Mr. Self Destruct

For the Soft Cell song of the same name, see This Last Night in Sodom.
"Mr. Self Destruct"
Song by Nine Inch Nails
from the album The Downward Spiral
ReleasedMarch 8, 1994
Recorded10050 Cielo Drive (Le Pig), Beverly Hills, California
GenreIndustrial metal[1]
Length4:31
Label
Songwriter(s)Trent Reznor
Producer(s)
The Downward Spiral track listing
14 tracks
  1. "Mr. Self Destruct"
  2. "Piggy"
  3. "Heresy"
  4. "March of the Pigs"
  5. "Closer"
  6. "Ruiner"
  7. "The Becoming"
  8. "I Do Not Want This"
  9. "Big Man With A Gun"
  10. "A Warm Place"
  11. "Eraser"
  12. "Reptile"
  13. "The Downward Spiral"
  14. "Hurt"

"Mr. Self Destruct" is a song by American industrial rock act Nine Inch Nails. It was released on March 8, 1994. Written by frontman Trent Reznor, co-produced by Flood and recorded at Le Pig in 1993, it is the opening track of The Downward Spiral (1994), and predicts the album's "ugly" aesthetic and mostly "angry" tone. The song also gives a lyrical background of the album's protagonist. Its title is a reference to the eponymous opening track from British new wave duo Soft Cell's 1984 album This Last Night in Sodom.[2]

Receiving positive feedback from music critics, its title became used as the official name for a tour by the act. "Mr. Self Destruct" has been remixed multiple times, with five of them appearing in its accompanying remix album, Further Down the Spiral (1995), and in 1996 Reznor granted film director David Fincher (whom he later collaborated along with Atticus Ross to create soundtracks to four of his films) the permission to use a remix of the song in a Levi's television advertisement.

  1. ^ Perry, Adam (September 20, 2018). "Nothing Could Stop Nine Inch Nails at Red Rocks". westword.com. Westword. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
  2. ^ Steiner 2020, p. 209.