Nice!

The Downward Spiral Redux / Best Of Nine Inch Nails Redux

Track listing:

The Downward Spiral Redux:

1. Mr. Self-Destruct (BLACK TUSK)
2. Piggy (THIEF)
3. Heresy (GRIN)
4. March Of The Pigs (SANDRIDER)
5. Closer (DAEVAR)
6. Ruiner (HIGH TONE SON OF A BITCH)
7. The Becoming (DREADNOUGHT)
8. I Do Not Want This (John Fryer with Stella Soleil)
9. Big Man With A Gun (John Cxnnor feat. HEXA)
10. A Warm Place (IAH)
11. Eraser (ABRAMS)
12. Reptile (AUTHOR & PUNISHER)
13. The Downward Spiral (PALEHORSE PALERIDER)
14. Hurt (BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME)

Best Of Nine Inch Nails Redux:

1. The Day The World Went Away / Sin (SNAKEMOTHER)
2. Head Like A Hole (BLUE HERON)
3. Right Where It Belongs (GRAYCEON)
4. Even Deeper (THE OCEAN)
5. This Isn’t The Place (EVI VINE)
6. The Perfect Drug (NONEXISTENT NIGHT)
7. The Hand That Feeds (THE MOTH GATHERER)
8. Every Day Is Exactly The Same (CHROME GHOST)
9. The Great Below (MARISSA NADLER)
10. Over & Out (BEES MADE HONEY IN THE VEIN TREE)
11. Suck (THOU)
12. Terrible Lie (ORBITER)
13. Something I Could Never Have (BLEAKHEART)

Light years ahead of its time and still remarkable more than 30 years after its release, NINE INCH NAILS’ second album is one of those records that has a palpable aura of invincibility. The latest in a series of magnificent “redux” albums that those excellent folk at Magnetic Eye Records have been churning out over the last few years, this multi-artist reworking is both a gift for diehard fans of the industrial giants, and a timely reminder that Trent Reznor made his masterpiece very early in his career, which may explain why he has spent the last three decades refusing to make anything vaguely similar ever again. The monolithic experiments of “The Fragile” notwithstanding, “The Downward Spiral” is the great man’s most enduring work, and it is not hard to imagine this diverse array of bands and artists jumping for joy in unison when the opportunity to contribute to a new version generously reared its head. Previous, like-minded releases paid tribute to the likes of JIMI HENDRIX, PINK FLOYD, HELMET and ALICE IN CHAINS, all of whom deserved similar treatment, but this is by far the most adventurous and sonically diverse project that Magnetic Eye have conceived yet. Released in tandem with a similarly respectful collection of NINE INCH NAILS favorites, “The Downward Spiral Redux” shares much of the original’s unnerving strangeness while also hurtling down numerous avenues that not even the most imaginative Reznor acolytes could have anticipated. Great fun, then, but also a monumental undertaking that repeatedly pays off.

This is very much in keeping with the eclectic approach that Reznor took to making the original, and the highlights are often genuinely startling. BLACK TUSK kick things off with a vicious rendition of “Mr. Self-Destruct” that reimagines the song as a braying, mean-spirited sludge metal assault. Post-industrial mavericks THIEF squeeze every drop of malice out of their artfully abrasive take on “Piggy”. DAEVAR’s noirish, dream-like doom is the perfect fit for the much-overplayed “Closer”, which benefits greatly from being reborn as something that vanilla part-time goths will find hugely confusing. John Cxnnor’s extreme techno dismantling of “Big Man With A Gun” nails the hazy spirit of its original counterpart to the wall with gallons of machine-processed vitriol. Meanwhile, Argentina’s IAH bring disarming grace and gossamer ambience to the lush chords and mournful gait of “A Warm Place”. Best of all, BETWEEN THE BURIED & ME’s version of “Hurt” presents a lavish, achingly beautiful flipside to JOHNNY CASH’s stripped-down interpretation, with Tommy Rogers’ vocal shimmering majestically, as his comrades let their imaginations fly with opalescent, post-rock abandon. It is still, as logic demands, an utterly scintillating piece of songwriting.

“Best Of Nine Inch Nails Redux” is a less coherent sprawl, for obvious reasons, but boasts numerous jaw-dropping moments, ranging from BLUE HERON’s thunderous swamp rock crawl through “Head Like A Hole” and THE OCEAN’s artful, proggy and predictably great “Even Deeper”, to a harrowing, mutant deconstruction of PIGFACE curio “Suck” (not technically a NINE INCH NAILS song, but close enough) that THOU seem to pull directly from the ghostly depths of their own embittered souls, and Marissa Nadler’s haunting but graceful version of “The Great Below”.

Taken in its bloated, benevolent entirety, this project reinforces the efficacy of NINE INCH NAILS’ original vision. Dark and dramatic music that comes straight from the heart will always have an impressive shelf life, and every one of those contributing to this should be proud of themselves for honoring a stone-cold classic in such an audaciously creative fashion. When you go sprinting back to the original, as seems inevitable, remember who sent you.^[1]