Nine Inch Nails
The Downward Spiral

Damn thieving whore, this C.A.T (mephedrone) is very very up, take some kat (which isn't kitekat), which is ephedrine, and life smiles at you, even better the serum of ephedra, that is pure ephedrine, but I had to make do, given that customs.....ehehehehehhe

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1994 was the year when this masterpiece by Nine Inch Nails saw the light, the album in question is objectively among the top 10 albums of the 90s, and one of the greatest albums of all time.

This analysis is aimed at a mentally adult audience, namely the 20% of debaser users, given that the other 80% are so obtuse they can't get past Metallica, having their brains completely burned by the media. Moreover, it's aimed at those who want to delve more closely into the work of a genius. I've decided that the only way to talk about such a work is psychoanalysis, so I won't dwell much on the musical aspect, but rather on the psychoanalytical one, apologizing for the length, but it couldn't have been otherwise if one wants to understand what is the metaphorical and hidden (not so much) sense of the work, and then let's be honest, those who can't read it mean they have an IQ unfortunately below average.
A warning: any track, extracted from context, is incomplete.

The album opens with "Mr. Self Destruct", the song begins with gunfire and the cries of a man being tortured, it's unclear if by himself or someone else. This theme of slavery, domination, and submission is the backbone of the work.
The text begins with "I am the voice inside your head, and I control you", and continues listing the ways in which self-destructive control and manipulation can be established, from hate to sex, to the "denial guilt and fear" of religion, to drug addiction.
Self-destruction hides in what you most desire because it is what holds true power over you. And what does the protagonist desire at the onset of the second track? Here's piggy:

[hey slut, yeah you
hey slut slut piggy slut
all my fears have become real
black and blue and broken bones
you left me here, I'm completely alone
my piggy needed something new...
nothing can stop me now, I just don't care anymore
nothing can stop me now, simply I don't care]"

By "piggy" it's meant a former lover who no longer needed the character (as stated in the last verses, "nothing can stop me now, you don't need me anymore"). The deduction that "piggy" was a lover rather than some other figure is based on later songs, like "Closer", where sexual power is shown as a form of control and identity that the man experiences strongly. When the main character is rejected, his control is broken and he is left powerless. Piggy's ability to escape his grasp hits him deeply and leaves him pathetically chanting the mantra that will be repeated later: "nothing can stop me now".
Let's move to the third song, heresy:

"Metaphysical rebellion is the movement through which man protests against his condition and all creation... the metaphysical rebel protests against his human condition." (Albert Camus)
Nietzsche once proclaimed to the world that "God is dead", and it's the same cry of the character in "Heresy". The character blames God for his sufferings but doesn't stop there. To justify the killing of God, the character attributes to him the responsibility for the sufferings of all humanity, from the AIDS virus ("he made a virus that would kill off all the swine") to the "atrocities done in his name". His hatred towards God is such that he would rather risk burning in hell than submit and show devotion to what he perceives as his executioner.
When the character dethrones God in a fit of outrage, he does more than kill the divinity. When God's reign falls, everything tied to it falls with it, including any sense of meaning or morality.


Then bursts in "March of the pigs", which tackles the subject of man's relationship with society. The song is a clear denunciation of a greedy and cannibalistic world whose members enjoy watching others fail. That is their entertainment. In society as he sees it, anyone is seen as a threat to the established order, anyone might be able to reveal the sad world hidden behind lies, or anyone having a more developed sensitivity than is allowed is discredited in the eyes of the world and socially marginalized. [I want to destroy it, I want to tear it apart, I want to fuck it, I want to see it fall"]

The world he sees himself opposed to is not a world of human beings, but the realm of God's pigs, made in its image. The man fails to establish a connection with this world, and cannot come to terms with his own tendency towards indifference. He is unable to conceive others as human beings, he is unable to love or trust others. He cannot be part of the world, so the world must pay.
When we examined "Piggy", we saw that man's relationships were closely tied to the idea of control and identity achieved through sex. The complex nature of this bond is described in "Closer".
[You let me desecrate you, you let me penetrate you, you let me complicate you, help me, I broke what was inside me, help me, I have no soul to sell, help me, the only thing that works for me, help me escape from myself, I want to fuck you like an animal, I want to feel you from the inside, I want to fuck you like an animal, you get me closer to God]". The complete submission of the partner to all his abuses gives him the most complete power. And through this power, he can escape his life as an irrecoverable victim and experience what he believes to be divine control.
The character knows that, somehow, his control is illusory, but he accepts it all the same.
His entire existence is based on controlling another, at any cost. His entire identity and will to live depend on another. "You are the reason I stay alive".
When "piggy" no longer submits to his will, he is defrauded of the identity he had built to protect himself. That's when, confused and with no one else to turn to, the man directs his anger toward God, which he identifies with total control. This begins to be established in "Closer", "You get me closer to God", but is more clearly illustrated in the next song, "Ruiner". The listener enters the man's life at this point when he is finally ready to face his degradation. His false connection of sexual power and control with God is highlighted in the music of "Closer".

"Ruiner" is the most explicit condemnation not only of God but also of any faith in God.
Everything that is part of this corrupted existence is attributed to God. As in "Heresy", where God was responsible for AIDS, now he is labeled as a "contagion" responsible for the "disease" of humans.
The man's perception of his relationship with God is one of control and abuse. It is the same as the relationship he had with "piggy" and society, but the roles are reversed. Since his control has its roots in the sexual sphere, his images of God are portrayed with images of this kind: "How did you get so big? How did you get so strong? How did you get so hard? How did it get so long?"

The phallic symbolism of these phrases is quite evident, but even more revealing is the tone in which they are expressed. The keyboards rise in volume and echo violently, signifying the man's power as he addresses God accusingly, and with a hint of growing jealousy.
With "Ruiner", it decrees the death of God and the liberated man triumphantly proclaims "You didn't hurt me, nothing can hurt me, nothing can stop me now". Once again, the growing intensity of the keyboards proclaims the man's power. He is at the peak of his power, "Nothing can stop me now".

Second part of the work

Right at the moment he has reached his goal, the trap unveils itself in all its bitterness. The suffering man who once rebelled against the cruel nature of his situation finds within himself something even more cruel: the nihilistic voice of indifference.
After God has been eliminated, the central theme of the album is a new battle, an internal struggle. Man's humanity is engaged in a fight against its mechanical counterpart (a metaphor for the modern world, in which the mystery of Being is replaced by the hollow answers of Science). "The becoming"
[All the pain disappears, it's the nature of my circuitry, it overwhelms everything I feel, I can't escape this new consciousness, the me you know had feelings, but the blood stopped pumping and he was left to decay, the me you know now is made of wires, and even when I'm right here with you I'm so far away]". Deeper than his conflict with God, this conflict threatens to strip him of his humanity and replace it with a mechanical world of social and moral stagnation.

It is possible this happens because the meaning of things decayed with God's reign. There are no more moral laws to place limits on man; he can do what he wants. He can do what he wants, but there are no more reasons to do or not do anything.
At this point, the man realizes what he has done, he knows he has betrayed himself, but he doesn't know what to do.
Just then, when the victory of the mechanical part seems imminent, the song opens to the rhythmic and natural sound of a motif played on an acoustic guitar, with a human voice humming in the background. Something within the man can't accept what is happening, but he can't find the strength to do anything, except hide passively.

Begins "I do not want this", the atmosphere of that beginning is the most desolate and mechanical I've ever heard, it seems to resonate in a world where every kind of warmth and human feeling has disappeared: it's our world! The society we are living in every day, people!
Suddenly the void is submerged by a brutal attack of violent sounds that you are forced to turn down the volume of your HI-FI otherwise some neighbor could alert the cops or the psych ward eheheheh.
The human part of the character has its days numbered. "I'm losing round…..[I'm losing ground, you know how hard this world can hit you, I'm made of clay, I'm afraid I'm the only one who thinks this way]", says the human voice, revealing the despair of his position.

[I keep falling down the same hill, bamboo puncturing the skin, nothing comes from me, I'm drowning like under a waterfall, two feet under the surface (of the water) I can still see your face ripple, and if I could reach you maybe I could leave this place]". The voice that utters these words is chillingly atonal and contrasts with what is being said. The mechanical voice mocks the human voice, waving before it the option of seeking help from someone, knowing that the help of another would never be accepted. The human voice emerges to miserably protest, "I do not want this", and promptly assaults the mechanical voice and its derisive offers: [Don't tell me how I feel, you have no idea how I feel]".

When God's throne is overturned, the rebel realizes it is now his responsibility to create the justice, order, and unity he sought in vain within his condition, thus justifying God's fall." (Albert Camus)

The mechanical voice is born from the absence of meaning, so perhaps the character can escape it by establishing a new moral order (I want to know everything, I want to be everywhere, I want to fuck everyone, I want to do something that matters)
His voice drips with desire as he utters these words, ripe with sexual power. Finally, he tells himself: I will have absolute power. I will be totally free. I will be untouchable by the limits of the human condition. Now, he will be God. (And what does it mean to be God, to him?) Now he will have control. (And wasn’t this what he saw in the relationship between man and God?) Now he will be free. (And ultimately, isn't freedom the central theme in all this?) Now he will become the Destroyer.

Now begins the desperate effort to create, at the cost of crime and murder if necessary, the kingdom of men." (Albert Camus)

Starts "big man with a gun"
The song opens with a throbbing percussion rhythm and multiple distorted voices, moaning in ecstasy or suffering... probably both.

[I'm a big man
(yes, I am)
and I've got a big gun
do you understand?, a big old cock and
I like to have fun
push it against your forehead
I'll make you suck it
and maybe blow a hole in your head
just for the hell of it
I can bring you to degradation if I want
I can devour
I'm hard as fucking steel, and I have the power
I'm, an every inch man, and somehow I'll prove it to you
me and my fucking gun
nothing can stop me now
bang bang bang bang bang
I'm going to cum all over you/all of you
me and my fucking gun
me and my fucking gun]"

So this is the kingdom of men? A realm of the same arbitrary violence and tendency to control that had been attributed to God's realm. Just as the Destroyer had terrorized him, he will terrorize others. Naturally; given the elements we already knew, how could we have expected a different turn?
His entire conception of God was based on control and abuse not because that was God's nature, but because that is HIS nature. The tragic nature of man is that he is incapable of connecting with the world around him, of seeing others as human beings and not pigs, and because of this, he can only be a destroyer.
This kingdom of man is exaggerated, violent, frantic, it is the western society where we live, everything but stable. When the man shouts "nothing can stop me now", the world is collapsing once again around him. As much as he may try, man cannot replace God; it is not within his power. Therefore the character's attempt to assume such a role fails, and he descends again towards the fate that had almost become his: his mechanical part.

The next track on the album, "A warm place", is as sad as it is beautiful. The song represents a main turning point in the story; it is a tragic moment of deep realization. Everything he has done becomes finally clear to him, along with his transition from destroyed to destroyer, and his role at the center of it all. He realizes that his entire life has been a continuous, circular infliction of pain on others to escape his own, and the human component still intact within him is horrified. He sees the violence that he himself represents, and of which he will be responsible. A new choice opens before him, a new way to escape the mechanical voice that has withdrawn but is not yet defeated: death. He will not try to run from himself through others anymore, he tells himself. He wants to accept the pain of his own life.

"Eraser" is mainly a setting to words the revelations had in "A warm place". It starts with dark mass-like sighs and moans in the background, then the electronic drum enters and it's a mechanical orgy of 3 minutes… when it fades Reznor declares:
[Needing you, dreaming you, finding you, tasting you, fucking you, using you, terrifying you, breaking you]" asserting the nature of his relationship with others, and then [lose me, hate me, tear me apart, erase me, kill me]". The violence he directs towards himself is desperate, he needs someone to put an end to his life.
The final step in the downward spiral occurs at this stage when he has accepted death but still can't pull the trigger. Indecision once again drives him to seek another way out. It seems the character turns to a prostitute, or a woman of the same indifference as a prostitute, to find some form of alternative control; a control that doesn't require him to give anything, and doesn't harm anyone. However, what he finds inside both her and himself only fuels his disgust. His description of her in "Reptile" is cold and realistic, to say the least.

[She spreads herself wide open to let the insects in
she leaves a trail of honey to show me where she's been
she has blood of a reptile under her skin,
sperm of thousands of others dripping from within her...
oh my precious whore]"

In the reptile, he finds the same cold indifference that is in him and from which he is running. She is a liar who will subject him to her desires and tell him what he wants to hear, but doesn't mean anything she says. She is incapable of feeling anything towards him, and provides him sex as freely as she did with the man before and will do with the one after.
When he says "my disease my infection, I am so impure" he realizes he is once again driven by his own corruption and impurity (his need to control others) and accepts there are no more alternatives.

[The angels bleed at the corrupted touch of my caress,
I need to contaminate to relieve this
loneliness, and I know the depths to which I'll descend are limitless]

"The downward spiral" begins with silence, followed by an acoustic guitar strumming the last notes of "Closer", and then there is a description of suicide:

[He couldn’t believe how easy it was
He put the gun in his face
bang!
(so much blood for such a small hole)]

The mechanical part of the subject observes the suicide in a detached manner,
as if it did not concern him; it observes how the gun is now pointed at its holder as it once was at another in “Big man with a gun". The recurring imagery of the gun (a phallic symbol representing his idea of divine control through sex) pointed at the head of someone shows how the violent nature of the destroyer he has become is now focused on himself, effectively becoming the responsible for his death.

(problems have a solution
a life spent ruining things fixed in a given flash
Everything is sad in this world
the deepest shade of blue fungus
all confused
it oozes from my head)

The man is doing much more than escaping the mechanical voice through suicide, he kills it along with himself.
Just as the mechanical voice describes the scene, the human voice cries in hurt, unleashing all the suffering and agony tormenting his existence: the final track “HURT” begins (one of the most touching songs ever, even covered by Johnny Cash)

[I hurt myself today
to see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
the only thing that's real]"

So begins the last song of the album, "hurt", the loneliest manifestation of the human voice. In theory, this is a triumph, a victory of humanity, but in reality, a dear price has been paid.

[the needle tears a hole,
the old familiar sting
try to erase it
but I remember everything]"

The drug reference is used as a metaphor for any form of self-destructive behavior pursued in the hope of escaping even while knowing its consequences and even welcoming them.

[What have I become?
My sweetest friend
everyone I know
goes away in the end
and you could have it all
my empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt]

Addressing some friend who never existed in his life, he finally completely renounces control. He no longer has the strength to do otherwise. His inability to have half measures is again to be noted. When he lets go, he does so completely ("you could have it all").


This obsession with extremes is one of the most important themes of the album .
His desire for control ultimately leads to his loss.
The purity and unity he sought in life were not achieved.

[I wear my crown of shit
on my liar's throne
full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
beneath the stains of time
the feeling disappears
you are someone else
I am still right here]

Here he makes an allusion to God's throne, which he attempted to claim as his own, and recalls with regret his own violence, which he will never be able to forget. And we finally reach the album's last lyrics, which express the man's desire to preserve himself, a desire that can be realized and affirmed only if he allows others to do the same.

[if I could start again
a thousand miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way to do it]"

The final verse is proof of the character's growth. Tragically, it is after his death that it is achieved. He strongly affirms the desire to cherish his humanity as a value and meaning in which human beings can realize themselves.
These final words are washed away by an electric chord that shatters the stillness and melts into a mechanical sound, which in turn dissolves, signifying an end or perhaps a new beginning.

In the dark heat of the arena, in front of thousands of people, the climax of "Eraser", the desperate plea for death, is fulfilled. The projection screen, which showed a setting sun over a desert, goes black. A muted but strong wind from another rusty and arid landscape is vaguely heard.
As much as HURT was personal on the album, today as we listen to it it transcends that level and encompasses all humanity. The screen shows black-and-white images, images of decay, of nuclear holocaust, and horrifying images of a land ravaged by war where women and children stand in front of their devastated homes; the corpses of young soldiers lie on the ground, forgotten; concentration camp victims are piled up, void of any humanity. A child trapped in the bloodied realm of man stares accusingly at the audience, as if to ask "why?" "what have I become?" and finally seems to ask "what have we become?"

The text of "Hurt" now becomes an indictment of all modern society as an "empire of dirt":
"We hurt ourselves today, to see if we still feel... try to kill the memory of it all away, but we remember everything".