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'''''The Downward Spiral''''' (also known as '''''[[Halo numbers|Halo 8]]''''') is [[Nine Inch Nails]]' second LP. It was released on March 8, 1994. It is likely the most acclaimed and well-known of the band's discography, and is said to have brought "industrial" music to the mainstream.
 
==Track List (Original Release, Main Disc Of DVD-A/SACD/CD Rerelease)==
 
#"[[Mr. Self Destruct]]" – 4:30
#"[[Piggy]]" – 4:24
#"[[Heresy]]" – 3:54
#"[[March Of The Pigs (song)|March Of The Pigs]]" – 2:58
#"[[Closer]]" – 6:13
#"[[Ruiner]]" – 4:58
#"[[The Becoming]]" – 5:31
#"[[I Do Not Want This]]" – 5:41
#"[[Big Man With A Gun]]" – 1:38
#"[[A Warm Place]]" – 3:22
#"[[Eraser]]" – 4:54
#"[[Reptile]]" – 6:51
#"[[The Downward Spiral (song)|The Downward Spiral]]" – 3:58
#"[[Hurt (song)|Hurt]]" – 6:15
 
===Disc 2 (SACD Rerelease Only)===
#"[[Burn (song)|Burn]]" - 5:00
#"Closer" (Precursor) - 7:16
#"Piggy" (Nothing Can Stop Me Now) - 4:03
#"[[A Violet Fluid]]" - 1:04
#"[[Dead Souls]]" - 4:53
#"Hurt" (Quiet) - 5:08
#"[[Closer|Closer To God]]" - 5:05
#"[[March Of The Pigs (song)|All The Pigs, All Lined Up]]" - 7:26
#"[[Memorabilia]]" - 7:22
#"The Downward Spiral" (The Bottom) - 7:32
#"Ruiner" (Demo) - 4:51
#"[[Reptile|Liar]]" (Reptile Demo) - 6:57
#"Heresy" (Demo) - 4:00
 
The original Japanese release includes "Dead Souls" between "Big Man With A Gun" and "A Warm Place."
 
The double vinyl release splits sides between "March Of The Pigs" and "Closer," "The Becoming" and "I Do Not Want This," and "Eraser" and "Reptile." Rather than completely separating the songs, the transitions are retained: "The Becoming" still contains the fade-in of the "I Do Not Want This" beginning, but fades out; the introduction of "Reptile" is tagged onto the end of "Eraser."
==Inspiration==
<blockquote>"...it was during that tour ([[Self Destruct Tour|Self Destruct]]) that problems started to arise. Prior to that I would have considered myself pretty normal. With the Downward Spiral, I can remember where I was in my head, what I was thinking, and I can remember writing that record, and the mindset. This record that was about an extension of me, became the truth fulfilling itself.</blockquote>
Most fans seem to agree that "[[Closer]]" (noted for its "I want to fuck you like an animal" lyric) has meaning deeper than its surface lyrics (note the desperate dependency expressed by the final line, "you are the reason I stay alive"). The narrator was not exactly modeled after [[Trent Reznor]]'s previous life, though he would later go through his own sort of "downward spiral" during the Fragility tour, battling issues such as drug abuse.
==="A dissertation on The Downward Spiral"===
==Recurring themes and styles==
* The ending keyboard melody of "[[Closer]]" is repeated in the climax of "[[The Downward Spiral (song)|The Downward Spiral]]" and the chorus of "[[Heresy]]." A similar piano melody is played at the end of "[[Piggy]]."* The lyric "[[Nothing Can Stop Me Now|nothing can stop me now]]" appears in "[[Piggy]]," "[[Ruiner]]" and "[[Big Man With A Gun]]." The same phrase would recur on later albums in "[[La Mer]]," "[[We're In This Together (halosong)|We're In This Together]]" and "[[Sunspots]]."* Quite a few of the songs end by [[Recurring lyrics|repeating the same line or set of lines]]: "Piggy," "Ruiner," "[[I Do Not Want This]]," "Big Man With A Gun" and "[[Eraser]]." These deviate from the traditional chorus-chorus ending in that these lyrics are introduced near the end, and they are not sung, but rather whispered or yelled.
==Samples==
:''see also [[Samples In NIN Songs]]''
* "[[Mr. Self Destruct]]" begins with a sample from the 1971 film ''THX 1138.'' It is taken from a scene in which a man is being beaten by a guard depicted on a holographic television. [http://www.discogs.com/release/4404]* The frantic drumming at the end of "[[Piggy]]" played by Reznor himself—his first and only attempt at live drumming on a record, and one of the few "live" drum performances on the album , ([[Stephen Perkins]] on "[[I Do Not Want This]]," [[Andy Kubiszewski]] on "[[The Downward Spiral (song)|The Downward Spiral]]" and [[Chris Vrenna]] on "[[Hurt (song)|Hurt]]"). He states that it was from him testing the mic setup in studio, but he liked the sound too much to not include it. [http://www.9inchnails.com/articles/articles.php?id=6]* "[[Closer]]" uses a heavily modified sample of a kick drum from the song "[[Nightclubbing]]" from ''The Idiot'' album by Iggy Pop. [http://www.9inchnails.com/articles/articles.php?id=6]* "[[A Warm Place]]" is based on the melody from [[David Bowie]]'s 1980 single "Crystal Japan." Some hear it as a complete rip-off, while others argue that from a music theory point of view that the structure has significant differences.*The looping female voice that appears on "[[Reptile]]" (approx. 5:06) is from the 1974 film ''The Texas Chain Saw Massacre''. The strange mechanical sound before the drums start can be found in the movie ''Leviathan'' and the other sounds during all the song are found in ''Aliens'' (the escape in the vessel).
==Re-Release==
To mark the album's tenth anniversary, ''The Downward Spiral'' was re-released on November 23, 2004 in two new formats:
* As a 2-CD "Deluxe Edition" (labeled [[Halo numbers|Halo 8DE]]). The first disc is an [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SACD SACD]/CD hybrid featuring the album in high-resolution stereo and 5.1 surround sound. The second disc features various remixes, b-sides, and other non-album tracks that were available around the time of the original release.
* As a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DualDisc DualDisc]. The CD side features a digitally remastered version of the album. The DVD side includes high-resolution stereo and 5.1 surround sound versions of the album as well as videos for "[[Closer]]" (director's cut), "[[March Of The Pigs (song)|March Of The Pigs]]" and "[[Hurt (song)|Hurt]]" (live). Also included is a gallery of artwork from ''The Downward Spiral'' era (though many photos of ''Closure'' artwork are also included) and a discography.
The [[nin.com]] subsite [[tds.nin.com]] was set up to promote the re-release.
==Live==
All of these songs have been played live. Obviously, they were featured during the Self-Destruct Tour, though "[[Heresy]]" was played only once in 1994 and disappeared from live shows until 2007.
On the [[Performance 2007]] tour, ''The Downward Spiral'' era songs received more frequent play time. A particularly extreme example is the [[2007/02/15]] show in Madrid, Spain, when ten tracks from the ''The Downward Spiral'' were performed, the first seven of which were performed in their exact order on the album.
During the band's [[2009/08/23 New York, NY|Webster Hall]] performance on August 23, 2009, the band opened the show by performing the album in its entirety which included the live debut of "[[A Warm Place]]" and the first performance of "[[Big Man With a Gun]]" in over 15 years. The same thing happened at the [[2009/09/02 Los Angeles, CA|Hollywood Palladium]] show. ==Track List (Original Release, Main Disc Of DVD-A/SACD/CD Rerelease)== #"[[Mr. Self Destruct]]" – 4:30#"[[Piggy]]" – 4:24#"[[Heresy]]" – 3:54#"[[March Of The Pigs (song)|March Of The Pigs]]" – 2:58#"[[Closer]]" – 6:13#"[[Ruiner]]" – 4:58#"[[The Becoming]]" – 5:31#"[[I Do Not Want This]]" – 5:41#"[[Big Man With A Gun]]" – 1:38#"[[A Warm Place]]" – 3:22#"[[Eraser]]" – 4:54#"[[Reptile]]" – 6:51#"[[The Downward Spiral (song)|The Downward Spiral]]" – 3:58#"[[Hurt (song)|Hurt]]" – 6:15 ===Disc 2 (SACD Rerelease Only)===#"[[Burn (song)|Burn]]" - 5:00#"Closer" (Precursor) - 7:16#"Piggy" (Nothing Can Stop Me Now) - 4:03#"[[A Violet Fluid]]" - 1:04#"[[Dead Souls]]" - 4:53#"Hurt" (Quiet) - 5:08#"[[Closer|Closer To God]]" - 5:05#"[[March Of The Pigs (song)|All The Pigs, All Lined Up]]" - 7:26#"[[Memorabilia]]" - 7:22#"The Downward Spiral" (The Bottom) - 7:32#"Ruiner" (Demo) - 4:51#"[[Reptile|Liar]]" (Reptile Demo) - 6:57#"Heresy" (Demo) - 4:00 The original Japanese release includes "Dead Souls" between "Big Man With A Gun" and "A Warm Place." The double vinyl release splits sides between "March Of The Pigs" and "Closer," "The Becoming" and "I Do Not Want This," and "Eraser" and "Reptile." Rather than completely separating the songs, the transitions are retained: "The Becoming" still contains the fade-in of the "I Do Not Want This" beginning, but fades out; the introduction of "Reptile" is tagged onto the end of "Eraser."
==Artwork==
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