The LP’s melodic motifs reappear before being drowned out, but maybe that’s the point: Reznor is exhausted, and ready to set the stage for the closing act - the album’s final (and most beautiful and confessional track) “Hurt.” It’s 3:56 seconds of, perhaps, the most unremarkable atmospherics, acoustic noodling, and drowned-out electric guitar tangles on the entire album. Ranking its 15 tracks is tough-there are anthemic singles, haunting ballads, screeching guitar seizures, and atmospheric interludes. Reznor is a master of his technological domain. Revisiting the album 25 years later, one thing is clear: gritty and aggressive, but at times tender an atmospheric, it’s a musical masterpiece that hasn’t dated sonically - its production value is impressive, despite a quarter century of technological development in studio wizardry. Then, of course, there’s the multiple references to “Pig,” one of the words written on the door of the home, back on the fateful night in 1969, in their victims’ blood. Fitting, as the LP is themed around violence and self-flagellation, addiction and self-loathing. It opens with the sound of a man being beaten by a prison guard, sampled from the George Lucas film THX1138. Recorded in the Hollywood house where the Manson Family murdered five people, including actress Sharon Tate, the release turned Reznor into a massive star, one known for turning inward to unleash the demons from the dark corners of his mind.

The downward spiral