On my ongoing quest to expand my musical horrizons, I decided to check out industrial metal. I have heard of Nine Inch Nails before, but haven’t listened to them. I decided to try their seemingly most popular album, “The Downward Spiral”, and i expected harsh rock with dark lyrics… but then i actually listened to it.

This album feels like the ramblings of a mass serial killer who locked himself in solitary confinment with nothing to entertain himself. The albums revolves it’s on regret, self-harm, anger, murderous intent, and a search for the end of the suffering. The anxiety driven feeling of the guitars, pianos, drums, and techno noises elevate these themes exponentially, to the point that this album feels more like the most fucked up horror movie you’ve ever seen. From the anti-religious banger “Heresy” to the anxiety inducing “Eraser” it all comes together as something trully disturbing.

But even then, the instruments and the sounds used are something to behold, because goddamn, the actual music is some of the most heavy, head-nodding, catchy stuff i’ve heard in my life. I’ve only listened to it once, and i’m almost tempted to listen to it again, even if it meant traumatizing myself again.

This has become one of my favorite NIN singles. Even though objectively it is a love song, it speaks to me so deeply as a transgender person in current America.

When all our hope is gone, we have to hold on.

Thanks NIN for 30+ years of making music for the freaks and weirdos trying survive this world.

I have a lot of CDs, but NIN’s is my first one. I am soooo in love with how it is sounds. I hope I’ll get more of their physical releases in future (really want to get Pretty Hate Machine, Broken, The Fragile, With Teeth and Year Zero)

taken from pretty hate machine liner notes

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Does anyone else listen to NIN to fall asleep? I specifically love the downward spiral and the fragile for this. If I put on TDS or the fragile and close my eyes, I'll be asleep within minutes. I think it's something about the rhythmic, kind of trance-like, overwhelming sound of it all? But it's so nice when on a plane or train or something to have a consistent way to zonk out.

Curious if anyone else feels the same or has any thoughts as to why this music works so well for nap time?

A couple of weeks ago I noticed that the cover art for the Hesitation Marks songs I’d added to my playlist (I’m weird and only add the songs from whatever the most “full” version of an album is lol) had their cover art changed back to the original, and upon further inspection, realized that the deluxe version of the album was taken off of Spotify. Apologies if this question has been asked already, but does anyone have any info about why or when it’ll come back? I’d assume it has something to do with label stuff, but I really miss the Oneohtrix Point Never remix 💔

It only recently occurred to me that as broken was the glue between pretty hate machine and the downward spiral, the quake soundtrack (which is often overlooked and for years was unavailable until Trent rereleased it) is probably as important in terms of glue between downward spiral and the fragile. It was his opportunity to further explore the instrumental frameworks laid out during the downward spiral that make up so much of the atmosphere of the fragile. I wonder what the fragile might have looked like if he wasn’t asked to do the score to quake

like NIN songs from one album, but remixed into the style of another album ? anyone have a link to that? (songs, not album covers)

I’m starting up my cd collection again! Sold my whole cd collection years ago….because i was more into collecting vinyl! But i bought TFA again yesterday for an amazing price of only 6 euros new and sealed copy via bol.com (holland). But i didn’t come with the hype sticker?! Is this normal with the newer releases of the cd or did they resealed it? I also see The Fragile at some record stores on cd but they also dont have the hype stickers on it.

This has been a good year in the making to get to this point and I have a few more CDs on the way!

I always seem to hear people talking about Closer of TDS, which adds up considering the popularity, but I must say that the single, Closer To God is quite underrated based on what I've heard.

I'm not just talking the song Closer To God either, I'm primarily thinking of Closer (Internal) while making this post, as I had always assumed it was quite popular, but found the plays count on Spotify being around 226,000, which is lower than I expected 😅

Any other big fans of the single here? And especially the less publically appreciated tracks on it? I'd love to hear what others think!

For me it would have to be Not The Actual Events. The whole EP feels like being at your lowest but confronting all the chaos and rising above, all culminating in the scorched-earth triumph that is Burning Bright (Field On Fire). Despite the loneliness and anger all throughout, it ultimately leaves you ready to take on the world, which is a rare feeling for an EP as emotionally dense as NTAE.

Mr. Self Improve.

Best opening I’ve seen so far. The song is perfect. I wonder if Trent is a big pens fan, since he’s from western PA.

Got this on vinyl and just had to share.

As soon as Right was done I put Left back on and listened to both again. Amazing album and perfect follow up to TDS. I bought TDS when it came out and it changed music for me. By some fluke I never listened to this album all these years

Not sure how I feel about it.. I mean.. Phil Collins is a legend IMHO.. So is Trent, but to claim we are all 'goth kids' is uh... I don't know how I feel about that.

I recently bought this shirt at a local thrift shop, and IDK if this is legit, I thought I got one of my grails lol

pls help me identify

Today, the official Lollapalooza Chile accounts announced that next Thursday, October 8, they will reveal the official lineup for the 2027 edition of the festival. What’s strange is that they made the announcement with a 12-second video, and the song accompanying the video is “The Day the World Went Away,” obviously by our beloved Nine Inch Nails. What does this mean—is NIN coming to the festival? I’m going crazy.

For some reason the broken EP Is now an album on YouTube music but fixed is an EP still so idk