One of the most iconic and unflinchingly nihilistic records of its time, it is a masterpiece as well as one massive "cw: suicide" tag. Despite having a lot of songwriting and producing choices that very soundly land it in the mid-90s, it's also remarkable the way this album has held up compared to any of its contemporary peers, and the influence of this alone (never mind literally everything else NiИ ever put to tape) is incredible. Industrial music, and arguably most music in general, has not been the same since.
It also is harrowing knowing what Trent Reznor went through after making this album, struggling with mental health and serious drug use that nearly killed him more than a few times over the next decade of his life. He made it out the other side, but has talked about how the character of the album and his own self got muddied and made things worse.
My own relationship with it is complicated as well. It's sent me into self-destructive tailspins and pulled me up out of stygian depths in equal measure. It radically changed how I thought about percussion and noise. The fact that 'Becoming' has the line "Annie/hold a little tighter" played a part in me taking Andrea as a name. I'm one of millions with stories and emotions weaved into it like a rug.
Sure, it's brutal. It's depressing. But it's relatable, and there's catharsis sometimes in watching something burn out violently.