The record made good on all the experimental pop promise Reznor had shown up until that point. Its production is deft and layered, weaving electronic and acoustic instruments together to create a record that is both terrifying and narcotic, Pretty Hate Machine’s pop sensibility packaged into Broken’s industrial abrasiveness. A concept album about an addict’s descent into the abyss, Reznor’s lyrics are aggressive, fueled by a bivectored hate that is directed inward as much as it is out, at both the self and the “system.” Thirty years on, The Downward Spiral’s legacy endures in large part for its seamless blending of techno, rock, and ambient to make a work whose dexterous use of the studio emphasizes rather than undermines its raw emotion.
But the record has another legacy, one centered around that house in Beverly Hills. 10050 Cielo Drive was home to Reznor’s studio Le Pig from 1992 to 1993. It had previously been the residence of Roman Polanski and wife Sharon Tate, knifed to death by the Manson Family in her own home. Reznor claims to have been unaware when he signed the lease, but whether that’s true or not, he quickly embraced its history—the name “Le Pig” is a macabre homage to the graffiti the Family left behind in Tate’s blood. This fact has long been a talking point around The Downward Spiral, lending the album’s nihilistic lyrics and sonic violence a hardcore authenticity that eventually made Reznor himself squeamish:
I met [Sharon Tate’s] sister. It was a random thing, just a brief encounter. And she said: "Are you exploiting my sister's death by living in her house?" For the first time the whole thing kind of slapped me in the face. I said, "No, it's just sort of my own interest in American folklore. I'm in this place where a weird part of history occurred." I guess it never really struck me before…I realized for the first time, "What if it was my sister?" I thought, "Fuck Charlie Manson." [my italics]
10050 Cielo Drive would be demolished right after Reznor moved out in late ’93, but he’d bring with him a memento: the house’s front door that at one point in time had scrawled across it in blood “Pig.”
