Nine Inch Nails

1 album cover in our archive

Nine Inch Nails is featured in Behind the Covers' archive with 1 album cover from the 1990s. Released on Nothing Records / Interscope Records, the artwork sits in the rock, alternative tradition. Each cover is documented in our archive with design notes covering painting, abstract, conceptual, typographic, color field. Below you'll find the full story behind each Nine Inch Nails cover — designers, photographers, label history, and the visual choices that defined the release.

The Downward Spiral by Nine Inch Nails — album cover art

The Downward Spiral (1994)

Trent Reznor gave a British collagist three words: attrition, wound, decay. Russell Mills answered with a two-foot panel built from plaster, rusted metal, dead insects, surgical bandages, and his own blood. The result stares back from The Downward Spiral like something scraped from a fevered wall.

Label
Nothing Records / Interscope Records
Designer
Russell Mills
Genre
Rock, Alternative
Decade
1990s
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