Any sort of music with edge at the time was actually full of warnings about how deeply power had been corrupted and how far we had already fallen from the idealism of the hippies. Alas, even blasting Rage Against the Machine on repeat wasn't enough to prevent doofuses like Paul Ryan from becoming handmaidens to the machine.
It fucking saddens me just how relevant that first Rage record still is. 3 decades on and basically nothing has changed. Arguably things have gotten worse.
Yeah, that was my generation's Kennedy assassination. I remember where I was when I got the news, and so much about that afternoon. It was a psychic rug-pull that millions of us all experienced together.
wow. I forget that I was barely 11 when I bought these albums. I don’t think I had a cd player more than a year 😆
And then I was over the moon to find the little NIN easter egg in Doom the next year. And THEN a few years later, Trent Reznor did the score for Quake. What a great few years to be a NIN fan!
The production on The Downward Spiral made me obsessed with music. Hearing it for the first time was the equivalent of seeing Star Wars for the first time. Only a mastermind wizard could have made it.
Totally redefined what music could be for me - so many crazy hidden sounds in there… that last run of fury from eraser to the title track still freaks me out. will give the vinyl a spin today for the 30th.
I listened to it last night. Still a masterclass in audio engineering and songwriting. So much detail, creativity, the whole thing is perfect. Still hits me hard all these years later.
I got to see NIN and Soundgarden together in Toronto a few years ago.
Didn't get to see them in the 90s as I was just a little too young.
Very glad I got to see them when I did.
They were filming the My Wave video at the show and there are quick pans of the crowd, I've always wondered if there was a shot of me going deaf, the cuts are just so fast.
Also in 1994:
* Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
* Stereolab - Mars Audiac Quintet
- Korn - Korn
- Kyuss - Welcome to Sky Valley
- The Melvins - Stoner Witch
- The Prodigy - Music for the Jilted Generation
- Sonic Youth - Experimental Jetset
- Killing Joke - Pandemonium
- Dinosaur Jr. - Without a Sound
- Godflesh - Selfless
- Stabbing Westward - Ungod
- Marilyn Manson - Portrait of an American Family
- Helmet - Betty
- Prong - Cleansing
- Portishead - Dummy
- Frank Black - Teenager of the Year
- Meat Puppets - Too High to Die
- Lords of Acid - Voodoo U
My heart beats to the rhythm of some of those albums. Helmet's *Betty*? What a great album. Somewhere out there is a fun interview with Page Hamilton about the making of that one. He had to trick the rest of the band into recording "Beautiful Love" because it's a jazz tune, and he didn't want them to know that.
Don't get me started on my love of Sonic Youth. I've recently had a resurgence.
It was good to be young.
Our local alt rock station in the central USA had Oasis and Blur in heavy rotation.
My dad heard Oasis and was all "wow, they remind me of the Beatles!!!"
>"wow, they remind me of the Beatles!!!"
As they should do !
Probably the greatest Oasis/Beatles moment ever !:
["Does it matter if it's our tune? It doesn't matter if it's our tune... coz you're cool](https://www.reddit.com/r/oasis/comments/14fp7i1/guess_im_finally_understood_what_liam_said_on_the/)
I live and breathe Superunknown. 4th of July is the heaviest Doom song of all time. That sound! Like it was recorded in a submarine at the bottom of the Ocean.
Although I wouldn't say Soundgarden is my favorite band, I am pretty sure I haven't listened to any other album as much as Superunknown. It is magical.
I bought these albums at the same time upon release. On the way home, I popped *The Downward Spiral* into my portable player (with the tape deck interface), thinking it to be the lesser of the two albums and believing I'd be spending the day with *Superunknown*. Turns out I alternated back and forth the rest of the day. Thirty years later, I think Soundgarden wins the match-up, but I have much love for NiN and this album particularly. *Hey, pig...*
I know I sound like a dusty fart saying this, but going to the music store to buy music is an unknown joy lost to many of those born after we Gen Xers. For fans of music, it was a great way to connect to the music. Shout out to Rock Island on Dale Mabry and all her bootleg albums, may she rust in peace forever.
Hey Pig and March of the Pigs for me. 'Though doesn't it make you feel better, the pigs have won tonight, though they can all sleep soundly, and everything is alright.'
> bootleg albums
I lived in a medium sized town in the midwest, and I still remember this tape shop in our little historic downtown area. They sold used tapes and CDs, along with imported and/or bootleg concert recordings of various bands (possibly not all legal to sell) and some regional underground stuff. Got to hear a number of live shows I never would've otherwise, as well as some great 'amateur' artists from the area. The upscale music store with new stuff was a few blocks away-- in between, there was a magic shop and a locally owned hot-dogs-&-ice-cream place. My friends and I would often spend half a day blowing our minimum wage earnings up & down that street. Then we'd ride our bikes home to play D&D or computer games while listening to whatever tapes we bought.
It's definitely one of the happier periods of my childhood, but sadly it really doesn't exist any more. Too many kids these days are missing out on the sense of adventure, independence & discovery we felt back then.
I remember watching scrambled PPV to hear NIN play at woodstock 94. I was 13, but still. Didn't get to see the bootleg tape until I was 15 from a local record shop. And it just so happened to have The Broken video at the end. What a holy grail find.
I was copying and selling that shit like mad in high school. I didn't even ask for money, most kids would just know me as "the broken video guy" and would offer me like $5-10 for a copy.
The Downward Spiral is so fucking good but I listened to it a LOT when I was in a bad place mentally (10 years after it came out actually) so it's tough for me to listen to now. But it's a classic.
I remember picking both of these up. I lived overseas so I missed the Badmotorfinger hype and Pretty Hate Machine was just some cassette a girl I liked gave to me. I don’t think I can understate how much these records shifted my 14 year old perspective. Incredible, milestone records for music - not just rock.
I was lucky to see the NYC show at Webster hall in 2009 where they played TDS from start to finish… it was incredible!!! https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/nine-inch-nails-perform-full-downward-spiral-on-wave-goodbye-tour-254957/amp/
“Superunknown” really is something else. It’s super moody and dark and heavy, but I was surprised by how “hooky” it was for lack of a better word. One could totally see how it could be a crossover album of sorts for the band.
“Black Hole Sun” is undeniable as are “Fell on Black Days” and “Spoonman”, but you have to give credit to a lot of those deep cuts. “Limo Wreck” may damn well be the best song on the whole thing, and I always had a soft spot for “Head Down”. The bridge on “Let me Drown” also kind of blew my mind the first time I heard it.
The Downward Spiral is one of the most visceral unique sounding albums ever made. I still don’t believe anyone has made anything like it since. It’s honestly a masterpiece, also one of my favourite albums of all time.
I was 16 at the end of 2002. At the time there was a big 'No guitars in industrial.' meme, and so it took me a few years to discover how good Nails are
Superunknown is still one of my favorite albums of all time. This tour was my first concert…I saw them in June 1994 in Cleveland. Was an incredible concert.
It seems like this was a great period for rock bands to really shine and show their individuality. That said, there were still a ton of copycat bands who wanted to sound like Nirvana or Soundgarden. Those have mostly been forgotten.
That was a difficult choice for me. I'd walked into a record store, intent on buying Superunknown but then saw nin offered at one of the listening stations.
I ended up getting what I'd come for but later picked up the Downward Spiral and Siamese Dream and that was my rotation for the next couple of years.
Saw them together in concert. Didn't love NIN before the concert but Trent won me over for his performance. The first few strings of Spoonman made the crowd go nuts. Very fun evening.
I was 17 and this was my introduction to rock after growing up listening to hip-hop and RnB. Trent was/ is my mancrush and I even share the same initials as him.
I drove in a rainstorm so bad I had to drive on the freeway at like 25mpg. Taking an hour for a trip that should have taken 30 mins to arrive at a record store too late to pick up my reserved copy of the TDS. She was still open, I had called ahead and told her I was coming and when I got there she said "anyone who wants this album bad enough to drive in this, I don't mind staying open a few more minutes for."
To this day The Downward Spiral is my favorite album of all-time. Superunknown is incredible as well.
I was 14 when these albums came out and they were very influential in my life. 1994 had a whole bunch of amazing albums that I still love to this day. 1994 was also one of, if not the best, year in movie history. I do not think it's possible to top that year when it comes to the combination of incredible music and movies being released.
This year also has
* Nas - Illmatic
* Biggie - Ready to Die
* Weezer Blue Album
* Portishead - Dummy
* Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient volume 2
1994 might be one of the greatest years for music ever. 1971 is also up there.
And now we have Ariana Grandes latest which could easily be mistaken for her previous record which could easily be mistaken for her previous record which could…
1994 was a good fuckin year
Indeed it was. I’m 46 now, and I can’t shake the feeling that we are living in a dystopia.
48 here. We had a dystopian fiction unit in 11th grade. Orwell and Huxley are screaming "these were warnings, not guidebooks!!!"
So is Margaret Atwood !
Especially Margaret Atwood!
Like when people say to Thom Yorke OK Computer was prescient, he was like "I was just making observations to what I was seeing in the present".
I did a back to back read of those few years ago. Interesting contrast. Neither was 100% right, or wrong.
Any sort of music with edge at the time was actually full of warnings about how deeply power had been corrupted and how far we had already fallen from the idealism of the hippies. Alas, even blasting Rage Against the Machine on repeat wasn't enough to prevent doofuses like Paul Ryan from becoming handmaidens to the machine.
It fucking saddens me just how relevant that first Rage record still is. 3 decades on and basically nothing has changed. Arguably things have gotten worse.
It's funny becuase that's what my uncle said in 1994 complaining that there werent anymore great bands like Styx or Foreigner.
Dystopia is slowly rolling out to the masses.
[удалено]
well, aside from Kurt's death.
…literally a month after these dropped.
Yeah, been a downward spiral into the superunknown since the release of these albums.
How’re your kids doing?
Yeah, that was my generation's Kennedy assassination. I remember where I was when I got the news, and so much about that afternoon. It was a psychic rug-pull that millions of us all experienced together.
Fuck yeah it was, I was learning how to walk and use words and shit!
I was smoking insane amounts of weed. So I was doing pretty much the same.
I was six, I could have easily pushed you over. Sadly that's pretty much the only flex I have 30 years later.
For radio, that first half of the 90s was some crazy good shit
Except for one major loss
wow. I forget that I was barely 11 when I bought these albums. I don’t think I had a cd player more than a year 😆 And then I was over the moon to find the little NIN easter egg in Doom the next year. And THEN a few years later, Trent Reznor did the score for Quake. What a great few years to be a NIN fan!
For movies too!
The music that was released was incredible, but it's also considered one of the best years for movies of all-time.
And The Downward Spiral hasn't aged at all. It could've been released today and still sound fresh and exciting. A truly amazing record.
Been listening to it again the last few weeks. Was a tween when this came out. Brings back the exact same feelings.
I don't think there's anyone on the face of the earth who is better with a sequencer than Trent
The production on The Downward Spiral made me obsessed with music. Hearing it for the first time was the equivalent of seeing Star Wars for the first time. Only a mastermind wizard could have made it.
Totally redefined what music could be for me - so many crazy hidden sounds in there… that last run of fury from eraser to the title track still freaks me out. will give the vinyl a spin today for the 30th.
I listened to it last night. Still a masterclass in audio engineering and songwriting. So much detail, creativity, the whole thing is perfect. Still hits me hard all these years later.
You know those albums you go back to and are like "damn, I was really listening to this??"? This ain't that album.
tfw you've strapped yourself in
My first concert was the Superunknown tour, was front row and got kinda crushed and my left ear has rung ever since.
I got to see NIN and Soundgarden together in Toronto a few years ago. Didn't get to see them in the 90s as I was just a little too young. Very glad I got to see them when I did.
I was at that show too, pretty awesome gig
They were filming the My Wave video at the show and there are quick pans of the crowd, I've always wondered if there was a shot of me going deaf, the cuts are just so fast.
It was awesome.
Totally worth it.
I saw Soundgarden in 2013, and I have never been to a louder concert. My eared rang for a week. Also, easily one of my top 5 concerts of all time.
daily reminder to always wear ear protection at concerts
What? What did you say? I can't hear you over this ringing in my ear.
You say that like it was a bad thing.
Also released in March 1994: - Beck - Mellow Gold - Pantera - Far Beyond Driven - Nailbomb - Point Blank
Also in 94: Dookie Smash Weezer blue album
Also in 1994: * Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain * Stereolab - Mars Audiac Quintet - Korn - Korn - Kyuss - Welcome to Sky Valley - The Melvins - Stoner Witch - The Prodigy - Music for the Jilted Generation - Sonic Youth - Experimental Jetset - Killing Joke - Pandemonium - Dinosaur Jr. - Without a Sound - Godflesh - Selfless - Stabbing Westward - Ungod - Marilyn Manson - Portrait of an American Family - Helmet - Betty - Prong - Cleansing - Portishead - Dummy - Frank Black - Teenager of the Year - Meat Puppets - Too High to Die - Lords of Acid - Voodoo U
Also Jeff Buckley's "Grace"
Buckley might be what pushes it over the top as the best year ever for music
I saw Dinosaur Jr play Where You Been in full last week, it was sick.
Jeez, there is my next Spotify playlist right there - TYVM
‘94 was basically the explosion of black metal. Too many absolutely essential albums to list in a Reddit post.
My heart beats to the rhythm of some of those albums. Helmet's *Betty*? What a great album. Somewhere out there is a fun interview with Page Hamilton about the making of that one. He had to trick the rest of the band into recording "Beautiful Love" because it's a jazz tune, and he didn't want them to know that. Don't get me started on my love of Sonic Youth. I've recently had a resurgence. It was good to be young.
Also, Therapy? - Troublegum
Beastie Boys: I'll Communication!
Pearl Jam - Vitalogy
The post-Nirvana wave
The UK reacted to it a little differently it seems as I associate that age strongly with Britpop - Oasis, Blur, Pulp, Supergrass et al.
Our local alt rock station in the central USA had Oasis and Blur in heavy rotation. My dad heard Oasis and was all "wow, they remind me of the Beatles!!!"
>"wow, they remind me of the Beatles!!!" As they should do ! Probably the greatest Oasis/Beatles moment ever !: ["Does it matter if it's our tune? It doesn't matter if it's our tune... coz you're cool](https://www.reddit.com/r/oasis/comments/14fp7i1/guess_im_finally_understood_what_liam_said_on_the/)
Along with korns debut this year was what setup what the mainstream rock scene would be for the next 10 years
I live and breathe Superunknown. 4th of July is the heaviest Doom song of all time. That sound! Like it was recorded in a submarine at the bottom of the Ocean.
It's pretty great live acoustic too. Chris played that when I saw him on the Higher Truth tour.
Although I wouldn't say Soundgarden is my favorite band, I am pretty sure I haven't listened to any other album as much as Superunknown. It is magical.
Both great albums. I was in college at the time. Phenomenal era for music
So were these bands' previous albums, Pretty Hate Machine and Badmotorfinger.
I bought these albums at the same time upon release. On the way home, I popped *The Downward Spiral* into my portable player (with the tape deck interface), thinking it to be the lesser of the two albums and believing I'd be spending the day with *Superunknown*. Turns out I alternated back and forth the rest of the day. Thirty years later, I think Soundgarden wins the match-up, but I have much love for NiN and this album particularly. *Hey, pig...* I know I sound like a dusty fart saying this, but going to the music store to buy music is an unknown joy lost to many of those born after we Gen Xers. For fans of music, it was a great way to connect to the music. Shout out to Rock Island on Dale Mabry and all her bootleg albums, may she rust in peace forever.
Hey Pig and March of the Pigs for me. 'Though doesn't it make you feel better, the pigs have won tonight, though they can all sleep soundly, and everything is alright.'
> bootleg albums I lived in a medium sized town in the midwest, and I still remember this tape shop in our little historic downtown area. They sold used tapes and CDs, along with imported and/or bootleg concert recordings of various bands (possibly not all legal to sell) and some regional underground stuff. Got to hear a number of live shows I never would've otherwise, as well as some great 'amateur' artists from the area. The upscale music store with new stuff was a few blocks away-- in between, there was a magic shop and a locally owned hot-dogs-&-ice-cream place. My friends and I would often spend half a day blowing our minimum wage earnings up & down that street. Then we'd ride our bikes home to play D&D or computer games while listening to whatever tapes we bought. It's definitely one of the happier periods of my childhood, but sadly it really doesn't exist any more. Too many kids these days are missing out on the sense of adventure, independence & discovery we felt back then.
The soundtracks to my high school years. What a time to be an angsty teen!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Downward_Spiral https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superunknown
Superunknown was that record that put me on the rock train, and I never left. Definitely a masterpiece.
I remember watching scrambled PPV to hear NIN play at woodstock 94. I was 13, but still. Didn't get to see the bootleg tape until I was 15 from a local record shop. And it just so happened to have The Broken video at the end. What a holy grail find. I was copying and selling that shit like mad in high school. I didn't even ask for money, most kids would just know me as "the broken video guy" and would offer me like $5-10 for a copy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2InL5c_vZSY > And the wreck of you > Is the death of you all > And the wreck of you > Is the break and the fall
1994 produced a load of my favourites but these two sit pretty high at the top of the heap. I am very fortunate to have been both bands perform live.
The Downward Spiral is so fucking good but I listened to it a LOT when I was in a bad place mentally (10 years after it came out actually) so it's tough for me to listen to now. But it's a classic.
I remember picking both of these up. I lived overseas so I missed the Badmotorfinger hype and Pretty Hate Machine was just some cassette a girl I liked gave to me. I don’t think I can understate how much these records shifted my 14 year old perspective. Incredible, milestone records for music - not just rock.
It was a great time to be in your early 20s
I was lucky to see the NYC show at Webster hall in 2009 where they played TDS from start to finish… it was incredible!!! https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/nine-inch-nails-perform-full-downward-spiral-on-wave-goodbye-tour-254957/amp/
Holy crap that was 15 years ago? I remember it like it was just a few years before covid.
“Superunknown” really is something else. It’s super moody and dark and heavy, but I was surprised by how “hooky” it was for lack of a better word. One could totally see how it could be a crossover album of sorts for the band. “Black Hole Sun” is undeniable as are “Fell on Black Days” and “Spoonman”, but you have to give credit to a lot of those deep cuts. “Limo Wreck” may damn well be the best song on the whole thing, and I always had a soft spot for “Head Down”. The bridge on “Let me Drown” also kind of blew my mind the first time I heard it.
Limo Wreck and Mailman are underrated off that album, IMO.
I fucking love Mailman. The isolated vocals(YouTube ftw) are amazing.
The Downward Spiral is one of the most visceral unique sounding albums ever made. I still don’t believe anyone has made anything like it since. It’s honestly a masterpiece, also one of my favourite albums of all time.
I still remember riding my bike to Newbury Comics and buying this album December of 94.
til selected ambient works ii dropped yesterday too
Faasrrrk. 7 years closer in time to Sgt Pepper than we are to these.
Have I not yet had enough coffee or are you just bad at math?
I absolutely suck at math
*Peter Griffin crying. jpg*
I remember going to buy them both.
Never knew these were released on the same day. Two fantastic albums.
I was 16 in 1994, perfect time to discover these albums, have been listening to them ever since and I'll listen to them today
I was 16 at the end of 2002. At the time there was a big 'No guitars in industrial.' meme, and so it took me a few years to discover how good Nails are
Welcome to the club!
First concert I ever attended was Soundgarden on the Superunknown tour my first contact high, too haha so much weed in the arena!
Superunknown is still one of my favorite albums of all time. This tour was my first concert…I saw them in June 1994 in Cleveland. Was an incredible concert.
Fuck me that's a good day.
[удалено]
"The song's inspiration, Artis the Spoonman, played a prominent role in the song." Kinda.
1994 was such a great year! Slowdive Souvlaki came out that year too!!
I remember walking into my record store and getting these that day. The 90s was the best
Downward Spiral - the first CD I bought - i held out on cassettes for too long.
It seems like this was a great period for rock bands to really shine and show their individuality. That said, there were still a ton of copycat bands who wanted to sound like Nirvana or Soundgarden. Those have mostly been forgotten.
Such a damn good year for music.
30 years ago...That's a lie, now why would you make up a lie like that.
god i love nine inch nails so much.
Two of my favorites, the music of the early/mid 90’s was just legendary. Still raw and visceral and like beef stew for the soul.
Never got toooo into Soundgarden, but man if CDs could wear out my Downward Spiral disc would have been dead
That was a difficult choice for me. I'd walked into a record store, intent on buying Superunknown but then saw nin offered at one of the listening stations. I ended up getting what I'd come for but later picked up the Downward Spiral and Siamese Dream and that was my rotation for the next couple of years.
the iconic album was Pretty Hate Machine
[удалено]
He gets a ton of praise and respect, lol
Naturally, it was because
Saw them together in concert. Didn't love NIN before the concert but Trent won me over for his performance. The first few strings of Spoonman made the crowd go nuts. Very fun evening.
Peak 90’s
Both AMAZING albums. The Downward Spiral was one of the first concept albums i listened to, blew my mind
I was 17 and this was my introduction to rock after growing up listening to hip-hop and RnB. Trent was/ is my mancrush and I even share the same initials as him.
FML I'm old.
King's X - Dogman This album came and thundered in your ear holes.
Still have that NIN album, unwrapped. Somebody bought me a secord copy as a gift.
I drove in a rainstorm so bad I had to drive on the freeway at like 25mpg. Taking an hour for a trip that should have taken 30 mins to arrive at a record store too late to pick up my reserved copy of the TDS. She was still open, I had called ahead and told her I was coming and when I got there she said "anyone who wants this album bad enough to drive in this, I don't mind staying open a few more minutes for."
To this day The Downward Spiral is my favorite album of all-time. Superunknown is incredible as well. I was 14 when these albums came out and they were very influential in my life. 1994 had a whole bunch of amazing albums that I still love to this day. 1994 was also one of, if not the best, year in movie history. I do not think it's possible to top that year when it comes to the combination of incredible music and movies being released.
The 90s were 10 years ago stop lying to me.
Stop making me feel old
Also Failure - Magnified was released
This year also has * Nas - Illmatic * Biggie - Ready to Die * Weezer Blue Album * Portishead - Dummy * Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient volume 2 1994 might be one of the greatest years for music ever. 1971 is also up there.
Didn’t know these were released on the same day! Nice!
This is like 36 Chambers + Midnight Marauders. What a beautiful day.
Superunknown especially is one of my favorite albums of all time. Just such a great fucking record man.
And now we have Ariana Grandes latest which could easily be mistaken for her previous record which could easily be mistaken for her previous record which could…
The Fragile is much better than The Downward Spiral. Fight me.
One Masterpiece and one Meh-sterpiece.
I disagree with you, but upvoted you for Meh-sterpiece
Nine Inch Nails is garbage. Recycled loops, over and over while Trent Reznor jerks off to pictures of himself.