This week marks the 30th anniversary of Nine Inch Nails’ seminal release, The Downward Spiral. Not only was it a huge conceptual leap forward for NIN’s mastermind Trent Reznor at the time, but, with the benefit of 30 years of hindsight, still stands as perhaps his greatest artistic achievement. And that’s saying something, considering Mr. Reznor has managed to consistently produce compelling albums in the years since, but it’s hard to argue (at least in this writer’s opinion) that any of them have topped The Downward Spiral.
Sure, The Fragile had its moments (bloated as it was, but nonetheless), and Year Zero was also conceptually brilliant (as was its underrated companion piece The Slip), but those albums lack the rawness and challenging nature that make The Downward Spiral such a profoundly consuming listening experience. Whatever the case, The Downward Spiral is a bonified classic and one of the best albums released in the stacked year of music that constituted 1994 as a whole. Speaking of, check out this legendary muddy performance of “March of the Pigs” from Woodstock 94…imagine being in that crowd? Epic.
