DUAL DISC VERSION (CD & DVD on one disc)

CD SIDE: Includes entire album in Re-Mastered CD Stereo

DVD SIDE: * Video in surround sound and Stereo of "Closer" * Videos of "March of the Pigs" and "Hurt" * Entire album in Stereo and Advanced Resolution Surround Sound * Entire album in Dolby Digital Surround Sound and Stereo * Image Gallery * Complete Discography * Random DVD menus * Surround Sound mixes by Trent Reznor

Album Description
2008 double vinyl LP repressing of the Industrial band's groundbreaking sophomore album, originally released in 1994.

The songs are much more complex and have more structure to them than the ones that appear on "Pretty Hate Machine" and "Broken." There are heavy songs, and there are soft songs. There are disturbing songs, and there are beautiful songs. You get to experience something different with each song.

The great thing about this album is, just like with any other NIN album, no two songs are the same. Each one has its own identity and feeling to it. Another plus is that there is not a single bad song on the entire album. My favorites are "mr. self destruct," "march of the pigs," "closer," "the becoming," "a warm place," "eraser," "I do not want this," "ruiner," and "hurt."

"The Downward Spiral" is an amazing album. Reznor knows how to make great music and continues to impress us even to this day. Be warned, though. This album isn't for everyone. It is indeed a very controversial and even sometimes offensive album. But if you love Nine Inch Nails, then this is a must-have. It is a CD I continue to listen to over and over again. It never ceases to amaze me. A classic to the very end.


highly rated   November 24, 2004
 47 out of 47 found this review helpful

This is one of the best re-issues to date. The 5.1 and advanced surround mixes are A+, which is what one would expect from Trent Reznor. Im assuming you know how good The Downward Spiral is , so i wont go into to that, suffice to say, it rates as one fo the best albums of the 90's and one of my personal favorites, this album got me through many a breakup and hard time. Ive never heard NIN sound so good, i do have the concert dvd so i knew beforehand how good this medium can sound in surround, but in album form its breathtaking. Sounds revolve around me and im hearing things ive never heard before, it makes me wish more albums were mixed in 5.1 The clarity of the sound is as such you can hear him draw breath before some verses and the difference between this and a regular cd is that with a cd you always sort of know that its a cd playing...with this if you close your eyes its like the band itself if playing in front of you. Industrial/electronic music like this is perfect for surround because of all the layers of sound and this , i promise you will not dissapoint. It blows most of the trash on today out of the water.'The extras are the best ive encountered of all the dvd's i have... in the discography , there is one or two songs (in cd quality) you can listen to from each album! Considering the amount of albums,singles and remix projects NIN has , this is quite a bonus, also you get concert footage from both his previous dvd's. To top it off there are 3 vidoes on this...closer (in stereo and surround), march of the pigs and hurt. Considering i paid less for this than most dvd's out now, it has to be the best value for money musicwise i got all year....very highly recommended...enjoy!


Not much good.   January 28, 2002
 32 out of 54 found this review helpful

...Now, I've listened to this album, carefully, and I'm going to explain exactly what I see wrong with it. If I can convince one person to not believe the hype, this review has done its job.

I was expecting a high-quality album, since so many critics seem to adore it. And, yes, I can appreciate that there is some musical creativity and innovation on this album. Unfortunately, it's the same musical creativity over and over. The songs, as a rule, sound like this: Staticky industrial guitars. Keyboard line. Additional samples of machine noises and people crying or screaming. The occasional quiet bit that's meant to be creepy or sinister. Trent Reznor screams, whispers dramatically, and whines. It is all mind-numbingly predictable. "Here is where the heavy guitar will drop out suddenly," I would think, on the first listen. "Here is where the heavy guitars will come back in abruptly. Here is where Trent's whine will escalate into a scream." What do you know? I was right. Personally, I like music to surprise me.

But maybe that's precisely what the critics liked about this album. It's so unrelenting and stubborn that you start to believe it. It becomes "a harrowing hour's journey into the darkness of one man's soul", or whatever, like all the critics said. Like advertising, if something is repeated often enough, people begin to accept it.

Now, listen to the lyrics. You know that particular sort of poetry that kids in high school write in the back of their notebooks when they're having a bad day? Stuff like, "Don't you tell me how I feel/You don't know just how I feel/I stay inside my bed/I have lived so many lives all in my head/Don't tell me that you care/There really isn't anything, is there?" Well, Trent Reznor writes like that. (Yes, that was a direct quote from one of the songs.) You don't have to be a poetic genius to come up with a line like "God is dead and no one cares/If there is a Hell I will see you there." As you'd expect, these and similar sentiments are repeated many times. I like lyrics that are intelligent, that make you think. "I want to break it up/I want to smash it up/I want to f*ck it up" just doesn't qualify. None of these songs make you think, because the message is perfectly obvious in each song. There is nothing to delve deeper into. Trent fools people into thinking his lyrics are deep because they are about dark, difficult subjects. Thinking about suicide doesn't automatically make you deep and interesting.

(Let me just add that I am not offended by the "disgusting" imagery some have mentioned, nor, as a female, do I feel degraded. It's more harmless and laughable than anything, really.)

It's difficult to relate to these lyrics. You'd have to be incredibly self-pitying and thoroughly self-absorbed in order to relate to these songs, in order to take them seriously at all. Certainly, there is a place for dark music in the world, but the best dark music has intelligent things to say. Or it has a sense of humor about itself. Nine Inch Nails doesn't seem to have one.

Maybe I've just listened to too much underground music to appreciate this mainstream (yes--when you can buy it at department stores, it is mainstream) album. Certainly, Nine Inch Nails is a shining star of depth and ingenuity when compared to musical talents like Britney Spears and NSync, but what isn't? I suppose that's part of the reason why so many love this--they've never looked outside what MTV and Rolling Stone present to them. It always annoys me when people say that no one makes good music any more. But if this is the kind of thing they base those statements on, I can't blame them.

Also, when you've heard a number of voices, Trent Reznor's is not exceptional. Sure, he can scream, but Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse can scream better. He can whisper darkly, but the guy from Slint can send chills up your spine. He can carry a tune just fine, but so can most singers, and many can achieve better than this without that ability. Heck, Godspeed You Black Emperor say more about darkness, loss, and despair without even using vocals.

Of course, his average voice wouldn't stand in the way of the music, if the music were good. Unfortunately, it's not. Great lyrics might make up for poor music, if the lyrics were good. Unfortunately, they are not. The bottom line is: a bad record. Some Amazon reviewers have described this as not music, but art. If this sounds like art to you, if it sounds exciting, different, challenging or deep, then I beg you...just look a bit harder. There is music out there that is all those things and more. And Nine Inch Nails is not it.


My favorite NIN album   July 1, 2000
 31 out of 35 found this review helpful

Words cannot begin to describe The Downward Spiral. This is a perfect recording, the divine Nine Inch Nails album. I've listened to each and every one of the halo's, and without a doubt, this one is the best. The message and mood of the songs are practically a suicide note written in music. Musically and lyrically it is the best album I have ever listened to.

NIN's breakthrough hit "Closer" is in here, but believe me, that's not all the album has to offer. It contains a lot of variety while sticking to the basis of Industrial. "Ruiner" is a haunting song that will stick with you for a long time...music-wise it nearly reaches perfection. "The Becoming" is one of the most abstract Nine Inch Nails songs ever written, and that's saying a lot. "A Warm Place" is a very beautiful and heavenly instrumental, perhaps the best instrumental Trent has ever recorded. "Hurt" is the most moving ballad I've ever heard. "March Of The Pigs" is probably the greatest Hard Rock song of all time. The list goes on and on. Each song is so amazing that I'd be hard pressed to choose a favorite.

What more can be said that I haven't already said? This album is closer to perfection (no pun intended) than any other album will ever hope to be. Trent Reznor is a music god, and if this album doesn't solidify that statement, then...well, I guess the world deserves to go to hell.