Nine Inch Nails - "The Downward Spiral" (1994)

Some were disappointed this one wasn't on my countdown of the top 30 albums of the 90s, and to be honest I feel a little bad about that. In hindsight it should've probably been on the list.

An excellent album, a landmark in many ways and the album that put Trent Reznor on the map once and for all. There's nothing to say about it that hasn't already been said - it's been a part of modern rock lore since the day it came out.

You know, recorded in the house where Charles Manson's minions slaughtered five people in 1969 and all that. A disturbing masterpiece which grabbed the coattails of grunge's self-hating introversion and pushed it to its most absurd extreme. If you want to slit your wrists, this would be a likely soundtrack.

From the opening samples of a man being whipped (from George Lucas's THX 1138), via the drumming melee of Piggy, the appropriately titled Heresy (which in less than four minutes accomplishes everything that Marilyn Manson has spent 20 years trying to get across and failing miserably at it), the unlikely hits March of the Pigs and Closer, the serene A Warm Place, all the way up to the legendary end song Hurt, this album is at once an intellectual and visceral experience unlike any other.

Anyway, the reason I'm writing this is just an excuse to post these vids of the band surprising the audience by playing the album in its entirety in New York on August 23rd of this year. This was completely unannounced and by the second and third song you can hear people going "OMG! They're doing the whole album!", and at one point someone concludes "It's like I've died and gone to hell".

An almost orgasmic experience. Definitely one of those "I will forever loathe myself for not being there" type moments:

(mp3) NIN - A warm place (highly recommended!)
(mp3) NIN - Reptile
(mp3) NIN - Hurt

Buy it @ Amazon.com