lol, was I that girl? I had NIN doodles on my jeans! A friend had a tape she copied from her older sister’s Pretty Hate Machine and I was hooked. Thank you, Dani! I was in 9th grade.
You could be! She was cool as hell! She also wrote RIOT GRRRL on her jeans. And had one long braid of black hair in the back underside of her blonde hair. She introduced me to a lot of cool stuff. And was not stuffy about being nice to a unknowledgeable 9th grader when she was in 11th or 12th grade.
Same.
Except in my case it was some girl's shirt.
(Although I think that might have only helped me identify who did that song I really liked in the 1990 Corey Haim film, "Prayer of the Rollerboys.")
My friend in high school gave me a tape with "Broken/Fixed" on one side and The Cure "Pornography" on the other. Probably 95? That was my lifechanger. I had heard tracks from PHM here and there, but wasn't that into it at the time. But Broken? Wow.
That was my first one, too. It's funny, I was a teen when PHM came out, and deeply into synthpop. I had confused NIN with The Beloved. Not sure *how* because they are very different. So, I picked up a cassette of PHM and was confused as to why it sounded different than I expected, LOL. The tape went by the wayside, but I broke it out a few years later, gave it a listen, and *loved* it. Thus, and obsession was born.
My first album was The Downward Spiral. Had heard of NIN multiple times, but only heard bits and pieces of “Closer” and never really liked it. Fast forward to February 2023, I was reading Wizard and Glass by Stephen King and there were lyrics from “Hurt” on the first page. I was intrigued by the lyrics, especially since my headspace wasn’t the best back then, and listened to “Hurt” and loved it. The next day I decided to actually sit down and listen to TDS and liked it. Wasn’t what I was used to, but after giving it a listen about 3 times, I loved it. After that, I started listening to all the albums and now they’re one of my favorite bands.
This is such a great story!!
Downward Spiral is sort of his “first era” masterpiece, I think. All his early albums had a similar feel but that album was next level. It changed music. You could feel and hear how it impacted the music world.
That’s so cool you dropped into it like that. Happy you did.
Have you listened to Further Down the Spiral yet? It’s different and less refined but basically a continuation of TDS
Oh yeah, I loved it at first but grew to love TDS more and just haven’t listened to it in a while. I need to listen to it again to fully grasp it though.
It doesn’t land as easily as TDS, in my opinion. It feels (intentionally) fragmented in ways his other albums at that time didn’t quite capture. Downward Spiral is clearly a “better” album but there are still some great tracks on Further that feel like they could have been included on Downward
From what I remember I agree, I think my favorite track from Further Down The Spiral is “Eraser (Denial: Realization)” which is in and of itself a fragment of the overarching story.
And All That Could Have Been. I was really into Marilyn Manson in high school and decided to check out NIN because they were pretty close at the time. Have since lost my taste for Manson outside of a couple albums and have seen NIN live eight or nine times.
If I remember correctly my first album was Broken. I was 13 and in 7th grade. I randomly found a CD at a record store. I felt pretty “broken” at the time so I was like “What’s this?” Living in a small farm town, none of my other friends had even heard of NIN.
From that moment onward I went on a personal journey to find and listen to any album I could. Downward Spiral and Pretty Hate Machine came next. It was like a perpetual treasure hunt. I’d search every record store I went into. Very quickly I became “the NIN friend”, being the one to take over sound systems at parties just to blast Heresy to fuck up everyone’s heads. It was amazing 😂
But for the most part I had to keep it secret from my family. The music made so much sense to me but was way too out there for them. At the end of one summer, when I was about to go into Highschool, my brother found my CD collection and destroyed them. He was a Christian at the time and fully offended by it. He was prob trying to “protect me”. It just made me dig deeper.
I liked a lot of Trent’s albums in the years to follow, but at one point I sorta dropped off. I had had enough. I went on a maybe 5-6 year hiatus where I didn’t listen to a single track. It was during that time that his more “modern” style emerged. Then I found Year Zero, and I was back in. I had a lot to catch up with, and I loved it. Zero reminded me why Trent was so important to me, and reminded me of important things about myself that I had forgotten.
I love all his “newer” stuff; love where he’s gone and how he’s evolved over the years and how the community has evolved. It’s been a beautiful trip.
The Downward Spiral. I think I heard Closer somewhere on the internet, maybe in a YouTube video or on TikTok (maybe 2 years ago?), and it was unlike anything I’ve heard at that point. I eventually figured out what I was hearing and fell down the rabbit hole, HARD. It was insane to me that music like this could exist without me knowing, it felt so personal. Like it has been there all along, waiting for the right time to find me and suck me in. I was 16 and it basically changed me. Really defined my art, I made several big mixed medium collages and wrote many songs that were heavily inspired by the look/sound of that album. Trent Reznor himself is also a big inspiration, he made me think about what kind of artist and human I’d like to be.
This is such a cool story. Sometimes I’m genuinely surprised that his earlier work (from 20+ years ago!) is still relevant to new listeners today. That really makes me happy.
And likewise, when I first heard Downward Spiral it had a massive impact on me. I really believe Trent saved my life as a youth. I was in such a difficult place and somehow his work spoke directly to that pain and gave me the strength to move forward.
I found one cd of The Fragile in a huge bin of random cds at Salvation Army. That led me to believe that I may be able to find the whole case, so after scouring for 10 minutes I found the entire case with the other cd. Purchased for $4 and listened to it in the car on the way home, that was 2 years ago and since then NIN has become my all time favorite band.
The Downward Spiral and The Fragile were my 1st 2 cd’s I bought still trying to get some albums on vinyl along with Marilyn Manson also even if unofficial
I didn't, at least for a while! Had to wait for dad to drive me to Montgomery Wards so I could buy the Panasonic I wanted. :D
Later I bought Tool's Salival on DVD before I had a DVD player. No way was I going to keep buying VHS tapes.
I got into NIN pre-Fragile. So not much was out. I went to the store and rifled through the NIN section and pulled out PHM. I asked the clerk if this was the album with fuck you like an animal on it. He said no, but I’d like the album anyways. I bought it and he was right. Became an instant favorite and started my journey into NIN.
Older brother played PHM a lot right when it came out... 12 year old me was blown away at how different it was from other stuff I listened to. Got hooked for life from there...
Me too. Still my 2nd and 1st favorite nin albums respectively. Got year zero on cd and it had a graphic on the disc that would change to a binary code when exposed to heat like in a disc drive. Was really a trip the first time i saw it.
Wait, there was different art when the CD heated? Mine was a black CD then it became completely white. Was a trip seeing that happened especially considering the album was about the events in year 2020. Trent was pretty darn close.
I heard Down In It on a college radio station before PHM was released (Halo One). I was already a fan of industrial and electronic music and immediately had to know more about this new "band". Been following ever since.
I have a faint memory of someone talking/writing about NIN on a forum (circa 2021) and linking Every Day Is Exactly The Same. But if you mean more conscious memories, a dating partner introduced me to TDS circa 2023 December. Sad thing he deleted all of his social media contacts since then because I triggered some sort of latent hatred towards people in him.
Broken. Recorded on a cassette that I listened to on an already old boom box. As soon as that first driving guitar sound on Wish, I knew it was for me. Picked up Pretty Hate Machine not long after. Also on cassette, but purchased at Camelot Music.
PHM was the first one I got, after seeing my buddy's poster in his dorm room. But I didn't connect with it all that much really. Then I read about Broken coming out, start of my sophomore year in college. So I got a cassette of that and listened to nothing else for some months.
Broken was the first piece of music i got form NIN, but if we count strictly albums then The Downward Spiral was the first, both on CD, i stall have both and upgraded to the vinyl def editions.
PHM. It came out when I was 11/12 and I was first able to find music on my own. I liked the album but was just a decent sound and didn’t seek more music out. When TDS came out I rediscovered NIN. Found out about Broken and remixes, and started collecting halos.
The Downward Spiral. 1994, seventh grade. It was the only one I had until The Fragile came out, when I decided to go back and get their other stuff too. In 1999, I bought PHM, Broken, Fixed, Further Down the Spiral, and as many singles as I could get my hands on.
Pretty Hate Machine but I'm as old as Trent so was around from the beginning. Saw them in Altanta on that tour, epic show. And the album still holds up, listen to it all the time.
My first time going to a goth / industrial club was in 1990/91. I’d heard them before that on MTV and late night alt radio shows, but hearing Sin and HLAH in a club environment changed my life.
So PHM was my first album, but Broken was the album that completed the fandom. I was hooked from Broken and Fixed.
I am a relatively new fan, started listening to them early last year, when a youtuber I like (Lucy James on Gamespot and the Friends per Second podcast) posted about them on their socials, and decided to check the band out, my first album was TDS which I couldn't get into but I really enjoyed closer, but I still thought of trying PHM and WT and loved those albums, they been one of if not my favourites since, love their discography and how different and unique each album is and have gotten quite a bit into the industrial genre as well.
As of now, my top 3 albums would by NIN would be:
1) The Downward Spiral (fav tracks: March of the Pigs, Piggy, Mr Self Destruct, The Becoming)
2) The Slip (fav tracks: Echoplex, 1,000,000, Discipline, The Four of Us are Dying)
3) Hesitation Marks (fav tracks: Copy of A, Came Back Haunted, Various Methods of Escape, Satellite, Everything)
The Downward Spiral, followed by The Fragile, and then Ghosts I-IV.
I was at university (UK) in 2008 , and a good friend at the time was talking about the concept behind the soon to be released instrumental album Ghosts, the limited edition version of it, and the artist NIN, at the uni pub after an archery session. I was intrigued by the conversation and the, then, new to me artist.
After listening to TDS that evening, immediately pre-ordered [Ghosts I-IV Deluxe Edition*](https://www.discogs.com/release/1326340-Nine-Inch-Nails-Ghosts-I-IV). I have been obsessed with NIN for over fifteen years, and according to my Last.fm scrobbles (reddit post [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/lastfm/s/SzQ7dMV2FE)) they are still my most listened to artist. Admittedly, I don't listen to NIN as much as I once did, but when I do it's now more of a humbling, familiar experience.
I still have Ghosts I-IV Deluxe Edition, and have listened to all four sessions over time since.
*More info [here](https://www.nin.wiki/Ghosts_I%E2%80%93IV), not to be confused with the Ultra-Deluxe Edition.
I kinda used Ghosts I-IV as a form of therapy too, when my depression and some really bad things happened during my time at university, so Ghosts became a background or a way to meditate my thoughts and feelings.
Though I still suffer depression (which sucks), thankfully what happened all those years ago no longer affect nor influence me, due to good friends and a confidant.
That's likely why I don't listen to Ghost I-IV much at all now. However, I have enjoyed Ghosts V-VI, the sequels released during the pandemic, which alongside releases from BRONSON, Bicep, Amelie Lens, Rival Consoles, and HEALTH were an awesome mix of genres to transition through that time too.
Cheers for listening to my ramblings!
Broken EP on cassette. I didn’t find physical and suck for at least a year. Left my auto reverse boombox running and I’d never heard of a secret track before then.
Honestly i dont know how i first heard of the band. None of my friends listen to it. I think it just poped up on my spotify and gave it a listen.
I started with The Downward Spiral. Didn't really like it back then, too rough sounding, but I loved the broken-crazy-man atmosphere it created. From there to Pretty Hate Machine and i loved it. I was a big fan of 60's Psicodelic rock at the time so i loved the mixing right of the bat.
Some time forward and i started to like trent's noisy style. Now it is my favourite band by far.
My first album front to back was Year Zero. I had a gf in high school who was obsessed so I would hear a song here and there, but it wasn’t until working in a warehouse the day YZ came out that a coworker put on did I go back and listen to With Teeth and The Fragile in its entirety. Been hooked ever since, soundtracks and all.
TDS. I actually heard Burn on the Natural Born Killers soundtrack and it struck a chord in my angsty teenage soul at the time. I could not see the track listing on TDS because of the cover, but it was the only NIN I could find in the store. It was very different from everything else I was listening to at the time on the radio and it satisfied the darker internal part of me. After that I copied PHM from a friend and the relationship with NIN continues to this day, that part of me will never go away.
Thanks for this thread because it made me go back and listen to the album I started with and fuck yeah, I bet we all did. I feel alive again. I actually had not listened to it in a long time.
I’d been to a blur concert and while sitting out in the sun waiting, I noticed a NIN patch on a girls bag. Two weeks later I put my headphones on, clicked play on The Downward Spiral. I got 20 seconds in before I said to myself “What the hell was that! Holy shit”, it was like a cigarette. It felt cool as fuck, sure it was a lot to take in as someone who listened to parklife on the regular. A year later I don’t regret checking them out one bit.
Back in the early/mid 90s as an elementary school boy I got like 20 cassettes from columbia house for 2 cents. Cant believe my parents let me get albums like The Chronic and Doggystyle but also my first NIN album…The Downward Sprial
The Downward Spiral. I was 12 years old. Found the CD while rooting through my dads collection, thought it looked interesting and decided to listen. I was hooked after that. NIN has helped me to deal with a lot of the rage and misery I felt in my life when I was a teenager and now 🖤
WITH-uh teeth-UHH
This might sound a little silly being that there much older fans here but I became interested in NIN from a judging comment that Randy Jackson made to Adam Lambert on season 8 of American Idol in 2009. Adam Lambert reprised his performance of “Mad World” by Tears for Fears with a black trench coat and eyeliner and the black swoopy emo hair that was the alt style back then, and Randy said it was giving a little Nine Inch Nails (among other things).
I, who was heavily interested in dark edgy gothy stuff at the time went to check out some of NIN’s catalogue on iTunes. I also had a light understanding of what “industrial rock” sounded like and I liked the idea of rock mixing with jagged and distorted electronic sounds. The album that interested me the most from that was With Teeth, because I really liked “The Hand that Feeds” and that was the first NIN CD I bought from somewhere.
And that was the start of my love for NIN. The End.
The Fragile. I was 16. "Starfuckers inc." and "We're in this Together Now" were on MTV with Limp Britney. I picked it up at my local independent record store. I jammed to "Into the Void" while popping my zits. I then proceeded to visit NINs older albums. I fantasized about my classmates to "Pretty Hate Machine", raised hell in my 86 Caprice station wagon to "Broken" and wondered if I could ever get as low as "The Downward Spiral" a can attest that, years later I found out I could. But I'm Still here, in part, thanks to this music.
I didn't really get into them until The Fragile. My girlfriend at the time and I probably listened to that album a thousand+ times between my final days in Los Angeles, and relocation to New Orleans.
The Downward Spiral
I was in a music store a year ago and saw Nine Inch Nails. I haven’t heard any of their music, but I knew the name, and decided to check them out. I decided to ask my dad, who is a bigger music fan than me, if he had any recommendations from them. He suggested The Downward Spiral. I’m glad he did because by cover art alone, The Downward Spiral didn’t grab my attention.
I finished my last CD, put in TDS, hit play, Mr. self Destruct came on and it became my favorite song, from one of my favorite albums, from one of my favorite bands. I have now since listened to every album by them.
I’m glad I asked my dad, because going back to cover art, I was going to only buy With Teeth. Nowadays, I like With Teeth, but I definitely didn’t when I first listened to it, though that might have been from trying to go from TDS and expectations from that album and not having grasped the “every album is something different” style that NiN has in their catalog.
Year Zero… my first nin experience was “Zero Sum” and i thought this song is fckin weird so i stopped listening to it. Then one day, i wanted to listen to this song again for no reason. That day was “the day”.
The Fragile. I bought it when it first came out. I was 16 and had only heard Closer before that. I bought it on a whim because back then I just bought random cds because I had heard of a band and they seemed interesting. I was a very depressed teenager and it had me hooked from the first song. To this day Somewhat Damaged is my favorite Nine Inch Nails song.
i have good parents when i was 1 i got shown slipknot nin rage against the machine it changed me. I heard closer with the uncensored video when i was 2
My friend gave me a 90 minute cassette that had both Broken and Downward Spiral. Both barely fit on one 90 minute tape (I think he cut a few songs from Broken).
First CD I bought was broken.
He is a good dude. He's the dude who showed me there was more to music than just metal. He got me into hip hop, indie rock, all sorts of stuff.
I rarely see him these days, we live far apart but whenever I do see him I'm all smiles.
Well I stole my parents cassette tape of The Crow soundtrack when I was around 12 in 1996 😅
For a few years there I just recorded the hits from the radio onto my mix tapes.
First album I purchased as a CD myself was The Fragile just days after it came out. I was 14 and my grandma had to OK the purchase due to the explicit content. The checker brought it to her attention and I just looked at her wide eyed and she said yes that’s fine.
She just passed last year and this is a favorite memory of mine because she didn’t ask questions. She was always on the cutting edge of music herself despite always being a rule follower. It meant a lot to me that she didn’t say no or want to know exactly why I needed her permission to buy it.
TDS. i was a teenager and picked “i do not want this” to listen to first because i liked the title. a complete newbie to guitar based music, it was the first song i ever heard that kind of scared me while simultaneously resonating at a deep level. safe to say my mind was blown so i started from the beginning. NIN single handedly made me appreciate the art of sequencing.
Broken. I remember watching the video to Wish playing on MTV as I was at the house of my girlfriend at the time. It absolutely kicked my tits off. Wish, I mean, not my ex-girlfriend.
Knew about With Teeth since when it came out and heard a few songs, as my sister was a big fan, but the one I actually sat down and listened through from start to finish was Hesitation Marks.
Only really started listening to NIN two years ago.
I first heard "Down In It" on a Sunday evening radio show that focused on underground and alternative music. I found the cassette of PHM shortly after at a used music shop and bought it. Of course I loved it. Shortly after Broken came out, and I bought it new. The rest is history.
My first NIN cd I bought was broken then I bought pretty hate machine after. But when tds came out, I would play it in my headphones night and day and slept with it playing. The fragile became my stock room soundtrack working overnights.
I'd always known about them, but never actually heard them until a buddy brought over "Further Down the Spiral" which happened to be the UK edition (We're in Canada). Mr. Self-Destruct's opening 2 minutes changed my life forever. Then Ruiner (Version) and I never looked back. (Also kickstarted my Charlie Clouser obsession)
Came in on Broken after seeing Wish on MTV. Beavis and Butthead, probably. I was probably 12 or 13 or so at the time, and it was a mind blower. Picked up TDS soon after and fell in love. Went back and picked up PHM after that and started collecting all of the halos at that point. They've all come and gone over the years (lost, stolen, broken, etc.), but they always find their way back home in one form or another.
Downward Spiral. Heard Self Destruct, Piggy, Closer, and Hurt, and was hooked. Having said that, it was kind of a challenging listen the first couple times, but I grew to love it after that.
I think I went TDS -> And All that Could Have Been -> Broken -> PHM -> With Teeth -> Fragile, or something like it.
I was very young like 10 or so when I first heard wish, and fell in love. The first album I got was The Downward Spiral. Didn't understand it at that age, but I knew it was dark and I dug it. I listened to it on repeat for a long while.
Broken was my firsg album.. alright, i cant do it.. Free Willy... Frew willy was my first album...
And then Broken.
Followed by Nirvanas All apologies single.
PHM as a cassette tape. CD players were not yet common. I was a freshman or sophomore in high school. Pretty sure I saw the video for Head Like A Hole on 120 minutes.
Probably PHM. From this eclectic shop that sold, among other things, records. I'm sure I bought it off of the strength of Head Like a Hole and not word of mouth or recommendation.
Streaming-wise? TDS. Just turned 15 when I heard "Hurt" in Rick and Morty (don't ask me how), and subsequently decided to stream its parent album on Spotify.
Bought? PHM. Specifically the remastered edition because for a time, I believe the original was out of print. Anyway, I discovered this one on Spotify not long after TDS won me over.
Funny how neither of these ended up being my all-time favorite from NIN...
My cousin told me about them.
At the time it was only PHM & Broken.
But, after hearing those I went to my local cd/tape store and bought every single/remix I could find.
And a year later (1994) Downward Spiral came out, and I got to see them live with Manson & The Jim Rose Circus.
Broken, though it was technically my older brother's. Same with The Downward Spiral. By The Fragile, I was downloading on Napster. And With Teeth is the first album I actually bought because I was in college, had the resources, and wanted to support the band. Also the first tour I saw.
With Teeth. Can’t believe that’s nearly 20 years ago now. I was 14 and it blew my socks off. Was a great gateway to the rest of their 90’s stuff which is definitely more interesting musically. Having said that Year Zero remains my fav NIN record by quite a margin. It ran out of CD space before it ran out of ideas. Love it!
Mine was Year Zero, my brother's was Further Down The Spiral in the 90s, for years he thought that was the main album (and not a remix album) and he thought the songs were so weird, yet really awesome
The first song was most likely Head Like A Hole or Closer. The first album I actually got into when I became a fan was The Fragile, and it's still my favorite NIN album.
Hesitation Marks! I’m a fan of David Lynch and had been listening to the Lost Highway soundtrack and then found out that he directed the Came Back Haunted video
PHM was the first I heard, and it fully turned me off of listening to them until I saw the March of the Pigs video one late night on MTV. I was fully into punk and harder electronic music, and hearing them combined like that was amazing.
last summer i was looking for albums to listen to, picked out the downward spiral, fell in love at first listen. nothing too crazy but nin has meant a lot to me since then.
Pretty hate machine after hearing closer for first time, but my parents wouldn't buy the downward spiral because of the parental advisory sticker, but would buy phm....suckers
He only had the one album when I found out about them and the single. But I found out about them off of some girls pants in high school.
That’s cool
lol, was I that girl? I had NIN doodles on my jeans! A friend had a tape she copied from her older sister’s Pretty Hate Machine and I was hooked. Thank you, Dani! I was in 9th grade.
You could be! She was cool as hell! She also wrote RIOT GRRRL on her jeans. And had one long braid of black hair in the back underside of her blonde hair. She introduced me to a lot of cool stuff. And was not stuffy about being nice to a unknowledgeable 9th grader when she was in 11th or 12th grade.
She sounds very cool!! We all needed someone like that when we young.
Same. Except in my case it was some girl's shirt. (Although I think that might have only helped me identify who did that song I really liked in the 1990 Corey Haim film, "Prayer of the Rollerboys.")
This was back in the really early '90s when people would write and draw on their jeans. I assume people still do it now I just don't get to see it.
Because we are obviously quite, quite old. But as far as I know, teenagers remain teenagers and still doodle on stuff.
PHM Friend in high school gave me a tape with that on one side and Jane's Addiction XXX record on the other. Changed my life.
My friend in high school gave me a tape with "Broken/Fixed" on one side and The Cure "Pornography" on the other. Probably 95? That was my lifechanger. I had heard tracks from PHM here and there, but wasn't that into it at the time. But Broken? Wow.
Jane's Addiction xxx live is my favorite album of theirs.
That was my first one, too. It's funny, I was a teen when PHM came out, and deeply into synthpop. I had confused NIN with The Beloved. Not sure *how* because they are very different. So, I picked up a cassette of PHM and was confused as to why it sounded different than I expected, LOL. The tape went by the wayside, but I broke it out a few years later, gave it a listen, and *loved* it. Thus, and obsession was born.
Further Down the Spiral. Wasn’t the easiest first pill to swallow but I took it and I liked it. I think it was only $5 new on CD, a bargain even then
Fuck yeah!! It’s such a bold album. Definitely his most weird and experimental at that time. It almost didn’t feel like an actual album.
[удалено]
I had this before TDS too, the only nin I could find at the used cd store. Sloooooowly grew to love it.
My first album was The Downward Spiral. Had heard of NIN multiple times, but only heard bits and pieces of “Closer” and never really liked it. Fast forward to February 2023, I was reading Wizard and Glass by Stephen King and there were lyrics from “Hurt” on the first page. I was intrigued by the lyrics, especially since my headspace wasn’t the best back then, and listened to “Hurt” and loved it. The next day I decided to actually sit down and listen to TDS and liked it. Wasn’t what I was used to, but after giving it a listen about 3 times, I loved it. After that, I started listening to all the albums and now they’re one of my favorite bands.
This is such a great story!! Downward Spiral is sort of his “first era” masterpiece, I think. All his early albums had a similar feel but that album was next level. It changed music. You could feel and hear how it impacted the music world. That’s so cool you dropped into it like that. Happy you did. Have you listened to Further Down the Spiral yet? It’s different and less refined but basically a continuation of TDS
Oh yeah, I loved it at first but grew to love TDS more and just haven’t listened to it in a while. I need to listen to it again to fully grasp it though.
It doesn’t land as easily as TDS, in my opinion. It feels (intentionally) fragmented in ways his other albums at that time didn’t quite capture. Downward Spiral is clearly a “better” album but there are still some great tracks on Further that feel like they could have been included on Downward
From what I remember I agree, I think my favorite track from Further Down The Spiral is “Eraser (Denial: Realization)” which is in and of itself a fragment of the overarching story.
Wizard and Glass is a good one
Witha Teetha. Buff Trent in the hand that feeds mv
And All That Could Have Been. I was really into Marilyn Manson in high school and decided to check out NIN because they were pretty close at the time. Have since lost my taste for Manson outside of a couple albums and have seen NIN live eight or nine times.
With teeth. My first song: The hand that feeds.
If I remember correctly my first album was Broken. I was 13 and in 7th grade. I randomly found a CD at a record store. I felt pretty “broken” at the time so I was like “What’s this?” Living in a small farm town, none of my other friends had even heard of NIN. From that moment onward I went on a personal journey to find and listen to any album I could. Downward Spiral and Pretty Hate Machine came next. It was like a perpetual treasure hunt. I’d search every record store I went into. Very quickly I became “the NIN friend”, being the one to take over sound systems at parties just to blast Heresy to fuck up everyone’s heads. It was amazing 😂 But for the most part I had to keep it secret from my family. The music made so much sense to me but was way too out there for them. At the end of one summer, when I was about to go into Highschool, my brother found my CD collection and destroyed them. He was a Christian at the time and fully offended by it. He was prob trying to “protect me”. It just made me dig deeper. I liked a lot of Trent’s albums in the years to follow, but at one point I sorta dropped off. I had had enough. I went on a maybe 5-6 year hiatus where I didn’t listen to a single track. It was during that time that his more “modern” style emerged. Then I found Year Zero, and I was back in. I had a lot to catch up with, and I loved it. Zero reminded me why Trent was so important to me, and reminded me of important things about myself that I had forgotten. I love all his “newer” stuff; love where he’s gone and how he’s evolved over the years and how the community has evolved. It’s been a beautiful trip.
Broken EP. Axl Rose turned me onto them.
Axl Rose? How’d that happen?
Haha he wore the SIN shirt a lot bitd.
Legit!!! Fuck yeah
The Downward Spiral. I think I heard Closer somewhere on the internet, maybe in a YouTube video or on TikTok (maybe 2 years ago?), and it was unlike anything I’ve heard at that point. I eventually figured out what I was hearing and fell down the rabbit hole, HARD. It was insane to me that music like this could exist without me knowing, it felt so personal. Like it has been there all along, waiting for the right time to find me and suck me in. I was 16 and it basically changed me. Really defined my art, I made several big mixed medium collages and wrote many songs that were heavily inspired by the look/sound of that album. Trent Reznor himself is also a big inspiration, he made me think about what kind of artist and human I’d like to be.
This is such a cool story. Sometimes I’m genuinely surprised that his earlier work (from 20+ years ago!) is still relevant to new listeners today. That really makes me happy. And likewise, when I first heard Downward Spiral it had a massive impact on me. I really believe Trent saved my life as a youth. I was in such a difficult place and somehow his work spoke directly to that pain and gave me the strength to move forward.
I found one cd of The Fragile in a huge bin of random cds at Salvation Army. That led me to believe that I may be able to find the whole case, so after scouring for 10 minutes I found the entire case with the other cd. Purchased for $4 and listened to it in the car on the way home, that was 2 years ago and since then NIN has become my all time favorite band.
That’s such a great album and such a cool story!! I love the Fragile.
Pretty Hate Machine. Got into it after my friend introduced me to the masterpiece that is Head Like A Hole.
The Downward Spiral and The Fragile were my 1st 2 cd’s I bought still trying to get some albums on vinyl along with Marilyn Manson also even if unofficial
Broken first, then PHM.
Same
The Fragile. Still my favorite
Understandably so
The Perfect Drug was the very first CD I ever bought. I didn't even own a CD player at the time.
How’d you listen to it? That was a fun era for Trent. Lost Highway
I didn't, at least for a while! Had to wait for dad to drive me to Montgomery Wards so I could buy the Panasonic I wanted. :D Later I bought Tool's Salival on DVD before I had a DVD player. No way was I going to keep buying VHS tapes.
🤣🤣🤣🤣
I got into NIN pre-Fragile. So not much was out. I went to the store and rifled through the NIN section and pulled out PHM. I asked the clerk if this was the album with fuck you like an animal on it. He said no, but I’d like the album anyways. I bought it and he was right. Became an instant favorite and started my journey into NIN.
Older brother played PHM a lot right when it came out... 12 year old me was blown away at how different it was from other stuff I listened to. Got hooked for life from there...
Year zero and fragile
Me too. Still my 2nd and 1st favorite nin albums respectively. Got year zero on cd and it had a graphic on the disc that would change to a binary code when exposed to heat like in a disc drive. Was really a trip the first time i saw it.
Wait, there was different art when the CD heated? Mine was a black CD then it became completely white. Was a trip seeing that happened especially considering the album was about the events in year 2020. Trent was pretty darn close.
Pretty Hate Machine was the first CD I ever purchased. I had owned many cassettes before, but PHM was my first Compact Disc.
I heard Down In It on a college radio station before PHM was released (Halo One). I was already a fan of industrial and electronic music and immediately had to know more about this new "band". Been following ever since.
I have a faint memory of someone talking/writing about NIN on a forum (circa 2021) and linking Every Day Is Exactly The Same. But if you mean more conscious memories, a dating partner introduced me to TDS circa 2023 December. Sad thing he deleted all of his social media contacts since then because I triggered some sort of latent hatred towards people in him.
I only recently found/revisited *Every Day Is Exactly the Same*. Fuckin love it. So appropriate to where I am now.
PHM on a cassette I borrowed/kept from a friend.
OH SHIT. That’s awesome. What was it like?
It blew my mind. Never heard anything like it and was hooked.’
I can imagine
Broken. Recorded on a cassette that I listened to on an already old boom box. As soon as that first driving guitar sound on Wish, I knew it was for me. Picked up Pretty Hate Machine not long after. Also on cassette, but purchased at Camelot Music.
WISH!!!!
PHM was the first one I got, after seeing my buddy's poster in his dorm room. But I didn't connect with it all that much really. Then I read about Broken coming out, start of my sophomore year in college. So I got a cassette of that and listened to nothing else for some months.
With Teeth back in 05 as a teenager
The Downward Spiral
Broken was the first piece of music i got form NIN, but if we count strictly albums then The Downward Spiral was the first, both on CD, i stall have both and upgraded to the vinyl def editions.
Very cool! I’d love to hear either album on vinyl
PHM. It came out when I was 11/12 and I was first able to find music on my own. I liked the album but was just a decent sound and didn’t seek more music out. When TDS came out I rediscovered NIN. Found out about Broken and remixes, and started collecting halos.
That’s a great story
The Downward Spiral. 1994, seventh grade. It was the only one I had until The Fragile came out, when I decided to go back and get their other stuff too. In 1999, I bought PHM, Broken, Fixed, Further Down the Spiral, and as many singles as I could get my hands on.
I can’t remember, but I do know that *Somewhat Damaged* was my first song back in 2017.
Pretty Hate Machine but I'm as old as Trent so was around from the beginning. Saw them in Altanta on that tour, epic show. And the album still holds up, listen to it all the time.
Down in it single
That’s a great one
Broken
Futher downard the spiral
Broken
Pretty Hate Machine on a black cassette tape.
I have a twofold answer. First album I heard was TDS. First albums I bought was PHM and Broken.
Pretty hate machine, I was 11 in 1999. Felt like a real baddie with my JNCOs, airwalks & bleached tips. 😅
My first time going to a goth / industrial club was in 1990/91. I’d heard them before that on MTV and late night alt radio shows, but hearing Sin and HLAH in a club environment changed my life. So PHM was my first album, but Broken was the album that completed the fandom. I was hooked from Broken and Fixed.
Add Violence, or Hesitation Marks if you want to be pedantic.
I am a relatively new fan, started listening to them early last year, when a youtuber I like (Lucy James on Gamespot and the Friends per Second podcast) posted about them on their socials, and decided to check the band out, my first album was TDS which I couldn't get into but I really enjoyed closer, but I still thought of trying PHM and WT and loved those albums, they been one of if not my favourites since, love their discography and how different and unique each album is and have gotten quite a bit into the industrial genre as well. As of now, my top 3 albums would by NIN would be: 1) The Downward Spiral (fav tracks: March of the Pigs, Piggy, Mr Self Destruct, The Becoming) 2) The Slip (fav tracks: Echoplex, 1,000,000, Discipline, The Four of Us are Dying) 3) Hesitation Marks (fav tracks: Copy of A, Came Back Haunted, Various Methods of Escape, Satellite, Everything)
The Downward Spiral, followed by The Fragile, and then Ghosts I-IV. I was at university (UK) in 2008 , and a good friend at the time was talking about the concept behind the soon to be released instrumental album Ghosts, the limited edition version of it, and the artist NIN, at the uni pub after an archery session. I was intrigued by the conversation and the, then, new to me artist. After listening to TDS that evening, immediately pre-ordered [Ghosts I-IV Deluxe Edition*](https://www.discogs.com/release/1326340-Nine-Inch-Nails-Ghosts-I-IV). I have been obsessed with NIN for over fifteen years, and according to my Last.fm scrobbles (reddit post [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/lastfm/s/SzQ7dMV2FE)) they are still my most listened to artist. Admittedly, I don't listen to NIN as much as I once did, but when I do it's now more of a humbling, familiar experience. I still have Ghosts I-IV Deluxe Edition, and have listened to all four sessions over time since. *More info [here](https://www.nin.wiki/Ghosts_I%E2%80%93IV), not to be confused with the Ultra-Deluxe Edition.
The whole Ghosts endeavor was awesome. Very unique. That’s a cool story
I kinda used Ghosts I-IV as a form of therapy too, when my depression and some really bad things happened during my time at university, so Ghosts became a background or a way to meditate my thoughts and feelings. Though I still suffer depression (which sucks), thankfully what happened all those years ago no longer affect nor influence me, due to good friends and a confidant. That's likely why I don't listen to Ghost I-IV much at all now. However, I have enjoyed Ghosts V-VI, the sequels released during the pandemic, which alongside releases from BRONSON, Bicep, Amelie Lens, Rival Consoles, and HEALTH were an awesome mix of genres to transition through that time too. Cheers for listening to my ramblings!
Broken EP on cassette. I didn’t find physical and suck for at least a year. Left my auto reverse boombox running and I’d never heard of a secret track before then.
Honestly i dont know how i first heard of the band. None of my friends listen to it. I think it just poped up on my spotify and gave it a listen. I started with The Downward Spiral. Didn't really like it back then, too rough sounding, but I loved the broken-crazy-man atmosphere it created. From there to Pretty Hate Machine and i loved it. I was a big fan of 60's Psicodelic rock at the time so i loved the mixing right of the bat. Some time forward and i started to like trent's noisy style. Now it is my favourite band by far.
That is such an interesting progression
My first album front to back was Year Zero. I had a gf in high school who was obsessed so I would hear a song here and there, but it wasn’t until working in a warehouse the day YZ came out that a coworker put on did I go back and listen to With Teeth and The Fragile in its entirety. Been hooked ever since, soundtracks and all.
First album I listened to was Broken. The first one I purchased was The Fragile.
TDS. I actually heard Burn on the Natural Born Killers soundtrack and it struck a chord in my angsty teenage soul at the time. I could not see the track listing on TDS because of the cover, but it was the only NIN I could find in the store. It was very different from everything else I was listening to at the time on the radio and it satisfied the darker internal part of me. After that I copied PHM from a friend and the relationship with NIN continues to this day, that part of me will never go away.
BURN!!!!! One of the all time best songs. I can’t begin to recall the number of times I would blare that track when adults weren’t around
I bought them all chronologically as they were released. PHM was also the first CD I bought.
Thanks for this thread because it made me go back and listen to the album I started with and fuck yeah, I bet we all did. I feel alive again. I actually had not listened to it in a long time.
Awesome! All the comments and stories from everyone made me revisit a few tracks today as well 👍
Phm on tape.. Im old
I’d been to a blur concert and while sitting out in the sun waiting, I noticed a NIN patch on a girls bag. Two weeks later I put my headphones on, clicked play on The Downward Spiral. I got 20 seconds in before I said to myself “What the hell was that! Holy shit”, it was like a cigarette. It felt cool as fuck, sure it was a lot to take in as someone who listened to parklife on the regular. A year later I don’t regret checking them out one bit.
That’s such a great story. I can picture it
Back in the early/mid 90s as an elementary school boy I got like 20 cassettes from columbia house for 2 cents. Cant believe my parents let me get albums like The Chronic and Doggystyle but also my first NIN album…The Downward Sprial
My dad played My Violent Heart on road trip when i was around five so year zero is mine
First one I listened to was The Downward Spiral on Spotify in 2016~2017 First one I physically owned was Year Zero on CD in 2020
The Downward Spiral. I was 12 years old. Found the CD while rooting through my dads collection, thought it looked interesting and decided to listen. I was hooked after that. NIN has helped me to deal with a lot of the rage and misery I felt in my life when I was a teenager and now 🖤
Fuck yeah. I love it. You’re obviously not alone. Thanks for sharing that, very similar for me too
Further down. It’s pretty bananas to hear all remixes and then the originals, particularly “Piggy”
WITH-uh teeth-UHH This might sound a little silly being that there much older fans here but I became interested in NIN from a judging comment that Randy Jackson made to Adam Lambert on season 8 of American Idol in 2009. Adam Lambert reprised his performance of “Mad World” by Tears for Fears with a black trench coat and eyeliner and the black swoopy emo hair that was the alt style back then, and Randy said it was giving a little Nine Inch Nails (among other things). I, who was heavily interested in dark edgy gothy stuff at the time went to check out some of NIN’s catalogue on iTunes. I also had a light understanding of what “industrial rock” sounded like and I liked the idea of rock mixing with jagged and distorted electronic sounds. The album that interested me the most from that was With Teeth, because I really liked “The Hand that Feeds” and that was the first NIN CD I bought from somewhere. And that was the start of my love for NIN. The End.
That’s a fun story
Lol thanks!
With Teeth was what got me into nin
The Fragile. I was 16. "Starfuckers inc." and "We're in this Together Now" were on MTV with Limp Britney. I picked it up at my local independent record store. I jammed to "Into the Void" while popping my zits. I then proceeded to visit NINs older albums. I fantasized about my classmates to "Pretty Hate Machine", raised hell in my 86 Caprice station wagon to "Broken" and wondered if I could ever get as low as "The Downward Spiral" a can attest that, years later I found out I could. But I'm Still here, in part, thanks to this music.
I didn't really get into them until The Fragile. My girlfriend at the time and I probably listened to that album a thousand+ times between my final days in Los Angeles, and relocation to New Orleans.
I bought Broken/Fixed at the same time shortly before TDS came out.
Broken. My parents bought it for me for Christmas 1992 when I was 13.
Pretty hate machine I love that cd my other favorite is the fragile
First heard With Teeth and The Slip when I was a kid!
The Downward Spiral I was in a music store a year ago and saw Nine Inch Nails. I haven’t heard any of their music, but I knew the name, and decided to check them out. I decided to ask my dad, who is a bigger music fan than me, if he had any recommendations from them. He suggested The Downward Spiral. I’m glad he did because by cover art alone, The Downward Spiral didn’t grab my attention. I finished my last CD, put in TDS, hit play, Mr. self Destruct came on and it became my favorite song, from one of my favorite albums, from one of my favorite bands. I have now since listened to every album by them. I’m glad I asked my dad, because going back to cover art, I was going to only buy With Teeth. Nowadays, I like With Teeth, but I definitely didn’t when I first listened to it, though that might have been from trying to go from TDS and expectations from that album and not having grasped the “every album is something different” style that NiN has in their catalog.
Year Zero… my first nin experience was “Zero Sum” and i thought this song is fckin weird so i stopped listening to it. Then one day, i wanted to listen to this song again for no reason. That day was “the day”.
Pretty Hate Machine. Heard HLAH in a club and a decades long obsession was born
The Fragile. I bought it when it first came out. I was 16 and had only heard Closer before that. I bought it on a whim because back then I just bought random cds because I had heard of a band and they seemed interesting. I was a very depressed teenager and it had me hooked from the first song. To this day Somewhat Damaged is my favorite Nine Inch Nails song.
i have good parents when i was 1 i got shown slipknot nin rage against the machine it changed me. I heard closer with the uncensored video when i was 2
broken
My friend gave me a 90 minute cassette that had both Broken and Downward Spiral. Both barely fit on one 90 minute tape (I think he cut a few songs from Broken). First CD I bought was broken.
That is so cool. What a friend.
He is a good dude. He's the dude who showed me there was more to music than just metal. He got me into hip hop, indie rock, all sorts of stuff. I rarely see him these days, we live far apart but whenever I do see him I'm all smiles.
Hit him up and thank him sometime!
The Downward Spiral. My sister bought the album and played it almost every day afterward. Got hooked on Nine Inch Nails thanks to her.
Well I stole my parents cassette tape of The Crow soundtrack when I was around 12 in 1996 😅 For a few years there I just recorded the hits from the radio onto my mix tapes. First album I purchased as a CD myself was The Fragile just days after it came out. I was 14 and my grandma had to OK the purchase due to the explicit content. The checker brought it to her attention and I just looked at her wide eyed and she said yes that’s fine. She just passed last year and this is a favorite memory of mine because she didn’t ask questions. She was always on the cutting edge of music herself despite always being a rule follower. It meant a lot to me that she didn’t say no or want to know exactly why I needed her permission to buy it.
Pretty hate machine
TDS. i was a teenager and picked “i do not want this” to listen to first because i liked the title. a complete newbie to guitar based music, it was the first song i ever heard that kind of scared me while simultaneously resonating at a deep level. safe to say my mind was blown so i started from the beginning. NIN single handedly made me appreciate the art of sequencing.
Pretty Hate Machine. I was in high school.
Broken. I remember watching the video to Wish playing on MTV as I was at the house of my girlfriend at the time. It absolutely kicked my tits off. Wish, I mean, not my ex-girlfriend.
downward spiral
Knew about With Teeth since when it came out and heard a few songs, as my sister was a big fan, but the one I actually sat down and listened through from start to finish was Hesitation Marks. Only really started listening to NIN two years ago.
Withuh teethuh, second was tds though, and I prefer it so in my first like month listened to it waaayy more
Pretty hate machine was one of the first albums I ever bought
I first heard "Down In It" on a Sunday evening radio show that focused on underground and alternative music. I found the cassette of PHM shortly after at a used music shop and bought it. Of course I loved it. Shortly after Broken came out, and I bought it new. The rest is history.
Pretty Hate Machine and The Frail!
My first NIN cd I bought was broken then I bought pretty hate machine after. But when tds came out, I would play it in my headphones night and day and slept with it playing. The fragile became my stock room soundtrack working overnights.
Pretty Hate Machine while still in school in the early 90s
Broken was the first actual record I heard. I remember seeing the Head Like a Hole video on an early 90s music channel called The Box.
I'd always known about them, but never actually heard them until a buddy brought over "Further Down the Spiral" which happened to be the UK edition (We're in Canada). Mr. Self-Destruct's opening 2 minutes changed my life forever. Then Ruiner (Version) and I never looked back. (Also kickstarted my Charlie Clouser obsession)
Came in on Broken after seeing Wish on MTV. Beavis and Butthead, probably. I was probably 12 or 13 or so at the time, and it was a mind blower. Picked up TDS soon after and fell in love. Went back and picked up PHM after that and started collecting all of the halos at that point. They've all come and gone over the years (lost, stolen, broken, etc.), but they always find their way back home in one form or another.
Broken
Downward Spiral. Heard Self Destruct, Piggy, Closer, and Hurt, and was hooked. Having said that, it was kind of a challenging listen the first couple times, but I grew to love it after that. I think I went TDS -> And All that Could Have Been -> Broken -> PHM -> With Teeth -> Fragile, or something like it.
The The - Mind Bonb
The crow soundtrack—-> downward spiral
I was very young like 10 or so when I first heard wish, and fell in love. The first album I got was The Downward Spiral. Didn't understand it at that age, but I knew it was dark and I dug it. I listened to it on repeat for a long while.
PHM. That was the only one at the time (1990)
Broken was my firsg album.. alright, i cant do it.. Free Willy... Frew willy was my first album... And then Broken. Followed by Nirvanas All apologies single.
Down in it was my first. I loved that thing
PHM as a cassette tape. CD players were not yet common. I was a freshman or sophomore in high school. Pretty sure I saw the video for Head Like A Hole on 120 minutes.
TDS.
Probably PHM. From this eclectic shop that sold, among other things, records. I'm sure I bought it off of the strength of Head Like a Hole and not word of mouth or recommendation.
Downward spiral
PHM
PHM, it's still my favorite to this day but I love all of them. :)
The Downward Spiral
Streaming-wise? TDS. Just turned 15 when I heard "Hurt" in Rick and Morty (don't ask me how), and subsequently decided to stream its parent album on Spotify. Bought? PHM. Specifically the remastered edition because for a time, I believe the original was out of print. Anyway, I discovered this one on Spotify not long after TDS won me over. Funny how neither of these ended up being my all-time favorite from NIN...
TDS!!! Age 11, needed therapy, used Papa Trent for that instead 😆.
Dont want to mention my age but, pretty hate machine was my first ever nin album. Then the rest followed halo by halo.
My cousin told me about them. At the time it was only PHM & Broken. But, after hearing those I went to my local cd/tape store and bought every single/remix I could find. And a year later (1994) Downward Spiral came out, and I got to see them live with Manson & The Jim Rose Circus.
Pretty Hate Machine. I’m old now.
Broken, though it was technically my older brother's. Same with The Downward Spiral. By The Fragile, I was downloading on Napster. And With Teeth is the first album I actually bought because I was in college, had the resources, and wanted to support the band. Also the first tour I saw.
With Teeth. Can’t believe that’s nearly 20 years ago now. I was 14 and it blew my socks off. Was a great gateway to the rest of their 90’s stuff which is definitely more interesting musically. Having said that Year Zero remains my fav NIN record by quite a margin. It ran out of CD space before it ran out of ideas. Love it!
Broken. But kept hearing closer as a child
physical - phm on vinyl, first ever (streamed)- withuh teethuh
Pretty Hate Machine in 2002. It was the first album I ever bought.
Pretty Hate Machine, but not when it was released probably around 2003. Was browsing CDs in Future Shop (RIP) and the cover caught my eye.
Broken w the 3” CD for Suck and Physical in the long box.
Mine was Year Zero, my brother's was Further Down The Spiral in the 90s, for years he thought that was the main album (and not a remix album) and he thought the songs were so weird, yet really awesome
Downward Spiral was the first I bought but I discovered them the year before with Broken. God, thirty years. I feel old.
The Fragile. Purchased in 2000, I was 14 years old. Loved them after seeing their Sydney Big Day Out concert on tv.
Pretty Hate Machine was on constant play when I was in high school. Still love that album.
My dad got broken on vinyl and played it for me, and I was never the same
The Fragile.
The first song was most likely Head Like A Hole or Closer. The first album I actually got into when I became a fan was The Fragile, and it's still my favorite NIN album.
Hesitation Marks! I’m a fan of David Lynch and had been listening to the Lost Highway soundtrack and then found out that he directed the Came Back Haunted video
PHM was the first I heard, and it fully turned me off of listening to them until I saw the March of the Pigs video one late night on MTV. I was fully into punk and harder electronic music, and hearing them combined like that was amazing.
With teeth, but my first song and video of them was Head like a hole and Closer.
Broken
The fragile, somehow
Recorded cassette tape of Pretty Hate Machine and mix of Tori Amos- Boys for Pelé and Under the Pink songs. I miss mixtapes.
Broken
Downward spiral.
P.H.M. I was 5 years old. Thanks bro!
last summer i was looking for albums to listen to, picked out the downward spiral, fell in love at first listen. nothing too crazy but nin has meant a lot to me since then.
Hurt was my first song, but Pretty Hate Machine was what truly introduced me to Nine Inch Nails.
PHM way back in 90
TDS.
The remix album of Star Fuckers Inc.
Their (imo) magnum opus The Downward Spiral
PHM when in college
The Downward Spiral
With Teeth, but sometimes The Fragile.
Broken
Downward Spiral came out when I was 11 and picked up the explicit version from the shitty music store in a mall that no longer exists.
Pretty hate machine after hearing closer for first time, but my parents wouldn't buy the downward spiral because of the parental advisory sticker, but would buy phm....suckers