I bought Nine Inch Nails' The Downward Spiral and immediately realized what Trent Reznor was up to. While in many ways the songs feel very dated - especially the minor hit "Closer" - and I relate far less to the rage and self-absorption evident in many of the songs, it still stands as an important part of the history of industrial rock. While the kindergarten politics of "March of the Pigs" and the swipe at gangster-posers in "Big Man With a Gun" can be dismissed, other songs, like "Hurt" and "The Becoming" are important because they end up being about far more than Reznor venting his own sense of meaninglessness. Indeed, "Hurt" was powerful enough for Johnny Cash to record a version that takes it away from teen angst and makes it about the brooding realities that even successful, accomplished individuals sense in themselves.
"Eraser" is perhaps the most disturbing song on the disc, with its repeated "Kill Me" winding the song down. Indeed, the song seems to be a kind of therapeutic confession of the inexorable slide from desire for another person, through the warping of that desire in to something dangerous, to the guilt and remorse that can consume a person who realizes that something beautiful has turned demonic. All I can say is, I grok, dude. Should go without saying that this song is not for the faint of heart.
