Further Down the Spiral

Carson gave this album on2008-10-21.

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Further Down the Spiral, or Halo 10 in Nine Inch Nails' nomenclature, contains remixes of most of the tracks from The Downward Spiral that do not appear on Closer to God or March of the Pigs.

Songs remixed on this compilation include "Hurt", "Eraser", "Mr. Self Destruct", "Piggy", and "The Downward Spiral". The tracks flow into eachother well, but not as well as on Pretty Hate Maching; tracks that flow especially well into eachother are "Piggy (Nothing Can Stop Me Now)" into "The Art of Self Destruction, Part One", "The Downward Spiral (The Bottom)" into "Hurt (Quiet)" and "The Beauty of Being Numb" into "Erased, Over. Out".

Even though the three versions of "Mr. Self Destruct" are listed as being parts of the same song, I would not suggest listening to them in order as if it were one long track. "The Art of Self Destruction, Part One" feels harsher than the original with unpleasant screeching sounds, frantic drumming near the end. "Self Destruction, Part Two" has more guitar, more noticeable stereo effects, and sounds much more like the original than the prior version does. "Self Destruction, Final" sounds like an instrumental at the beginning and almost feels like it belongs on Broken new "Wish" or "Last"; the last two thirds of this track sound simultaneously very similar and very different than the original.

"Eraser (Denial: Realization)" has a march-like feel and gets repetitve after a while; this version is much more on the Industrial-Metal sound to it than the original. "Eraser (Polite)", on the other hand, is much more melodic - and almost Celtic sounding - with poetic sounding vocals. The last version, "Erased, Over. Out", is not really recognizable as "Eraser", is extremely repetitive, and sounds more like it belongs on the Quake soundtrack.

Moving on to songs with only one version on this album, "Piggy (Nothing Can Stop Me Now)" is an improvement over the original, but feels like it didn't quite know what it wanted to be; there are several tempo changes and the style goes from Industrial, to Dance, to Industrial-Metal. "The Downward Spiral (The Bottom)" captures the feeling of despair even more than the original with vocals that "answer" each other. A phrase comes out of one channel, and then a distorted response answers from the other channel. The middle section of the song diverges from the style set forth in the beginning, but then returns to it towards the end. "Hurt (Quiet)&quit; doesn't sound significantly different from the album version however, it is about a minute shorter.

Further Down the Spiral also contains two new songs. "At the Heart of it All" gives the feeling of being surrounded by punctured steam pipes and gets repetitive after a while. The beginning of "The Beauty of Being Numb" sounds like a version of "Mr. Self Destruct" but then quickly changes into something completely different and ends up much slower, more melodic, and has sounds reminiscent of pig grunts.

Overall, Further Down the Spiral, with its musical themes are static and pneumatic sounds (for lack of a better description) captures the essence of The Downward Spiral, but yet maintains its own feeling. This remix album is a must have for anyone who owns The Downward Spiral as a complement and commentary to it.

Track	Name		Carson	Katherine		Track	Name		Carson	Katherine
1	Piggy (Nothing Can Stop Me Now)					7	At the Heart of It All
2	The Art of Self Destruction, Part One					8	Eraser (Polite)
3	Self Destruction, Part Two					9	Self Destruction, Final
4	The Downward Spiral (The Bottom)					10	The Beauty of Being Numb
5	Hurt (Quiet)					11	Erased. Over. Out
6	Eraser (Denial; Realization)