10 Hidden Details In Legendary Rock Songs

When cutting the Downward Spiral, Trent Reznor seemed to be painting a bleak picture in your mind while you listened to it. In between the harsh bouts of noise coming at you, there was a story of Mr. Self Destruct growing more and more desensitized to reality, ending with him killing himself and wondering if he could have done things differently. An album like this seems to have more in common with horror movies than it does with rock and roll, and Trent wasn't exactly shy about his influences when he went to sample different sounds.

By the time we get to the back half of the record, Reptile is one of the darkest places of the character's mind, where he sees his love interest more like an object and wants to dominate them in the sickest of ways, as walls of fuzzy guitar crash over you in the chorus. When you start listening to the background of some of these songs, the connective tissue between the verse and chorus are actually clips from Texas Chainsaw Massacre, taking little snippets of one of the few horrifying scenes as one of the victims is heard screaming as they roll down a hill.

That wasn't even the last questionable sample on the record though, with the whole record opening up with the sounds of a man being beaten on the first track and Big Man With a Gun actually featuring the sounds of... shall we say... adult entertainment in between the massive riffs. The core foundation of the Downward Spiral may have already been hard to stomach all at once, but even when you're not listening to the music, the album can hit you on a subconscious level as well.