Rolling Stone (5/13/99, p.54) - Included in Rolling Stone's "Essential Recordings of the 90's." Rolling Stone (3/24/94, p.92) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...Nine Inch Nails achieve a new kind of loud on THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL: accessible hard rock moves overlaid with a scrim of electronic racket...THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL is music the Blade Runner might throw down to: low-tech futurism that rocks...." Spin (9/99, p.124) - Ranked #11 in Spin Magazine's "90 Greatest Albums of the '90s." Spin (12/94, p.76) - Rankded #4 in Spin's list of the `20 Best Albums Of '94' - "...transfixes you with the heaviest metal, the most trance-inducing rave, and the silliest synth-pop you're ever likely to hear in songs this hummable..." Entertainment Weekly - "[This album] cemented his reputation as the foremost synthesizer of clangorous rattle, driving guitars, and pure pop sensibilities." Q (7/01, p.90) - Included in Q's "50 Heaviest Albums of All Time". Q (12/99, p.171) - Included in Q Magazine's Best Gothic Albums Of All Time - "...the migraine masterpiece that catapulted [Reznor] to #2 in the Billboard charts....it's a day at the dentist's: all screeching and pulsing, but sexy with it..." Alternative Press (7/95, p.82) - Ranked #24 in AP's list of the `Top 99 Of '85-'95' - "...This recording, coming some five years after Reznor's full-length debut, [is] a stark expose of the darkest regions of the soul: those places where our personal demons reign, and God feels unwelcome..." Vibe (12/99, p.158) - Included in Vibe's 100 Essential Albums of the 20th Century Musician (5/94, p.72) - "...beneath all that bad attitude and aural aggro lies music of extraordinary insight, intelligence, and, yes, beauty....An astonishing piece of work...." Village Voice (3/94, p.5) - Ranked #2 in the Village Voice's 1993 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll. Village Voice (2/28/95) - Ranked #9 in the Village Voice's 1994 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll. Kerrang (Magazine) (p.53) - "Displaying breathtaking invention and variety, it's a deeply textured work..." Mojo (Publisher) (p.54) - Ranked #98 in Mojo's "100 Modern Classics" -- "More than a celebration of nihilism,...SPIRAL was an anguished cry for something to believe in." Mojo (Publisher) (p.117) - 4 stars out of 5 - "Reznor's industrial-blues masterpiece still drips with vileness." New York Times (Publisher) (1/5/95, p.C15) - Included on Jon Pareles' list of the Top 10 Albums Of '94 - "Trent Reznor orchestrates the terrors of adolescence...with creepy-crawly sounds and a clandestine sense of melody."