A Title Doesn't Do This Album Justice...

To be honest, I think that in a lot of ways Trent Reznor is to music what Clive Barker is to movies and books in the last few decades. Hell, in the booklet for "Pretty Hate Machine," he even credits Clive among various other artists for inspiration for his CD.

Clive Barker turned horror flicks, and movies in general, upside down with Hellraiser, if not for the gore or horror, or even the enigmatic lead, Pinhead, but for the impression it made on people. Never before had people been subjected to such imagery, such violence, desecration or such a tale that defies our conventions of what makes a movie "scary". The characters were real, I thought, flawed, and vulnerable. The demonic cenobites, though terrifying and apalling, also had an air of mysticism and awe, as though they were partaking in some hidden journey, their path paved by the screams of their victims, and the suffering they endured. Clive showed a darker side to human nature, and Pinhead and his cohort physically embodied this side in all of its twisted, horrid glory...

I think that Reznor did for music, what Clive did with Hellraiser, and he did it with The Downward Spiral. He exposed the darker side of human nature, giving us a look inside the torment, fear, insecurities and self-destructive tendencies that people are subjected to everyday of their lives, that among other things...

Never before had listeners been barraged with so many layers of orchestrated chaos, purposeful destruction, and humbling, albeit brutal, lyrics. The atmosphere this album imbues the listener to, is almost indescribable. Parts of it are obvious in their blatant accusations, while others drown themselves out in ambiguity. Those that are keen to Trent Reznor's brand of soul-searching will get a lot more out of this album through association than others who only know the bare facts, but that doesn't matter, because this album is as such that ANYBODY could listen to it, and could still understand the message it conveys.

For some people, they would write it off as noise, or the lyrics as obscene, or as not being accessible to many people, but that is far from true. For anybody that has ever truly struggled with anything in their lives, be it personal, spiritual, or psychological, or otherwise, then they can more than likely relate to the tragedy and struggle to find a reason to it all in The Downward Spiral.

If you have seen the video for "Closer", edit or otherwise, then you have an idea about the message that Trent is trying to convey in this album. The only thing is that this album was meant to be heard as a whole, a trip to start to finish. There are some stand-outs, like March of the Pigs, or Heresy, but to me the album AS A WHOLE stands out more than a few of its songs individually, something a lot of music seems to miss these days. Personally, once I looked past the simpler songs, I realized the real core of the album lay in its complex core, most particularly, "Ruiner", and "I Do Not Want This", which is perhaps the song I connect closest to on this CD.

Each song comes to grips with different issues, whether it's with sex, (Closer, Reptile), mania (I Do Not Want This), religion (Heresy), or comparing people to sheep (March of the Pigs, Ruiner), or suicide (The Downward Spiral), insanity (Piggy, The Becoming, A Warm Place/Eraser), self-destructive tendencies (Mr. Self-Destruct, Big Man With A Gun), and, most poiniantly, trying to find a way out of it (Hurt).

I have a different connection to this album, as opposed to Broken, or The Fragile, as that the hate, and the pain, and the rage and hopelessness and despair that I once hid beneath my unimposing form has ebbed away over the last three or four years, leaving a new man in its wake, but I don't FORGET the person I once was, and I can feel the pain, the anguish, the despair, and the loathing in every moment of this CD, and I can remember how I once felt, and thought, wondering if I was just better off letting go of my sanity, or jumping out a window, or putting a gun to my head, but just like at the end of Album, Reznor can't let it end that way, despite how bleak life may appear, there still HAS to be a reason to it all, and maybe a way to turn it all around, and I think that inspite of all the pain and despair that permeates The Downward Spiral, that it's TRUE purpose is to set up the ending, a bitter-sweet pill that encapsulates the broken dreams and the hopes of a generation that has been berrated, barraged, and persecuted by a society that has lost touch with itself.

Sorry about that, but I guess I was letting my brain wander around for a bit, but that's what I like best about this CD. It doesn't leave you feeling that life is just about loss, and pain, or alienation, but can be better if we can just find it in ourselves to do so, but perhaps the saddest thing about this album is that its message is so universal, so TIMELESS, that people a HUNDRED years from now could play it, and still identify with it, and if that is INDEED the case, then we as a people still have a long way to go before we achieve that fleeting moment of happiness and fulfillment that Reznor tries so hard to hold on to at the end of this magnificiently broken album, matching its utter despair and decay with a single hope that remains at the epicenter, and a hope that would ultimately manifest itself in Reznor's next album, and my favorite, The Fragile...