mr. self destruct

i am the voice inside your head          and i control you
i am the lover in your bed               and i control you
i am the sex that you provide            and i control you
i am the hate you try to hide            and i control you
i take you where you want to go
i give you all you need to know
i drag you down i use you up
mr self destruct
i speak religion's message clear         and i control you
i am denial guilt and fear               and i control you
i am the prayers of the naive            and i control you
i am the lie that you believe            and i control you
i take you where you want to go
i give you all you need to know
i drag you down i use you up
mr self destruct
you let me do this to you (i am an exit)
i am the needle in your vein             and i control you
i am the high you can't sustain          and i control you
i am the pusher i'm a whore              and i control you
i am the need you have for more          and i control you
i am the bullet in the gun               and i control you
i am the truth from which you run        and i control you
i am the silencing machine               and i control you
i am the end of all your dreams          and i control you
i take you where you want to go
i give you all you need to know
i drag you down i use you up
mr self destruct

"the downward spiral" begins with the the sounds of a man being beaten (sampled from George Lucas's first movie). This, and the entire song, can easily be seen as the beginning of the end for the whoever "the downward spiral" is depicting. the hardest part of deciding what "mr. self-destruct" is about is defining who or what the "i" is in the song. "i" could be drugs. it could be satan. or even more disturbing, it could be the person himself, thus the title self-destruct. it is all his desires and wants and sins. it is what he is made of and what is essentially his being. the song pretty much covers all the topics which the rest of the album will go into deeper detail: sex, religion, drugs, and violence (both externally and internally).
-broken

he's talking about all the ways people hide from pain and revealing how they just don't work. for example, in the first verse, he talks about "the hate you *try* to hide". it doesn't work. it's not fully hidden. if it were, there would be no "trying" involved. later he speaks of religion, only to reveal that it's "the lie that you believe" in the last line of the verse. these things may help in the short run, but eventually all they end up doing is dragging you down and using you up. escape from pain through these methods is impossible. and these are what the character tries. eventually he *does* self destruct...
-alexa

I think what Trent is saying in this song is that the "i" in the lyrics knows that he has no hope of crawling out of the hole he has dug for himself. Every quality he names describes the way he is or has become. He knows this and realizes that he has no way of escaping it or changing it. He feels that everything about him is represented in everyone else and can only bring them down just the way he is "self-destructing" throughout the song.
-randle

The album opens with the sound of a man being beaten. It should be noted, however, that while we hear the victims voice, the attacker is silent. This could suggest the victim is in some way beating himself, as the theme of self destruction is central to both this song and the entire album. This song sets the scene for the story and is, at the same time, a reflection of the entire downward spiral itself. Note that the song builds up in both speed and volume, before it suddenly becomes quiet, and then finally degenerates into noise. This is also what happens on a large scale from the start to the finish of the album, revealing that this song is a microcosm of the entire story. "I am the voice inside your head" Note that the "I" and "you" referred to in this song are one and the same. It relates the story of an individuals destruction of his own self from within. Each line is a reference to a theme that will be explained in more detail in the rest of the songs. During the quiet section of the song, the line "I am an exit" is spoken. the character realizes that the only one that can stop the voice inside his head is himself- through suicide. This realization is also made in the quiet section of the album- The warm place/eraser section. "I am the silencing machine"- The reference to machinery refers to the aspect of the characters personality which strives to weaken, or destroy the humanity of the character, while his human part fights for survival. This internal conflict is central to the theme of the downward spiral.
-brian