#nine inch nails

[prairied0gs]

I think this is genuinely badass artwork.

Hard to believe Nine Inch Nails' classic The Downward Spiral is 30 years old today! Here is some detail photography I took of the original album cover painting by Russell Mills for the 10th anniversary deluxe edition release, which I had the unique honor of designing, and somehow that is now 20 year old.

Everyone has that one album that hit at just the right moment of adolescence to change their perspective on music and get them through their teenage angst. The Downward Spiral was that album for me, released as it was in 1994, when I was a freshman in high school (and an absolute banner year for music/films/games all around). I must have stared at the artwork for hours over those years, without even much detail to draw from on its tiny 5” CD slip case. So five years later, when I found myself inexplicably working for Nine Inch Nails, it was surreal to see the actual original painting in the flesh, hanging as it was at the time in Trent Reznor’s office at Nothing Studios, New Orleans.

I was struck by how much dimension and texture there was in the artwork that never translated on that tiny slipcase printing, how much detail was happening in the physical materials of the art: Flies, moths, wires, blood… I had been staring at this “painting” for so long, yet suddenly it was like I had never seen it before. I also noticed that it had aged - the wires had wilted over the years, drooping down from their original position as captured in the original album cover (interestingly, judging by the photo posted today by NIN, the piece has since been restored); a tooth was missing from the other main piece.

That experience stuck with me and it was the first thing I thought about when the task of re-imagining the album package fell upon me in 2004. I wanted to re-photograph the artwork, subtly updating the cover to show that ten years had changed it physically, much like our perceptions of art and music and memories change over time with perspective. I also wanted to dig into the previously unseen details of the work and explore it with my macro lens, so that fans like me, old and new, could have new layers of texture to pore over for hours while listening to a legendary album.

Happy birthday, old friend.

[morrrrrro]

I rarely remember about my sketchbook, but sometimes i draw is in it

[l-14m]

2026 te tengo fe para un show de NIN.

March of the Pigs (1994) Nine Inch Nails

[angeljeonjkk]

I NEED someone to make an art edit with this song please please pretty please with extra art crispies on top

[cupidcreatez]

Drawing I did based off one of my favorite photos of Trent

[lightofthewoods]

More magazine clippings! Different mags, but cool all the same. That LiveWire is one of my favourite mag covers 💚🖤

[origampx]

btw this is me if u even care

[need-you-dream-you]

Pretty Heat Machine

Vent Reznor

[mostly-funnytwittertweets]

[triglyceride]

[ransomnote]

[transolar]

«☼»Closer Nine Inch Nails Stimboard!

(pt: Closer Nine Inch Nails Stimboard! /end pt)

x.x.x-x.o.x-x.x.x

☼ requested by anon

-

[ID: a 3x3 set of images. 8 images of the "this content has been removed for violating tumblr's community guidelines" placeholder, surrounding the album art of The Downward Spiral by Nine Inch Nails. END ID]

[milfweirdal]

[engravedlives]

misc band/music blinkies

[aw4rmplace]

[bigweteyes]

Down In It promotional condom from 1989