Nine Inch Nails album The Downward Spiral was released 25 years ago today.

[noxiousdog]

Saw this on /r/music. "Nine Inch Nails album The Downward Spiral was released 25 years ago today."

You know you're old when your music is oldies.

[coopasonic]

I was at the opening show of the tour for that album ( I looked it up and it was actually the opening show for the second leg in North America) where I was first introduced to Marilyn Manson. If it makes you feel better, Pretty Hate Machine preceded that album by nearly 5 years... a few months after my high school graduation.

[disarm]

If it makes you feel better, Pretty Hate Machine preceded that album by nearly 5 years... a few months after my high school graduation.

Pretty Hate Machine turns 30 on October 20th of this year. I consider both to be landmark albums in their own ways, but PHM was truly ahead its time. The fact that you can still listen to it today, thirty years later, without it sounding totally dated is pretty incredible.

The Downward Spiral was groundbreaking in different ways, and is still a great album, but knowing that it's 25 years old isn't as hard for me to believe as PHM hitting 30. Makes me want feel old...

[LordMortis]

You know you're old when your music is oldies.

You know you're old when the example you are pointing is the one at which I had started to move on from NIN. That was the last TVT000.... NIN bit of music I ever bought. It just didn't have the magic of PHM or any of the singles/Broken.

To your point my appreciation of music coming in to its own is 30+ years old, so a lot of the music that defined my self discovery is turning 30 this year.

Beelezebubba turned 30 last year
Nothing's Shocking turned 30 last year
Land of Rape and Honey turned 30 last year (which has not aged as well as PHM)
Prison Bound turned 30 last year
Front by Front turned 30 last year
Love Hysteria turned 30 last year
Watermark turned 30 last year
Ultramega OK turned 30 last year

What a year, not just to begin discovering what I had been missing all along to be able to experience so much that was just beginning to happen. It would be another three years before I could see anything but all ages shows but those all ages shows <3

I was so upset when I missed NIN open for Peter Murphy but I got to see them then next time, on NYE, 1990 at the Latin Quarter. I'd say it I remember it like it was yesterday, but nearly 30 years later, it's becoming hazy. I actually remember after the show better than the show itself. I remember car surfing down Woodward and seeing a guy taking a piss in the bushes, going to join him, only to have a woman pop out of the bushes when I approached.

[Jeff V]

Dear Penthouse Forum:

I was car surfing down Woodward and seeing a guy taking a piss in the bushes, going to join him, only to have a woman pop out of the bushes when I approached.

Ooooooooh yeahhhhhhh.

[gameoverman]

Wow, time has gone by fast

I can still listen to PHM and TDS to this day even though I'm not the same person I was then. What I liked about that music was that for all the experimentation and use of weird sounds he still managed to create listenable songs. Some artists are great at experimenting with new ways of doing things but don't produce things I really understand. Closer is a pop song as much as anything else while still being distinctive.

Watermark turned 30 last year

I expected big things from Enya when I heard that. I think getting lumped in with 'new age' music derailed things.

[hepcat]

The Superbowl Shuffle turned 34 this past December.

[hitbyambulance]

I was so upset when I missed NIN open for Peter Murphy

did not know this, had to look it up:

Nine Inch Nails was the opening act for Peter Murphy's Deep Tour in 1990.

that Peter Murphy + Nine Inch Nails radio session from some years back makes sense now (and it threw me when they did a Love & Rockets cover, of all things)

[noxiousdog]

The Downward Spiral is a more polished album, but I like Pretty Hate Machine more.

[Z-Corn]

The Superbowl Shuffle turned 34 this past December.

And The Curly Shuffle turns 36 this year.

Those were such better times.

[Daehawk]

June 25 years ago was one of the best days of my life. My wife surprised me by getting me my first PC at a trip to Circuit City. What a day we had.

[Smoove_B]

The Downward Spiral was groundbreaking in different ways, and is still a great album, but knowing that it's 25 years old isn't as hard for me to believe as PHM hitting 30. Makes me want feel old...

I remember Pretty Hate Machine more than The Downward Spiral probably because of the timing. I don't recall TDS being as unique or groundbreaking when it came out. But PHM? That was insane. I have that on cassette somewhere and I used to listen to it in an actual Sony Walkman. Ask your parents.

[noxiousdog]

The Downward Spiral was groundbreaking in different ways, and is still a great album, but knowing that it's 25 years old isn't as hard for me to believe as PHM hitting 30. Makes me want feel old...

I remember Pretty Hate Machine more than The Downward Spiral probably because of the timing. I don't recall TDS being as unique or groundbreaking when it came out. But PHM? That was insane. I have that on cassette somewhere and I used to listen to it in an actual Sony Walkman. Ask your parents.

Part of what makes the age have a bigger impact on me is that I was a kid when PHM came out, but I was an adult by the time of TDS.

[LordMortis]

It was such a fantastic time for music. Falling in love with NIN and Jane's totally separately but then one day just suddenly hearing Perry Farrell go "papapapa" like a light going off after you had already listened to PHM like billion times. Or the day they released the SIN CD Single and you head "Get Down Make Love" for the first time and were like, Holy Hell , now that's how you cover a Queen song. Or hearing him with PigFace for the first time at a club (where you were still too damned young to drink). I have what was at the time a very expensive DJ bootleg of "Suck" featuring Trent singing instead of what would be the eventual commercial release with Ogre singing. I spent months tracking down.

[YellowKing]

I was a total square in high school/college (still am), so listening to The Downward Spiral was about as rebellious as it got in my world. Loved that album.

Wish I still had all my old band shirts. I had NIN, Alice in Chains, Jane's Addiction, Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth, etc. Wore them until they were literally in tatters.

[LordMortis]

Wish I still had all my old band shirts. I had NIN, Alice in Chains, Jane's Addiction, Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth, etc. Wore them until they were literally in tatters.

My "Now I'm Nothing" shirt was my favorite for years. After Lollapalloza I also had the white NIN shirt Captain Marvel wears... I also had the same leather jacket Captain Marvel wears... I also had the same hair Captain Marvel wears... If she had only wore her black ball cap backwards and it had a Death's head with Ores instead of bones, I would have had the same ball cap... Then she'd just need glasses and a lot of ear peircings.

[Skinypupy]

Jesus, I feel old.

If I had to pick one single album as a soundtrack for a large chunk of my life, it would be Downward Spiral. I probably listened to that album every single day for at least two years in college It was my pre-game soundtrack for soccer games, the go-to album for every house party, and the ultimate litmus test for any girl that I was after. I still break it out pretty regularly, even now.

My biggest concert regret is missing the NIN/David Bowie show. I wasn't much into Bowie at the time, and decided that staying on campus and getting drunk was a better option than the free tickets I got from the radio station. Such a stupid decision.

[Kurth]

Jesus, I feel old.

If I had to pick one single album as a soundtrack for a large chunk of my life, it would be Downward Spiral. I probably listened to that album every single day for at least two years in college It was my pre-game soundtrack for soccer games, the go-to album for every house party, and the ultimate litmus test for any girl that I was after. I still break it out pretty regularly, even now.

My biggest concert regret is missing the NIN/David Bowie show. I wasn't much into Bowie at the time, and decided that staying on campus and getting drunk was a better option than the free tickets I got from the radio station. Such a stupid decision.

Agree with all of the above, except, I did get to see NIN/David Bowie. September 22, 1995. Camden, New Jersey. Blockbuster Center. Amazing!!!

[hepcat]

I slept in the bed of a friend’s pickup truck for tickets to Bowie back in college. I wish I could do it again.

[Z-Corn]

I went to The Silverdome with my Mother to see David Bowie. It was the one thing we had in common at the time.

[Isgrimnur]

Foo Fighters - Learn To Fly is 20 years old as of November this year.

[hitbyambulance]

i was briefly into NIN in 89/90, then moved on to Front 242/FLA/KMFDM/Ministry/ClockDVA/Cabaret Voltaire/pretty much anything on Mute, Nettwerk and WaxTrax!, that was my scene. Depeche Mode and Erasure still endured.

[Jaymann]

Doom was released just over 25 years ago.

[Daehawk]

Normally time doesn't feel like anything to me. But since losing Donna it really hits me how much time that is. Before with her it was like a ripple. A moment.