Masterpiece Crate 4: Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral

Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral Analysis and Review

Alternative and grunge rock were left for dead in the wake of Alice In Chains' punishing grunge-metal-hybrid album, Dirt, which we covered in our Masterpiece Crate 2. It was an album that ignited mainstream culture in a way that no other heavy metal act could do at the time, and there was almost no way another album could top the sheer aggressive tones and tonal density caught on tape and pressed into their sophomore record. However, another challenger approached, just two years later, and this time, it brought another genre with it into the worldwide spotlight. To call this album mainstream (despite its worldwide commercial success) would be a disservice to its ultimate goal, which was to peel back the skin of superficiality, but its overall effect on mainstream culture still reverberates to this day. This album shook the world with its naked honesty in its final track, while still showing the world how sexy, dirty, and seductive it feels getting closer to God. That album became known as The Downward Spiral, released in 1994 by studio mastermind, visionary, and musician, Trent Reznor, of Nine Inch Nails.

Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts V: Together & Ghosts VI: Locusts Album Reviews

Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts V: Together and Ghosts VI: Locusts Reviews

Just over 12 years since the debut of the instrumental, ambient, and cinematic soundscape series Ghosts I-IV, seasoned film and television composer duo, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, aka Nine Inch Nails, release their surprise twin albums Ghosts V: Together and Ghosts VI: Locusts, to help aid an ailing world in the midst of a global pandemic crisis.

Nine Inch Nails - Bad Witch & the EP trilogy Review

Nine Inch Nails - Bad Witch and the EP trilogy Review

Prelude

After Nine Inch Nails's last studio album, 2013's Hesitation Marks, underpinning an even more polished and poised electronic-industrial Trent Reznor, expectations were reasonably high for his eventual follow-up album. However, Reznor had been neck deep in scoring feature films and television shows with multiple time collaborator and director David Fincher, and the eye-opening documentaries Before The Flood and The Vietnam War, essentially fulfilling his lifelong dream of writing musical scores for films, and winning a Grammy while at it. No one could blame Reznor for being so ambitious, but it seemed almost impossible to imagine how he could fit Nine Inch Nails into such a tight schedule. Nevertheless, Reznor announced that 2016 would see new NIN material, and so anticipation ramped up. That same year, Reznor's longtime collaborator, Atticus Ross, was announced as the first official member to join Nine Inch Nails (Reznor would always use repeated and dedicated touring musicians to help him fully realize his primarily solo musical visions on stage). During the final month of the year, Reznor and Ross made good on their promise, finally announcing Not The Actual Events, the first EP in a series of three planned releases to comprise of an EP trilogy to be released right before the end of the year. Although this is a review of their final release of the three, Bad Witch, this is also a retrospective look at all three releases, and how the trilogy fits together as a whole, starting with Not The Actual Events.