One of the final songs on The Downward Spiral and an extraordinarily disturbing treatise on suicide. The song notably features stripped-down instrumentation with a sole piano playing the “Downward Spiral” motif drowned out by heavily distorted samples.
Lyrically, the evil alter-ego of the protagonist is encouraging suicide; this robotic voice has “taken over” the protagonist’s rational, human side. It is the final descent into madness before the album closer “Hurt”.
It is also worth noting that the main acoustic guitar riff is a cleaner, more slowed down version of the piano outro from “Closer”.
Expand
+103
1
Share
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning