10 Perfect Rock Albums Of The '90s

5. The Downward Spiral - Nine Inch Nails

Most of the headlining bands of the '90s didn't have a prayer without having some edginess behind their lyrics. When you're in an industry when even your acoustic acts like Days of the New are getting all angsty, you know that you don't have time to write something like Seasons in the Sun. Whereas most artists tried and failed to look like they were tortured, Trent Reznor took ahold of our ears and sent us into hell on the Downward Spiral.

Coming off of his first major tour as a rock band, Reznor was becoming more and more hedonistic and channeled all of his pent up negative energy into this concept album surrounding Mr. Self Destruct. Across each track, you can practically feel him nullifying everything in his life until there is nothing left, from the primal urge for sex on Closer to the last plea for sanity on Hurt.

Even the instrumental passages on here can't be skipped, from the barrage of noise on the front half of Reptile to the almost serene look at how it all went wrong on A Warm Place. From skin to core, nothing about this album should be intriguing, and yet it has become the one emotional gut punch that we keep coming back to over and over again.

 
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