Year Zero Warm-Up Tour
"The Becoming" is made from many loops of industrial sounds, showcasing the hard sound from The Downward Spiral. A more acoustic version (with Trent on piano, Danny Lohner on guitar, Jerome Dillon on drums, with drum machine and samples) can be found on Still, with an accompanying video on nin.com (YouTube upload).
Lyrics
I beat my machine it's a part of me it's inside of me I'm stuck in this dream it's changing me I am becoming The me that you know he had some second thoughts He's covered with scabs he is broken and sore The me that you know he doesn't come around much That part of me isn't here anymore All pain disappears it's the nature of my circuitry Drowns out all I hear no escape from this my new consciousness The me that you know he used to have feelings But the blood has stopped pumping and he's left to decay The me that you know is now made up of wires And even when I'm right with you I'm so far away I can try to get away but I've strapped myself in I can try to scratch away the sound in my ears I can see it killing away all of my bad parts I don't want to listen but it's all to clear Hiding backwards inside of me I feel so unafraid Annie, hold a little tighter I might just slip away It wont give up it wants me dead Goddamn this noise inside my head
Meaning
The lyrics describe a man fighting against himself, trying to avoid his "becoming", transforming him into a machine without human characteristics and feelings.
This is a rare example of Trent directly referencing a name ("Annie") in his lyrics. Usually, he uses ambiguous pronouns. This expresses the need for attachment, the need to interact intimately with another human despite the narrator's extreme attempts to detach himself from the world.
The song begins with industrial noises such as those from a drum machine and what appears to be distorted screams. At the 3-minute mark it mellows into swooshy sounds with ahhing from more emotive voices. There is a final outburst of noise and screaming before fading out with the ahhs again. This song structure is indicative of the struggle between the narrator and the noise/machine.