159: Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral (1994)
“I thought I quite intentionally may have shot myself in the foot commercially. I didn’t do that just to fuck myself up, either. It’s what popped out of my head and was the strongest statement I could make. Fortunately, people identified with it.”
—Trent Reznor
In this episode, Phil takes Discord & Rhyme further down the spiral with an album that is a harrowing descent into one man’s decaying psyche. If that sounds like a blast, you’re in good company with the millions of people who bought Nine Inch Nails’ The Downward Spiral in 1994. It’s one of the bleakest, most pitch-dark albums to ever achieve massive commercial success, and it still sounds great in 2025, owing to the coherence of Trent Reznor’s sonic vision and ingenious production by Flood. Reznor has gone on to become an Oscar-winning soundtrack composer in the decades since this album, but it still stands as one of his signature achievements, and Phil has invited Rich and Mike along to talk about an album that, from top to bottom, sets out to make you hurt. Now doesn’t that make you feel better?
Miscellany
This album features strong language and some extremely dark subject matter, so we’ve got the explicit tag turned on and the bleeps turned off. So be wary listening to this episode if you have little kids around who you don’t want repeating these lyrics back to you.
Even though this episode is nearly three hours long, there are still some samples Mike forgot to mention. The acoustic section in “The Becoming” features a reversed sample of Mickey Rourke screaming, “I know who I am!” from the film Angel Heart, and “Big Man with a Gun” opens with a heavily processed sample widely believed to be from one of those movies in the “adult” section of the video store. We wouldn’t know.
The “man becoming machine” lyrical theme of “The Becoming” was partly inspired by the 1989 Japanese film Tetsuo: The Iron Man, which Mike watched the first few minutes of before deciding he got the idea.
We gave credit (and justifiably so) to Reznor and Flood for the sound of The Downward Spiral, but props should also go to Chris Vrenna, who managed the sound design for the album, as well as its team of mixing and mastering engineers, listed below in the personnel section.
Other links
The official Nine Inch Nails website (nin.com)
The unofficial Nine Inch Nails wiki (nin.wiki)
NIN’s The Downward Spiral at 30 (Spin.com)
Buy Peeled Back by Allie Goertz (Bandcamp)
Robert Christgau’s complete and unabridged review of The Downward Spiral (robertchristgau.com)
Discord & Rhyme’s merch store (TeePublic)
Discord & Rhyme Roll Call
Phil Maddox (host)
Rich Bunnell (moderator)
Mike DeFabio
The Downward Spiral tracklist
Mr. Self-Destruct
Piggy
Heresy
March of the Pigs
Closer
Ruiner
The Becoming
I Do Not Want This
Big Man with a Gun
A Warm Place
Eraser
Reptile
The Downward Spiral
Hurt
Other clips used
Nine Inch Nails/Trent Reznor:
Copy of a (live at Lowlands Festival, 2013)
In Motion (with Atticus Ross)
Down In It
Even Deeper
Head Like a Hole
Der Kommissar (as Option 30)
Wish
March of the Pigs (live)
Closer (Super Mario Bros. Remix)
The Becoming (Still version)
Consummation (with Atticus Ross)
Reptile (live in St. Louis, 1995) (with David Bowie)
The Art Of Self Destruction, Part One
Suck
Terrible Lie
Just Like You Imagined
The Day the World Went Away
Only
A Violet Fluid
Others:
Ace of Base - The Sign
David Bowie - It's No Game (Part 1)
Massive Attack - One Love
Unknown Artist - Mwari Initiation
Ween - Wayne's Pet Youngin'
The Chainsmokers - Closer
“Weird Al” Yankovic - The Alternative Polka
Iggy Pop - Nightclubbing
Roxy Music - Take a Chance with Me
“Weird Al” Yankovic - Germs
Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb
Vangelis - Dr. Tyrell's Death
The Art of Noise - Beat Box (Diversion One)
Allie Goertz - Big Man with a Gun
David Bowie - Crystal Japan
Coil - Penetralia
Pink Floyd - Atom Heart Mother
Howard Shore - Twins
Jerry Goldsmith - Alien: Main Title
Johnny Cash - Hurt
Tori Amos - Caught a Lite Sneeze (Sessions at West 54th)
Kylie Minogue - In Your Eyes
David Bowie - The Hearts Filthy Lesson
Depeche Mode - Stripped
Band/album personnel
Trent Reznor – vocals, all instruments except where noted, arranger, producer, mixing (14)
Mark "Flood" Ellis – producer (1, 2, 5–7, 10–12), hi-hat (5), ARP 2600 synthesizer (7), drum treatments (8)
Chris Vrenna – drums (14), programming, additional sampling, sound design, additional engineering
Adrian Belew – texture generating guitar (1), ring mod guitar (7)
Danny Lohner – additional guitar (9)
Andy Kubiszewski – drums (13)
Stephen Perkins – drum performance (8)
Charlie Clouser – programming, continuity
Alan Moulder – mixing engineer (1–8, 10–13), additional engineering
John Aguto – additional engineering
Brian Pollack – additional engineering
Sean Beavan – mixing engineer (9), additional engineering
Bill Kennedy – mixing engineer (9), additional engineering
Tom Baker – mastering
Credits
“Discord & Rhyme (theme),” composed by the Other Leading Brand, contains elements of:
Duran Duran - Hungry Like the Wolf
Amon Düül II - Dehypnotized Toothpaste
The Dukes of Stratosphear - What in the World?? ...
Faith No More - Midlife Crisis
Herbie Hancock - Hornets
Kraftwerk - Autobahn
Talking Heads - Seen and Not Seen
Nine Inch Nails - Closer (this episode only)
You can buy or stream The Downward Spiral and other albums by Nine Inch Nails at nin.com, your local record store, or the usual suspects such as Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and Amazon. Follow Discord & Rhyme on Instagram, Threads, and BlueSky @DiscordPod for news, updates, and other random stuff. Editing is by Rich Bunnell, and special thanks to our own Mike DeFabio, the Other Leading Brand, for production and original music. See you next album, and keep as cool as you can.