Further Down The Spiral [EP, Extra tracks]

"Piggy" is an excellent start to the album. Starting off as a slow calm song soon builds up into a fully blown techno track that really puts the rest of the album into perspective. The techno portion of the song almost makes you feel good!!! Has Reznor lost his touch? Well, no. Due to the very controversial roots of the track (a relation to a certain American murderer can be drawn)this lives up to the standards you'd expect from the likes of Reznor and his Nine Inch Nails!!!

The main feature of the album, of course, is the 3 parts of "self-destruction". "Part 1" is fairly calm but there are underlying hints of misery. Where as "Part 3" is an all out, fully powered scream that only feels it has accomplished its task once your ears have started to bleed.

"Heresy" is probably the most techno track on the album and would probably be better received by a wider audience of people compared to Reznor's other work.

"The Downward Spiral" is probably the strangest track on the album (or at least equal to "self destruction, final"). Starting off with a distorted voice it is soon followed by Reznor's trademark scream. Literally the moment the scream ends a very psychedelic techno (almost dance) track starts up.

"Hurt", the one live track on the album, is a well needed break from the mayhem this album has produced. This is a slow, calm song which is very much along the lines of "Something I Can Never Have" from NIN's 1st album "Pretty Hate Machine".

Aphex Twin live up to their usual ambient standards with their creation "At The Heart of It All". This time around the mood Aphex Twin set up is one of fear combined with the anticipation of impending terror.

"Ruiner" lies much along the lines of "Heresy" as it also goes very much along the lines of techno music.

"Eraser" is probably the hardest techno track on the album (this is ignoring the "self-destruction" series) and truly thrashes you with a multitude of hard-hitting synthesiser... well, noises (in lack of a better word for it)!

The CD ends with "Self Destruction, Final" the final part of the "self destruction" trilogy. It is a combination of both parts 1 and 3 but with an almost humorous outline.

All-in-all this is simply amazing and a must buy.

It's nice to see that amidst a vast sprawling array of music which all seems to end up becoming dull pop tunes that at least there are original, inspiring pieces of music being created. This is one such album.

I was recommended this album based on my interest in Aphex Twin. I was not disappointed, in fact Richard James provides this album with my favourite track, "At the Heart of it All", about the most sinister tune I own. Mind you the others are not much more cheerful.

I must admit this is not a CD which you love instantly. It grabs your attention on the first listen with its odd mix of techno beats, trancy rhythms and rocky guitars and you grow to love it more and more as you listen to it. The climax of the album is from track 4 to track 8. Tracks 1-3 are really building up to this part of the album and numbers 9 and 10 work towards the finale, with it's very dodgy lyrics.

Personally I was disappointed by the Aphex Twin remix (where was all the daft stuff?). Still good though.

I won't do a track by track here but this is a wondrous piece of work by people who actually understand Nine Inch Nails musically. The songs are deconstructed and put back together as a new thing, as remixes should be done. And the result is very loud and deeply fantastic, in the true sense of the word.