browse Industrial & Goth

Tracklist

Listen

On Nothing / Interscope, a reissue of the 1994 album.