10 Darkest Rock Music Albums Of The 80s

The entire industrial movement that exploded in the '90s didn't really happen in a vacuum. Before the likes of White Zombie, you still had people like Ministry getting the ball rolling a few years earlier, back when Guns N Roses were still one of the biggest bands in the world. Trent Reznor was already a household name though, and his first step up to the plate already had the potential to peel paint off the walls.

Granted, when you look at something like the Downward Spiral, Pretty Hate Machine feels like a pop extravaganza by comparison, with the more electronic sounds being at the forefront. And while that's certainly true of some of the more dated cuts on here like Down In It, Trent was already getting used to the more seedy side of his writing, almost if a band like Tears for Fears had grown up listening to a lot of Lou Reed and the Cramps.

In between the stuttering rhythms though, Trent has a lot to say on here beyond just anger, like calling out organized religion on Terrible Lie and even getting a lot more sinister on tracks like Sin. By the time you reach the slower moments like Something I Can Never Have, you still have that uncomfortable atmosphere everywhere you turn. Seeing how this is how things started off, it's no wonder that we were looking at a man who would eventually call himself Mr. Self Destruct.