My Modern Mozart...Music That Inspires You Write-Off

Happy birthday to me!

As many of you may know, Trent Reznor has been my biggest musical inspiration, and his band, Nine Inch Nails, ranks as one of my favorites of all time. Accordingly, Trent’s second full-length studio album, The Downward Spiral, is at least one of my favorite albums of all time, if not my favorite. I admire Trent’s work, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for him, as a musician and otherwise. To me, he’s an absolute genius. That may be my opinion, but it has an amazing amount of evidence to back it up. Trent grew up playing the piano, classically trained. He excelled in school, and enrolled as a computer engineering major in a very selective college. Trent is extremely intelligent, and it comes through in his work and even in conversation. The fact that he’s so incredibly talented and smart, made me hold him in even higher regards. It’s not just me, though. Trent has earned the respect, and had chances to work with many top names in the music industry. Kurzweil has even named a couple of their factory installed programs after Trent. My keyboard came loaded with two synth programs called “Trent’s Childhood” and “Nine Inch Mozart,” which actually duplicates one of the setups Trent created, and utilized heavily on The Downward Spiral.

When I first heard The Downward Spiral, it was 1994. The album had just been released, and I had been listening to angst-ridden Nirvana. Kurt Cobain’s suicide had a pretty big effect on me, as I had found something emotionally attractive about his music. I was at a point in my life that I’d consider to be my personal downward spiral. It was the beginning of my teens, and the time you really become aware of your surroundings, and the darkness really hits you. All of my anger, animosity, insecurities, inferiority…everything I had in me but never realized. It all seemed to surface. I’m thankful that I was able to find such solace and beauty in the music I listened to. It helped me through a lot. Hearing The Downward Spiral for the first time, especially during this period, was like total catharsis. I felt similar emotions when I saw Pink Floyd’s The Wall for the first time. Whether the songs on The Downward Spiral carried the same meaning as my interpretation of them didn’t matter. I was able to relate to every single word, every singe note, and every single noise. I might have even wept the first time I listened to it the whole way through. It wouldn’t have taken much, but there are so many emotions, so much feeling, anger, self-deprecation, self-destruction, decay, depravity, and so much depth of thought. It meant a lot, and still means everything, to me.

This album, along with most of Trent’s work, has inspired me a great deal. I’ve always been a musician. I’ve been in several bands, performed here and there. I love to create. Although I tend to be a perfectionist. This is why it’s taken me so many years to make a demo tape, yet unfinished. A lot of what I do and say seems to cause people to refer to me as a female Trent Reznor. My approach to creating music, my thoughts, my ideas. I’ve always looked up to Trent, but it wasn’t until someone called me a female version of him that I realized how much I really am like him. Sure, I could say it myself, but it holds more truth when it’s not coming from me. I have always had plans to sending out a demo tape, though I do try t have future plans that don’t include being a recording artist, since it’s probably one of the most difficult industries to get into. I do hope one day to put out an album, however. And it would be the highest honor to be able to join Trent’s label, Nothing Records. A long shot, I know, but I can have dreams. Trent worked with his inspiration, David Bowie, so maybe one day I’ll have the chance to work with Trent. He does have long-term goals of dedicating all of his time to running his label, so I could get lucky. It also helps that I know a person or two who have worked with him…

Not surprisingly, The Downward Spiral was recorded in the infamous Tate mansion, where the Manson Family murders occurred. Trent converted the house into a studio, and lived there while recording the album. You may recall that “pig,” amongst other things, had been written on the walls in the victims’ blood, and was still visible. This may account for the recurring pig theme on the album, although Trent claims most of the lyrics had been written before ever entering the house. Creepy, no?

Trent is also a big fan of the opera. The Downward Spiral is loosely built around a recurring piano riff that you may recognize from the end of the song Closer, which was a radio single. If you don’t recall, it’s a descending scale, performed in the same fashion every time. In opera, this is a leitmotif that insinuates death. In other words, when you hear this operatic series of notes, the theme of death is at hand. This can be heard in many operas that deal with death, or suicide. One that specifically comes to mind is Dido’s Lament, from Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell, where Dido, Queen of Carthage, throws herself into flames. There is much death and suicide in this particular opera, ergo, this leitmotif is very prevalent.

This leitmotif is also a prevalent theme on The Downward Spiral, and I find this very profound. Opera composers are experts at drawing out emotions, and conveying meaning through simple musical passages. Everything in opera has a deeper meaning. Trent was able to incorporate this into his album, and it’s beautiful, and ingenious. The Downward Spiral is an album that you can listen to a million times, and always find something new. Playing with equalizer settings will reveal hidden noises, sounds, vocals, etc.

The album is taken best as a full work, instead of separate songs. Each track literally flows into the next, not unlike an opera. The end of one song is the beginning of the following song, and it’s done flawlessly.

”I tried to make more of an album that worked as a collection of songs versus, ‘Here’s the single. Here’s another single we recorded. It’s unrelated, but it’s on the same record.’ I tried to make something that worked as a big chunk of music rather than ten little random snippets. I was trying to use dynamics a lot. And also spending more time working on moods. And also, trying to find an intensity through restraint rather than smashing you over the head with a baseball bat for an hour.”

-Trent Reznor


Nine Inch Nails
The Downward Spiral
Halo Eight

1. Mr. Self Destruct
2. Piggy
3. Heresy
4. March Of The Pigs
5. Closer
6. Ruiner
7. The Becoming
8. I Do Not Want This
9. Big Man With A Gun
10. A Warm Place
11. Eraser
12. Reptile
13. The Downward Spiral
14. Hurt


you let me do this to you

i am an exit

The album begins on a relatively harsh note, with Mr. Self Destruct. Heavy, distorted, crunchy, loud, and screams are all words that come to mind when I think of this track, with the exception of a whispered breakdown mid-song, relying on bass and vocals.

i am the bullet in the gun
i am the truth from which you run
i am the silencing machine
i am the end of all your dreams

i take you where you want to go
i give you all you need to know
i drag you down I use you up
mr self destruct

This is the petulant start to an album that may decrease in its ‘thrash,’ but never in its intensity. Which is portrayed well as the repetitive insanity of noises give way to Piggy, a slow, gently sung number that is much heavier than it’s musical elements.

hey pig, nothing’s turning out the way i planned
hey pig, there’s a lot of things i hoped you could help me understand
what am i supposed to do, i lost my sh*t because of you
nothing can stop me now
‘cause i don’t care anymore
nothing can stop me now
‘cause i just don’t care

The song begins with Trent’s gently sung, “hey pig,” a simple, but prominent bass line, drum, and ‘tambourine.’ This track is known for having some of the only live drums on the album. Most of the drum tracks were programmed from live drumming, but with Piggy, Trent literally got curious and just messed around on a drum set while listening to the track on headphones. The result was somewhat random beats, and he had planned to record it again. However, when he played back what he recorded on top of the track, he realized that it actually sounded cool, and kept it in there. You’ll know it when it hits you.

nothing can stop me now
you don’t need me anymore

The song ends with the repetition of “nothing can stop me now” sung softly over the leitmotif I mentioned before, played on keyboard. What follows is Heresy, which begins with a synth loop, and pounding beat. Trent does a great deal of falsetto on this cut. He recorded himself singing the lyrics twice, and one voice occasionally breaks into harmony, and if you listen (especially with headphones), you’ll hear that each voice is panned to one side.

your god is dead, and no one cares
drowning in his own hypocrisy
and if there is a hell, i’ll see you there
burning with your god in humility
will you die for this?

The song gets progressively heavier, as do the vocals. This time, however, we don’t get relief from this in the following track. March of the Pigs begins with a fast, energetic drumbeat. The song goes on with screams, and wild synth leads.

shove it up inside, surprise! lies
stains like blood on your teeth
bite, chew, suck away the tender parts
i want to break it up, i want to smash it up, i want to f*ck it up
i want to watch it come down
maybe afraid of it, let’s discredit it, let’s pick away at it
i want to watch it come down

The contrast that you’re so craving does happen. Originally sort of a joke on the demo take of this track, there was a break in of just a piano and Trent singing “but doesn’t it make you feel better?” As stated in Alan Cross’s NIN book, Trent realized that it offered “a perfect counter-point to the violence of the rest of the song.”

now doesn’t that make you feel better?
the pigs have won tonight
now they can all sleep soundly
and everything is all right

This fades into the beat of the well known Closer, which was actually beat intro to Iggy Pop’s Nightclubbing. Most people recognize this song, probably because it was a hit single, complete with constant radio play and a hit MTV video. Funny, seeing as the hook is “I want to f*ck you like an animal.”

you can have my isolation
you can have the hate that it brings
you can have my absence of faith
you can have my everything
help me tear down my reason, help me it’s your sex i can smell
help me, you make me perfect, help me become somebody else

i want to f*ck you like an animal
I want to feel you from the inside
i want to f*ck you like an animal
my whole existence is flawed
you get me closer to god

I find this song incredibly sexy. Not so much because of the chorus. That would be too obvious! But perhaps the pounding, constant beat is something like Ravel’s Bolero, where you feel like you’re being violated by a song. Trent’s vocals are just such a turn on, especially in this track. Closer also has another example of the operatic riff used throughout the album. This one follows in the same vein as Piggy, with the same piano voice. Throughout the entire song, an ascending scale is heard, until Closer nears completion. Almost like a build up to a bring down. Our now familiar leitmotif begins, and the other tracks fall away, leaving only the piano. And this is how the song ends.

What follows may be my favorite song on the album, The Ruiner. The song begins with somewhat of a mechanic hip-hop sort of beat, with an arpeggiated synth lead just behind. Trent sings two verses, and then the vocals change to a fast, distorted, scream that’s almost in the background, which is where the meat of the lyrics lie. Tagging along with the vocals, the music also becomes more aggressive. What stands out for me is what comes through during the song’s chorus. What’s most apparent is the synth lead, but that’s not what I focus in on. First, there’s a beat that encompasses the sound of destruction. It sounds like shattering. Also towards the background, is almost a reverse of that descending scale, done in an echoey keyboard voice that sounds like droplets. In opera, this is how tears are conveyed.

you had to give them all a sign, didn’t you?
you had to covet what was mine, didn’t you?
the ruiner’s a collector, he’s an infector serving his sh*t to his flies
maybe there will come a day when those that you keep blind will suddenly realize
maybe it’s a part of me you took it to a place i hoped it would never go
and maybe that f*cked me up much more than you’ll ever know

and what you gave to me
my perfect ring of scars
you know i can see what you really are

Also in The Ruiner is a guitar solo played by Trent, that he almost deleted from the track. It was finally decided that it was too funny not to include, and it was left there as an homage to Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb.

you didn’t hurt me, nothing can hurt me
you didn’t hurt me, nothing can stop me now

The beginning of The Becoming includes a rough synth beat, with what sounds like tortured souls screaming out, in the background. This song affects me, and I suppose it’s because I’ve experience something of what the lyrics are describing. It’s something I can’t truly put into words; more of an emotional experience from the inside out. Just imagine your insides decaying, and leaving you void of all feeling, leaving you virtually numb and desensitized. Something of that nature.

all pain disappears, it’s the nature of my circuitry
drowns out all I hear, there’s no escape from this, my new consciousness

the me that you know used to have feelings
but the blood has stopped pumping and he is 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 too clear

The song has a more acoustic guitar interlude, which up until this point, has been something of a rare occasion. The guitar begins, and is interrupted and taken over by increasingly painful noise, with the following repeated over…and over…

it won’t give up it want me dead
goddamn this noise inside my head

It all mellows out to just the guitar chords, with some eerie noises and Trent’s “aaahs.” Which all fade into I Do Not Want This. This song has some great beats over Trent’s piano playing. He does sing, but a lot of the song is him quietly speaking poetry.

you would know, wouldn’t you?
you extend your hands to those who suffer
to those who know what it really feels like
to those who’ve had a taste
like that means something
and oh so sick i am
and maybe i don’t have a choice
and maybe that is all i have
and maybe this is a cry for help

As with a lot of his songs, this one increases in intensity all the way to the screaming end. Though this one doesn’t come down. We stay up into Big Man With A Gun, no pun intended. If you don’t know how that could be a pun, take a look at the lyrics.

i am a big man
(yes i am)
and i’ve got a big gun
got me a big old dick and i
i like to have fun
held against your forehead
i’ll make you suck it
maybe put a hole in your head
you know, just for the f*ck of it
i can reduce you if i want
i can devour
i’m hard as f*cking steel, and i’ve got the power
i’m every inch a man, and i’ll show you somehow
me and my f*cking gun
nothing can stop me now

This song is interesting, because I tend not to think twice before singing along with it, no matter where I am. My liking of this song probably has something to do with my hardcore penis envy. Singing the “shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, I am gonna come all over you…me and my f*cking gun” is quite enjoyable for me, I must admit. It may be hard not to take this song literally, given the blatancy of it. I haven’t found anything not to like about it. It’s loud, it’s angry, and it’s about a man and his f*cking gun. What more could I want?

Well, if you want more, you may be pleased with the song that succeeds this one. A Warm Place is an instrumental, and it’s just that. Even without the given name, the warm synth pads, mellow piano, and overall relaxing mood of the song paint a warm picture, and probably provide a much-needed downtime. But as it’s known, we can’t stay mellow forever. So, we are introduced to Eraser. This song is built on a series of two word phrases, and a whole lot of layers.

need you
dream you
find you
taste you
f*ck you
use you
scar you
break you
lose me
hate me
smash me
erase me


The song builds up, layer upon layer, and breaks back down as the first words are sung. When we get to the “me” phrases, however, the heaviness hits, of music, noise, and vocals. Repeated is the phrase “kill me,” and that becomes very powerful as Trent’s screams fade off into the distorted crunch of guitars and drums. The machine noises that begin Reptile sound like a large metal, mechanical something repeatedly smashing down. Like a conveyer belt in a meat packing plant. Something like that. And so the song begins.

devils speak of the ways in which she’ll manifest
angels bleed from the tainted touch of my caress
need to contaminate, to alleviate this loneliness
i now know the depths I reach are limitless

This is one of those songs that I love, and I fear that not all have taken the time to listen to. At this point in the album, the tracks tend to have relatively long intros that I probably skipped through during my first few runs. And that’s unfortunate. This song is involved, but relatively simple, and one that has a verse – chorus – verse – chorus structure. Of particular interest to me, regarding this song is the drum track. Musically, I love this song, and the drumbeat isn’t slow, but gives the feeling that it’s being played through molasses. Like it’s creeping along, not unlike a reptile.

And here we reach the title track, The Downward Spiral. The song begins with a droning noise, almost like the buzzing of flies. And where do we find buzzing flies? We find them where there is decay, rotting, and death. This is no accident. I told you that Trent is brilliant, and I don’t think I exaggerated. Well, this droning is soon accompanied solely by a guitar playing our descending, ‘downward spiral’ of notes, that portray and reinforce that theme of death, suicide, loss. We eventually come to a point where various instruments take over and the tone darkens.

On one side, we hear Trent just screaming out. Panned to the other, he’s reciting a poem. One that shouldn’t come as a surprise.

he couldn’t believe how easy it was
he put the gun into his face
bang!
(so much blood for such a tiny hole)

problems do have solutions you know
a lifetime of f*cking things up, fixed in one determined flash

All of this over that same riff played now on piano. The song ends just as abruptly as it’s narrator’s life, giving way to an airy noise, the sounds of emptiness, which leads to Hurt, known as an emotional ballad to Trent’s fans. Hurt is a song that many can relate to on various levels. It’s a slow, gentle song, with slow, gentle vocals.

i hurt myself today
to see if I still feel
i focus on the pain
the only thing that’s real
the needle tears a hole
the old familiar sting
try to kill it all away
but I remember everything

what have I become?
my sweetest friend
everyone I know
goes away in the end

When Trent plays this live, I can’t help but notice the emotion that comes over him, and the crowd as well. I’ve seen many shed more than one tear during this number. It’s similar in it’s quiet emotion to Something I Can Never Have, and seems to have a similar emotional effect on Trent, and the fans as well.

you could have it all
my empire of dirt
i will let you down
i will make you hurt
if I could start again
a million miles away
i would keep myself
i would find a way

The song builds up near the end, to the last line, drowned out by a harsh guitar buzz, which fades, along with a few other noises, including the airiness (which continues throughout the entire song) for nearly two minutes, until all fades, leaving only that solitary drone of emptiness.

I sort of feel the same way ending my review of the album as I do when I finish listening to it. I feel somewhat emotionless, as I’ve been purging so much throughout the entire album, that I’m just completely dry by the end. For me, it’s hard to listen to The Downward Spiral and not feel profound waves of something. Though, I’m sure that there exist those who can listen to it superficially, and take it for it’s music, or because they find a killer hook, or whatever it may be. And that’s fine. Find something you can enjoy. I know why I love this album so much, and it’s because how deeply it affects me, and touches me, and how I feel I can truly relate to, and express through the music, the lyrics; everything.

If you're interested in anything Nine Inch Nails, check out some official websites...

http://www.nin.com
http://www.nothingrecords.com (Trent's label)


This review is part of the Music that Inspires You Write-Off, hosted by paulyoungotti. Please check out the other participants...

brothermansoul, Cletta1201, Cripper, DVON, Elsa70, GirlBoxer5, Jag2112, Kuueleimomi, Lynnzop, madtheory, MattA75, Search66, swanton00, Tigger 500, and myself, but you've read mine already!