Nine Inch Nails' magnum opus The Downward Spiral became such a huge (sorta-surprising) pop hit and such a staple of mid-1990s popular culture after its release in March of 1994 that one can easily forget what a truly harrowing listen the thing is.

A concept album about one man's ... yes ... downward spiral from grave depression into abject all-points nihilism into the Ultimate Abyss, Trent Reznor's second full-length album under the NIN alias was recorded in the same Los Angeles mansion where Charles Manson and his "family" murdered the eight-months-pregnant actress Sharon Tate in 1969 and definitely absorbed a lot of spookiness from the surroundings. Probably more than Reznor, who would very quickly come to regret moving into the place, realized at the time. 

Anyway, The Downward Spiral is an obsidian industrial-pop classic and probably the catchiest concept album about suicide ever to debut at No. 2 on the U.S. Billboard album chart. Its singles -- the blistering metallo-outburst "March Of The Pigs," the profane death-disco banger "Closer" and the oblivion-here-I-come outtro "Hurt" (later covered and claimed forever by a dying Johnny Cash) -- don't do the full, chilling ride justice, but they do lure you into the spiral. And once you're locked in the spiral, it's hard to pull out. Good luck.

TRACKLISTING

1. MR. SELF DESTRUCT
2. PIGGY
3. HERESY
4. MARCH OF THE PIGS
5. CLOSER
6. RUINER
7. THE BECOMING
8. I DO NOT WANT THIS
9. BIG MAN WITH A GUN
10. A WARM PLACE
11. ERASER
12. REPTILE
13. THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL
14. HURT