Nine Inch Nail's "The Downward Spiral" Reflection

The Downward Spiral is critically acclaimed as the best album that the one-man army Trent Reznor has produced with his musical project Nine Inch Nails. It is not solely the music that makes Reznor's magnum opus so great. It is also the rich theme of the album that makes it so cohesively amazing. 

The artwork of the album perfectly describes a recurring theme in the album: Decay

The first track, "Mr. Self Destruct" is a fitting opening for the album, as it talks about the album in a gist. It describes the vices that the unknown protagonist (whom I will call Jimmy for ease of reference) will have in order to go down his downward spiral. Sex, hate, religious blindness, drugs, and prostitution are the many things that will control Jimmy on his way down. about the album in a nutshell. It describes the vices that the unknown protagonist (whom I will call Jimmy for ease of reference) will have in order to go down his downward spiral. Sex, hate, religious blindness, drugs, and prostitution are the many things that will control Jimmy on his way down. He turns to these things in order to somehow fill this emptiness that he feels inside.  It is no one's fault but his own, as we see in the lines of the song's breakdown: "You let me do this to you". He did this to himself and he is the sole reason why he spirals downward.

The second track, "Piggy", gives us a hint as to why Jimmy began his descent. His former lover, whom he calls a "piggy" now, must have betrayed his love and trust somehow, because Jimmy is very mad at her and says that "[his] little piggy needed something new". Once he finishes blaming her, he begins his mantra, "Nothing can stop me now cause I don't care anymore". He begins his descent because he feels like there is nothing else he can do. Nothing can stop him anymore because it seems to him that the world is gone now without her. He has lost the only thing he really cared for and now he has nothing left to do but begin his downward spiral.

We see his cards play out as he spirals down. He first blames god for all of his suffering in "Heresy". A natural part of grief, as we sometimes feel like there is no one else to really blame except for higher powers that we cannot see or feel. So, we point our rage towards the sky and claim that it is all god's or fate's fault for our troubles. Then, in (arguably Nine Inch Nails' most popular song) "Closer", we see him quell his feelings of worthlessness through control of others with sex. In a sick, twisted way, his control makes him feel like he is worth something and that he has purpose in life. However, these feelings don't last very long.

The only instrumental of the album, "A Warm Place", doesn't need to have words to convey the feelings that Jimmy has. After having done all of these things to try and fill his void, he finally comes to a realization of what he has done. He feels guilty for having done all of these bad things in order to try and make himself feel good.  However, in the next song "Eraser", it seems that he also realizes that he gone too far to have come back. So, he continues to decay and turns to prostitution in order to fill his void again. He has not learned from his mistakes truly because he continues to keep on descending even though he had the choice not to. The rest of the album seems to convey that he continues to spiral down into the throes of depression.

The Downward Spiral describes a man's descent through the dark vices that we sometimes turn to in order to try and make ourselves feel better. I find that the reason this album is so successful is because its theme of decay is so brilliantly woven into the music.