The Downward Spiral (studio album) by Nine Inch Nails
Condition: New
Nine Inch Nails bestography
The Downward Spiral is ranked as the best album by Nine Inch Nails.
Upcoming concerts






Listen to The Downward Spiral on YouTube
The Downward Spiral track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 86 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
The Downward Spiral rankings
Latest 20 charts that this album appears in:
You can include this album in your own chart from the My Charts page!
The Downward Spiral collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 516 members
The Downward Spiral ratings

where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 5 ratings for this album. | Show all 1,220 ratings for this album.
Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
---|---|---|---|---|
90/100 ![]() | 02/15/2025 01:57 | AbsurdCheesecake | ![]() | 88/100 |
40/100 ![]() | 02/07/2025 19:07 | gmessian | ![]() | 62/100 |
85/100 ![]() | 02/05/2025 17:38 | SomethingSpecial | ![]() | 81/100 |
80/100 ![]() | 01/16/2025 19:40 | AlexBMUFC | ![]() | 76/100 |
95/100 ![]() | 01/07/2025 17:46 | MaxStorm98 | ![]() | 91/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 1% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 82.5/100, a mean average of 81.3/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 82.6/100. The standard deviation for this album is 16.6.
Please log in or register if you want to be able to leave a rating
The Downward Spiral favourites
Showing latest 20 members who have added this album as a favourite | Show all 270 members
The Downward Spiral comments
Showing latest 10 comments | Show all 85 comments |
Most Helpful First | Newest First | Maximum Rated First |
Longest Comments First
(Only showing comments with -2 votes or higher. You can alter this threshold from your profile page. Manage Profile)
Last track, Hurt, is an absolute gem. It's just a shame I had to listen to an hour of barely intelligible noise to get to that point. Thought I would like this album but it just didn't work for me. Far too much distortion on the guitar for me.
For me listening to this album is very hard in every meaning of this word, instrumentals are harsh and lyrics are depressing, so while I'm not sure if I enjoyed it very much, I can clearly say that I appreciate how much effort they put in here to creat this album, especially with this creative production.

Drugs.
A fantastic lyrical album that is let down by the music in my opinion. If the music was up to the same level as the lyrics then this would be amongst the greatest of all time but they don't achieve this with a lot of the songs falling a bit flat for me. The tracks just don't seem to have the energy or infectiousness that would make me come back that often and even though I have revisited this album a lot of times it is only because it gets such high praise. Most of the acclaim comes from the unique style of music and the lyrics as they are so full of depth and they have enough quality that they deserve and demand to be heard. I don't think I have heard anything that similar to the music on here either and that alone makes it an interesting and fun listen. They create a great atmosphere as well that suits the lyrical tone perfectly. Overall, this might not be my style of music or maybe this record hasn't clicked for me yet as I do think it is over rated but it is still a strong release.

Obra-prima
Solid album
Album Rating: 80.29
(1,124/14)
1.Mr. Self Destruct. 84
2.Piggy. 83
3.Heresy. 71
4.March Of The Pigs. 83
5.Closer. 97
6.Ruiner. 76
7.The Becoming. 73
8.I Do Not Want This. 79
9.Big Man With A Gun. 78
10.A Warm Place. 92
11.Eraser. 72
12.Reptile. 73
13.The Downward Spiral. 65
14.Hurt. 98

Beyond the border of my musical taste. I can live without this..
Está bien, es innovador,... Pero es para prestar atención. Es un disco que cuesta asimilar y al que hay que dar varias escuchas

I like the music very much the first song is not so good but that is Industrial. I understand the Story of The Downward Spiral. It is the way of how a person goes to the bottom of life. And I can say I like Close and Hurt very much March of the Pigs and A Warm Place are also nice tracks.
Please log in or register if you want to be able to add a comment
Your feedback for The Downward Spiral

A lot of hard work happens in the background to keep BEA running, and it's especially difficult to do this when we can't pay our hosting fees :(
We work very hard to ensure our site is as fast (and FREE!) as possible, and we respect your privacy.