Reznor now downs his creation, the greatest, and nearly only, industrial dance album. Everything since has been harsh noodling, now devolved to moody soundtracks, smh. Only early Ministry comes close. This album should have ignited a revolution, but only sprouted poor imitations. A stand alone masterpiece.

Way ahead of its time. Music holds up today. Reznor is a genius.

I can still hear 106.7 KROQ blasting this album in the garage with my dad singing along as he applied an unnecessary amount of elbow grease to the yard work, followed by his never ending workouts with Nordic traks, row machines and random calisthenics. The year was 1989. I was five. My dad was a turned up LAPD SWAT Sharpshooter. N9ne inch nails was King,and I was just glad I didn’t have to listen to Erasure.

I was always into downward spiral, and somehow missed this album as a whole. Listening to both of them now, I love this album. The fact it was released in 1989 probably explains the miss.. I was into glam rock at the time and would not have liked it. Cut a few years later the Grunge scene came into being. This is a very good album..perhaps the best for NiN.

Possibly one of the best albums ever! Yes that good.

❤️

Amazing album . It flows from track to track

Maybe thee most underrated album of all time. The entire thing is perfection and revolutionary for the time. Nothing like it came out at that time. I would love to see a show where every one of these tracks was played.

The year this album was released I was a month into freshman year of high school. A black girl in the city. Trent Reznor spoke to me. I was homeless and orphaned, living in and out of homeless shelters, suffering from depression and ptsd (from my mother’s murder). I played this cassette tape so much it broke. Pretty Hate Machine got me through those times. I’m surprised there’s only nine reviews on the album. The kids today are missing a LOT. Congratulations on your rock and roll hall of fame induction Nine Inch Nails; well deserved.

This was used in the Gears 5 story trailer