"Mr. Self Destruct", a song about a powerful person, follows a build-up sampled from the 1971 film "THX 1138" with an "industrial roar" and is accompanied by an audio loop of a pinion rotating. "The Becoming" expresses the state of being dead and the protagonist's transformation into a non-human organism. "Closer" concludes with a chromatic piano motif: The melody is introduced during the second verse of "Piggy" on organ, then reappears in power chords at drop D tuning throughout the chorus of "Heresy", and recurs for the final time on "The Downward Spiral". The album was chiefly inspired by David Bowie's "Low", an experimental rock album which Reznor related to on songwriting, mood, and structures, as well as progressive rock group Pink Floyd's "The Wall", a concept album featuring themes of abuse, isolation, and mental instability.