Best Downward Spiral album track

no "March of the Pigs"?

Reptile
Heresy
Eraser
I Do Not Want This
Mr. Self Destruct
The Downward Spiral
The Becoming
A Warm Place
Ruiner
March of the Pigs
Big Man with a Gun

Hmm. Apparently you have a thing against pigs, too
oh xp

I'd vote "March of the pigs" even if "Closer" or "Hurt" were options

Yeah, Piggy is missing too

LOL, yeah, I only like real pigs, not hate-sex ones.

note to self: be more explicit in your opening posts

I took the singles out; pick your favorite from the album tracks

Eraser, obv

also random factoid unrelated to this album: the highest-charting NIN single on the Billboard Hot 100 is... "The Day The World Went Away" o_O

it was cause they released a CD single of it in advance of the album and was like the first new NIN song in a while so sales drove it up the chart

I look forward to a good defense of "Big Man With A Gun", a song best described as "single entendre"

anyway haven't listened to it in a while but "Reptile" was always a favorite

I'm listening now and I'd honestly forgotten how much I like "Heresy" and "Ruiner"

the tortured screaming on "The Becoming" <3

I wish I was 21 again

heresy (dude has an underrated falsetto imo) vs. the becoming (great meter) vs. mr self destruct

"The Becoming" (the meter, the screaming, the acoustic breakdown, the beat)

Reptile (the sex)

haha "Big Man with a Gun" is even more ludicrous than I remembered

Heresy is good but I can't vote for "your god is dead / and no one cares / if there is a hell / i'll see you there", talk about having your cake and eating it too

It's like "Jesus Christ never existed / and he blows"

IIRC those are the remix lyrics

Just thinking about "Big Man with a Gun" has me cracking up...no way can I bring myself to play it right now.

"Reptile" just barely over "Heresy"

it was cause they released a CD single of it in advance of the album and was like the first new NIN song in a while so sales drove it up the chart

lol, yes, i remember when that CD single came out. my buddy at the time was working at a B3st Buy in Champaign and said there was a handful of NIN dudes waiting for the doors to open that day, for a CD single.

you've all waited years for this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJIJzmcc4MY

I agree with the emergent consensus: "Reptile", followed by "Heresy" or maybe "The Becoming".

xpost -- Saw that tour live, have the soundboard bootleg, etc.

the highest-charting NIN single on the Billboard Hot 100 is... "The Day The World Went Away" o_O

tied with "The Perfect Drug," no?

Man that David Bowie/NIN show was so fuckin' killer to me when I was 19.

"Big Man with a Gun" if you ignore the lyrics

the clips I've seen are damn good

tied with "The Perfect Drug," no?

"The Perfect Drug" hit 41
"The Day the World Went Away" hit... 17

I mean, I think that is incredibly awesome and I understand the circumstances, but given the song it is just so, so odd

i was one of those dudes (elsewhere) buying tdtwwa on release :/

reptile is probably the best stand alone track. there are parts of other songs I like more. the way ruiner starts is hot. the weird wooshy acoustic part and end of the becoming. even eraser is pretty neat sounding minus trent's over the top angst.

my buddy at the time was working at a B3st Buy

why are we googleproofing this

I do love later NIN albums but it's kind of crazy/insane I haven't gone back to this one before today, because it's AMAZING

didn't they do TDTWWA on either the Grammys or the VMAs that year? I remember it was massive and fantastic

this record is actually more abrasive than i remember it (especially if you skip the singles!). probably because i was listening to a shitload of metal alongside it at the time, and now my eardrums have lost their calluses.

my main tds memory is being on a senior trip to cancun and listening to it on the beach. determined to remain miserable in tropical paradise.

The "Broken" EP calibrated me well for this album; had it dropped without that transitional EP I likely would have been all "wtf guitars???? *arms crossed*"

I remember showing up for my calculus final at 9:00 and it didn't start until 10:00 and, rather than cramming for the final, I jammed out to this on my Sony Discman.

my bad about "The Perfect Drug" -- it was "Hot 100 SINGLES sales."

Mr. Self Destruct got a lot of radio play in my neck of the woods.

Either that or I played it a lot and am making that up.

Ruiner.

I remember hightailing it to the record store with a similarly obsessed friend of mine to buy that The Day the World Went Away single the day it came out. There was probably nothing bigger than NIN in my life at that time and we'd count the days until new stuff rolled out.

Was Piggy a single then? I may have voted for it if it had been included.

Hard choice.

Could have been 'Heresy', 'Eraser', 'I Do Not Want This' or 'The Becoming'. Went with 'Heresy'.

Voted "The Becoming". It's kind of what I imagine a Hieronymus Bosch painting to sound like.

Voted "Heresy." That chorus is awesome - I imagine Glen Benton hearing it for the first time and doing one of those action-movie "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" screams at the sky.

Write in vote for Piggy.

hey pig piggy pig hey pih

Yeah, I didn't think "Piggy" was a single either, but Wikipedia says it was. Here's what threw me off: it didn't have a halo number!

It was initially a poem, but he magnified it into a composition.

I remember really liking the mr self destruct remixes on further down the spiral. I should listen to that again.

March of the pigs is the best thing on this album (probably the best nin track overall).

Out of the poll options it's probably heresy, despite the terrible lyrics.

So I guess this poll is ignoring the singles. I just realized Piggy was a single it seems too offbeat for a single.

"Piggy" charted higher than "March of the Pigs" on US rock stations, is the crazy thing

That seems so bizarre to me.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

hey did everyone vote in this

Piggy>>>March IMO. Partially cos Trent is better at more restrained vox. They're both beautifully crafted though.

I could do a Downward Spiral singles poll but I don't know if it would be as interesting

yes it would

It would be interesting to see how many people pretend they don't love "Closer."

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

i can't remember what i voted for... i think "ruiner"

Big Man with a Gun 2
I Do Not Want This 0

Come on.

haha my thoughts exactly

voted 'reptile', partly on the basis of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se46lZOOQoU

last NIN show I saw (maybe one of the last 3 they played?), I was at the front and the moment when we realised what was going on was one of the most thrilling things I've seen at a concert (I'm not a Peter Murphy fan at all, but from a purely theatrical perspective it was pretty awesome - doesn't look nearly as good on video as it seemed at the time, of course).

Yeah I can see that would have been pretty amazing live (although I would have been going 'who the fuck is this guy?').

Missed the poll but the more textural the better for me so would have voted The Becoming, which also has an awesomely angst-ridden end section, less clunky than Heresy and great for screaming when you are a teenager. It is a fucking amazing album but I don't know if I could actually listen to it all the way through again.

I should've voted Mr. Self Destruct, that song rules

It is a fucking amazing album but I don't know if I could actually listen to it all the way through again.

I thought this as well until I played the album shortly after creating this poll, at which point I was asking myself "Why did I wait 10+ years to play this album again????????"

Maybe I'll wait till I've had a bad day at work or something. I did try to get in to The Fragile recently but it didn't stick (apart from 'We're in This Together'), I just didn't feel like I was in that necessary teenage angsty frame of mind any more (thank god).

I love the first disk of The Fragile to bits and my recent replay of The Downward Spiral convinced me that TDS is a superior album in practically every manner imaginable, so it may be more relatable than you think.

I wasn't in the mood for "The Fragile" when it came out but I'd be interested in checking it out now.

"The Downward Spiral", I recall it and other Alan Moulder/Flood records sounding tinny and digital in 2000 but my ears and tastes have changed, sounds sweet these days

about the only thing TF has over TDS is that it doesn't have "Big Man with a Gun" on it, but I think "Starfuckers, Inc" kind of cancels that out

Oh riiiiight that song sucks a lot

I saw advertised an event in 2000 where they were going to listen to "The Fragile" Zaireeka-style with one disc on one side of the room and the other disc on the other. Is this a thing?

the fragile's instrumentals are pretty strong. again i have a hard time fitting them into any mood of my life now. they would be awesome for playing dead space or resident evil over.

xpost never heard of that?

sad i missed this poll! i have also recently revisited the downward spiral after a long time away and i just fucking love it. it's so good, and this is totally correct imo:

I love the first disk of The Fragile to bits and my recent replay of The Downward Spiral convinced me that TDS is a superior album in practically every manner imaginable, so it may be more relatable than you think.

really torn on what i would have voted for tho...it's kinda hard to choose between ruiner, reptile, and heresy

Ok yeah it's still amazing. Hurt is still devastating. Eraser and I Do Not Want This both brilliant, robbed. Big Man with a Gun is kind of a necessary climax imo, and of course perfectly sets up the sudden 180 in pace and tone of A Warm Place. And y'know it's hilarious in its own way.

Listened to it today for the 1st time in years and it still holds up. Played Broken a few weeks ago and it still hits that spot it did all those years ago.

I was planning on doing a singles poll but my work Internet access has decided to be a sandy douche ;_;

the fragile's instrumentals are pretty strong.

so true. jazzy piano

Great to see 'Heresy' take this, it's always been a strong track for me. No votes for 'I Do Not Want This', though!?

happy 30th

incredible that an album this aggressive and harsh was a huge hit.

How the hell did "The Day the World Went Away" reach #17? Never heard that song on the radio or anywhere, until years later when it started showing up in trailers and stuff

Physical Single sales.

IIRC, it was really cheap too: a two track disc in a paper sleeve that retailed for $1-2, and a maxi-single with remixes in a digipack that was $5-6 at big box stores.

I probably voted for Mr Self Destruct but am OK with Heresy winning

xp guess that makes sense, hadn't heard about it being priced that low. Still a very odd song to be their biggest hit

Nine Inch Nails announce…
YES
’The Downward Spiral’ 30th anniversary…
FUCK YES
Dr. Martens shoes and boots
😑

https://www.stereogum.com/2271661/nine-inch-nails-announce-the-downward-spiral-30th-anniversary-dr-martens/news/

We, uh, should re-poll this post haste

(Nevermind! I see what DJP was going for now)

Apparently I’m going to buy 2-3 pairs of Docs this week

lol

If I’d voted in this poll it would’ve been “Ruiner” or “Mr Self Destruct”