Marilyn Manson | ||
 | Album: 1 of 12 Title: Portrait of an American Family Released: 1994-07-19 Tracks: 13 Duration: 1:01:05 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Prelude (The Family Trip) (01:20) 2 Cake and Sodomy (03:46) 3 Lunchbox (04:35) 4 Organ Grinder (04:22) 5 Cyclops (03:32) 6 Dope Hat (04:21) 7 Get Your Gunn (03:18) 8 Wrapped in Plastic (05:35) 9 Dogma (03:22) 10 Sweet Tooth (05:03) 11 Snake Eyes and Sissies (04:07) 12 My Monkey (04:31) 13 Misery Machine / [Epilogue] (13:09) |
| Portrait of an American Family : Allmusic album Review : Coming up screaming from the depths of Florida -- there being no scarier state in the union -- Marilyn Manson cannily positioned themselves as a goth-industrial hybrid on their debut album, Portrait of an American Family. At this stage in their evolution, Marilyn Manson was clearly a band, not just the project of Brian Warner, aka Mr. Manson, who would later simply adopt his bands name as his own. Also, horror-show schlock was a bigger factor than it would be later on, when he wanted to be the Antichrist Superstar for the world at large. In other words, its Manson at his silliest, singing about "My Monkey" and "Snake Eyes and Sissies." Beneath all the camp shock, there are signs of Warners unerring eye for genuine outrage and musical talent, particularly on the trio of "Cake and Sodomy," "Lunchbox," and "Dope Hat." But even a few years on from its 1994 release, Portrait of an American Family began to sound a little dated, especially since its Nine Inch Nails-meets-W.A.S.P.-meets-Alice Cooper formula was fully realized on Mansons follow-up album, Antichrist Superstar. Here, its in sketch form, and by the end of the album its clear that Warner, Manson, whatever you want to call him, needs a full canvas to truly wreak havoc. | ||
 | Album: 2 of 12 Title: Antichrist Superstar Released: 1996-10-08 Tracks: 16 Duration: 1:17:32 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Irresponsible Hate Anthem (04:17) 2 The Beautiful People (03:40) 3 Dried Up, Tied and Dead to the World (04:15) 4 Tourniquet (04:29) 5 Little Horn (02:43) 6 Cryptorchid (02:44) 7 Deformography (04:31) 8 Wormboy (03:56) 9 Mister Superstar (05:04) 10 Angel With the Scabbed Wings (03:52) 11 Kinderfeld (04:51) 12 Antichrist Superstar (05:14) 13 1996 (04:01) 14 Minute of Decay (04:44) 15 The Reflecting God (05:36) 16 Man That You Fear / [unknown] (13:31) |
| Antichrist Superstar : Allmusic album Review : Boasting a fuller sound and a more focused sense of purpose, Antichrist Superstar is a substantial improvement on Marilyn Mansons debut album, Portrait of an American Family. The band draws equally from schlock metal, progressive metal, new wave, goth rock, and industrial rock, and with the help of producers Trent Reznor and Dave Ogilvie, the group creates a boiling, mockingly satanic mess of guitars, synthesizers, and ridiculously "scary" vocals. Though the sonic details make Antichrist Superstar an intriguing listen, its not as extreme as it could have been -- in particular, the guitars are surprisingly anemic, sounding like buzzing vacuums instead of unwieldy chainsaws. Even with that considered, Antichrist Superstar is an unexpectedly cohesive album from a silly shock metal band and will stand as Marilyn Mansons definitive statement. | ||
 | Album: 3 of 12 Title: Mechanical Animals Released: 1998-09-14 Tracks: 14 Duration: 1:02:39 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Great Big White World (05:01) 2 The Dope Show (03:47) 3 Mechanical Animals (04:33) 4 Rock Is Dead (03:10) 5 Disassociative (04:51) 6 The Speed of Pain (05:30) 7 Posthuman (04:18) 8 I Want to Disappear (02:57) 9 I Don’t Like the Drugs (but the Drugs Like Me) (05:03) 10 New Model No. 15 (03:41) 11 User Friendly (04:17) 12 Fundamentally Loathsome (04:50) 13 The Last Day on Earth (05:01) 14 Coma White (05:40) |
| Mechanical Animals : Allmusic album Review : Antichrist Superstar performed its intended purpose -- it made Marilyn Manson internationally famous, a living realization of his fictional "antichrist superstar." He had gained the attention of not only rock fans, but the public at large; however, many critics bestowed their praise not on the former Brian Warner, but on Trent Reznor, Mansons mentor and producer. Surely angered by the attention being focused elsewhere, he decided to break from Reznor and industrial metal with his third album, Mechanical Animals. Taking his image and musical cues from Bowie, Warner reworked Marilyn Manson into a sleek, androgynous space alien named Omega, à la Ziggy Stardust, and constructed a glammy variation of his trademark goth metal. With pal Billy Corgan as an unofficial consultant and Soundgarden producer Michael Beinhorn manning the boards, Manson turns Mechanical Animals into a big, clean rock record -- the kind that stands in direct opposition to the dark, twisted industrial nightmares he painted with his first two albums. It can make for a welcome change of pace, since his glammed-up goth is more tuneful than his clattering industrial cacophony, but it lacks the cartoonish menace that distinguished his prior music. And without that, Marilyn Manson seems a little ordinary, believe it or not -- more like a 90s version of Alice Cooper than ever before. True, Mechanical Animals is the groups most accessible effort, but Manson should have remembered one thing -- demons are never that scary in the light. | ||
 | Album: 4 of 12 Title: Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death) Released: 2000-11-11 Tracks: 20 Duration: 1:11:57 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Godeatgod (02:34) 2 The Love Song (03:18) 3 The Fight Song (02:57) 4 Disposable Teens (03:04) 5 Target Audience (Narcissus Narcosis) (04:18) 6 “President Dead” (03:13) 7 In the Shadow of the Valley of Death (04:10) 8 Cruci-Fiction in Space (04:56) 9 A Place in the Dirt (03:37) 10 The Nobodies (03:35) 11 The Death Song (03:30) 12 Lamb of God (04:40) 13 Born Again (03:21) 14 Burning Flag (03:21) 15 Coma Black: A) Eden Eye / B) The Apple of Discord (05:59) 16 Valentine’s Day (03:32) 17 The Fall of Adam (02:34) 18 King Kill 33° (02:18) 19 Count to Six and Die (The Vacuum of Infinite Space Encompassing) (03:23) 20 The Nobodies (acoustic version) (03:34) |
| Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death) : Allmusic album Review : In 2000, Marilyn Manson not only was recovering from his fans rejection of Mechanical Animals, he was scarred from Columbine and, worst of all, he was no longer Americas demon dog. What was Brian Warner to do, standing on such uneasy ground? As a smart man and savvy marketer, he knew that it was time to consolidate his strengths, blend Omega with Antichrist Superstar, and return with a harsh, controversial, operatic epic: a vulgar concept album to seduce his core audiences of alienated teens and cultural cops. The resulting album, Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death), is intended as the third part of the trilogy beginning with Antichrist Superstar, and its convoluted story line is fairly autobiographical, but the amazing thing isnt the story -- its that he figured out to meld the hooks and subtle sonic shading of Mechanical Animals with the ugly, neo-industrial metallicisms of Antichrist. Consequently, its easy to see this as the definitive Marilyn Manson album, since its tuneful and abrasive. Then again, much of its charm lies in Manson trying so hard, perfecting details in the concept, lyrics, themes, production, sequencing, the tarot card parodies in the liner notes, the self-theft, the self-consciously blasphemous cover art. Theres so much effort, Holy Wood winds up a stronger and more consistent album than any of his other work. If theres any problem, its that Mansons shock rock seems a little quaint in 2000. Eminems vibrant, surrealistic white-trash fantasias were the sound of 2000, while Marilyn Mansons rock operas, religious baiting, and goth gear are from an era passed. Its to Warners credit as, yes, an artist that Holy Wood works anyway. | ||
 | Album: 5 of 12 Title: The Golden Age of Grotesque Released: 2003-05-07 Tracks: 16 Duration: 1:01:17 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Thaeter (01:14) 2 This Is the New Shit (04:20) 3 mOBSCENE (03:26) 4 Doll-Dagga Buzz-Buzz Ziggety-Zag (04:10) 5 Use Your Fist and Not Your Mouth (03:34) 6 The Golden Age of Grotesque (04:05) 7 (s)AINT (03:45) 8 Ka-Boom Ka-Boom (04:02) 9 Slutgarden (04:06) 10 ♠ (04:34) 11 Para-noir (06:01) 12 The Bright Young Things (04:19) 13 Better of Two Evils (03:48) 14 Vodevil (04:39) 15 Obsequey (The Death of Art) (01:48) 16 Tainted Love (03:20) |
| The Golden Age of Grotesque : Allmusic album Review : Timing is everything in pop music, and Marilyn Manson hit a zeitgeist in the mid-90s with Antichrist Superstar, riding the post-alternative wave to the top of the charts with his dark, arty, industrial metal. He was a proud shock artist and a great interview, one of the few rockers of his time who stood his own against his attackers by offering articulate, informed counterarguments to their blustering rage. Like any shock rocker, though, the novelty wears thin fast, and what was once scary turns into self-parody. Manson, no stranger to rock history, attempted to circumvent this by turning quickly to the left with the glam-soaked Mechanical Animals, but in doing so he lost huge portions of his audience, and by the time he returned to scary industrial metal form on Holy Wood in 2000, he seemed out of date and few critics or fans paid attention. Three years later, he unleashed his fifth album, The Golden Age of Grotesque, and he still seemed out of step with the times, but there was a difference -- he sounded comfortable with that development. Also, by 2003, rock, particularly heavy metal, was in desperate need of artists with a grand vision and ambition, which Manson has in spades. After all, The Golden Age is designed to be a modern update of German art, vaudeville, and decadent Hollywood glamour of the 30s, all given a thudding metallic grind, of course. In an era when heavy rockers have no idea what happened in the 80s, much less the 30s, its hard not to warm to this, even if his music isnt your own personal bag. Musically, Manson isnt departing from his basic sound -- hes following through on the return to basics Holy Wood represented -- but his first self-production has resulted in an album that feels light and nimble, even though its drenched in distortion and screams. It feels as if Manson now feels liberated from not being consistently in the spotlight, and his music has opened up as well. With that new freedom, he gets silly on occasion -- the gibberish on the ridiculously titled "This Is the New Sh*t," the appropriation of Faith No Mores "Be Aggressive" for "mOBSCENE," the lyric "You are the church/I am the steeple/When we f*ck we are Gods People" -- but instead of knocking the record off track, they are part of the big picture on this oversized album. What matters here, as it always does on a Marilyn Manson album, is the overarching concept, and while The Golden Age of Grotesque has some kind of theme, its particulars arent discernible, but the overall feeling resonates strongly. This messy, unruly, noisy burlesque may fall on its face, but it puts itself in the position where it can either stand or fall, and, unlike in the past, Manson isnt taking himself so seriously that he sounds stiff. It all adds up to a very good album -- maybe not his best, and certainly not one that will attract the most attention, but its a hell of a lot grander than what his peers are producing, and holds its own with his previous records. Its also a bit more fun, too, and that counts for a lot. | ||
 | Album: 6 of 12 Title: Lunch Boxes & Choklit Cows Released: 2004-04-20 Tracks: 10 Duration: 41:49 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Red (in My) Head (04:15) 2 Dune Buggy (04:01) 3 Insect Pins (05:48) 4 Learning to Swim (04:02) 5 Negative 3 (04:38) 6 Meat for a Queen (03:02) 7 White Knuckles (02:16) 8 Scaredy Cat (03:19) 9 Thingmaker (04:07) 10 Thrift (06:20) |
 | Album: 7 of 12 Title: Lest We Forget: The Best Of Released: 2004-09-25 Tracks: 17 Duration: 1:05:56 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 The Love Song (03:05) 2 Personal Jesus (04:06) 3 mOBSCENE (03:26) 4 The Fight Song (02:57) 5 Tainted Love (03:20) 6 The Dope Show (03:40) 7 This Is the New Shit (04:20) 8 Disposable Teens (03:04) 9 Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) (04:52) 10 Lunchbox (04:35) 11 Tourniquet (04:44) 12 Rock Is Dead (03:10) 13 Get Your Gunn (03:18) 14 The Nobodies (03:35) 15 Long Hard Road Out of Hell (04:21) 16 The Beautiful People (03:40) 17 The Reflecting God (05:36) |
| Lest We Forget: The Best Of : Allmusic album Review : Its rather ironic that Marilyn Manson, an artist who kept the idea of the concept album alive during the 90s, turns out to have a greater impact as a singles artist, as the 17-track hits compilation Lest We Forget: The Best of Marilyn Manson illustrates. While each of his post-Portrait of an American Family LPs were designed to be heard as a whole, their singles unfailingly distilled the attitude and ideas behind the individual albums to their catchy core. Yes, catchy -- at his best, Marilyn Manson had a knack for a heavy, glammy hook, the kind thats hard to get out of your head, no matter how hard you try. Not every single had a great hook -- "Tourniquet" is a moody dirge, indicative of what awaits a listener on the album tracks -- but the best of them did, whether it was "Lunchbox" from the debut, the delirious "The Beautiful People," the glam-stomp of "The Dope Show," or the Faith No More homage "mOBSCENE." All these are here, but Lest We Forget doesnt have all the hits -- charting singles "I Dont Like the Drugs (But the Drugs Like Me)" and "Rock Is Dead" are conspicuously missing, as are video hits like "Dope Hat," "Man That You Fear," and "Coma White." These omissions are curious, considering that album tracks and covers are used as substitutions. Nevertheless, it has enough of the hits to make this worthwhile for the casual fans, as well as those listeners who never wanted to admit that these late-90s alt-rock radio staples were guilty pleasures. [Lest We Forget was also released as a limited-edition set, featuring a bonus DVD containing all the music videos Manson released during the 90s.] | ||
 | Album: 8 of 12 Title: Eat Me, Drink Me Released: 2007-06-01 Tracks: 12 Duration: 56:31 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 If I Was Your Vampire (05:56) 2 Putting Holes in Happiness (04:31) 3 The Red Carpet Grave (04:05) 4 They Said That Hell’s Not Hot (04:17) 5 Just a Car Crash Away (04:55) 6 Heart‐Shaped Glasses (When the Heart Guides the Hand) (05:06) 7 Evidence (05:20) 8 Are You the Rabbit? (04:14) 9 Mutilation Is the Most Sincere Form of Flattery (03:53) 10 You and Me and the Devil Makes 3 (04:24) 11 EAT ME, DRINK ME (05:41) 12 Heart‐Shaped Glasses (When the Heart Guides the Hand) (Inhuman remix by Jade E Puget) (04:09) |
| Eat Me, Drink Me : Allmusic album Review : Its been a long time since Marilyn Manson truly seemed like a transgressive force, but when you spend a lifetime crafting a persona as a rock & roll boogeyman, its not only hard to shake that image, its unlikely that youd want to shake it. Manson has never shown any indication that hes wanted to change, which somehow came as a surprise to his betrothed, burlesque diva Dita Von Teese, who according to published reports in the wake of their divorce seemed shocked, shocked that Manson wanted to stay up late and take drugs, the kind of eternally adolescent behavior that only rock & roll stars can get away with as they approach 40. Better for Marilyn to sever that marriage and turn toward a true teenager: Evan Rachel Wood, the blandly pretty star of Thirteen who provided MM with a brand-new muse for Eat Me, Drink Me, his sixth studio album. Frankly, Manson probably needed something to shake up his music, which started to become comfortably predictable in the wake of his popular/creative peak of Mechanical Animals, but the stab at soul-baring on Eat Me might not have been the way to do it. But Manson is such a true believer in rock & roll mythos that hes wound up embracing the cliché of the post-divorce confessional album, peppering this album with songs about broken relationships and new love. Personal songs are unusual for Manson, but that doesnt mean hes abandoned his tendency to write about grand concepts. The difference is that this time around, Manson himself is the grand concept -- theres no excursions into neo-glam or decadent German glamour -- which may give him a lyrical hook, but not a musical one. On a sonic level this is a bit of Manson-by-numbers -- all his signatures are in place, from the liberal appropriations of Diamond Dogs to the cheerful immersion in dirges and his tuneless vampire drone -- but it feels as if his usual murky menace has lifted, with the music sounding clearer, less affected, and obtuse, while still retaining much of its gothic romanticism and churning heaviness. If anything, Eat Me is a bit too transparent, as its clean arena rock production -- all pumped up on steroids, devoid of much grit -- makes the album sound safe, a bit too close to Manson cabaret for comfort, especially when hes penning songs whose very titles feel like unwitting self-parodies ("If I Was Your Vampire," "You and Me and the Devil Makes 3," "They Said That Hells Not Hot"), or when he lazily spews out profanity as the chorus to "Mutilation Is the Sincerest Form of Flattery." These are the moments where Manson seems like the eternal teenager, unwilling and unable to grow up, and they provide a bitter ironic counterpoint to the rest of the record, where he is striving for an emotional honesty hes never attempted before. Put these two halves together, and Eat Me, Drink Me becomes an intriguing muddle, an interesting portrait of Manson at the cusp of middle-age melancholy even if as sheer music its the least visceral or compelling hes ever been. | ||
 | Album: 9 of 12 Title: The High End of Low Released: 2009-05-19 Tracks: 15 Duration: 1:12:04 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Devour (03:46) 2 Pretty as a Swastika (02:45) 3 Leave a Scar (03:55) 4 Four Rusted Horses (05:00) 5 Arma-goddamn-motherfuckin-geddon (03:39) 6 Blank and White (04:27) 7 Running to the Edge of the World (06:26) 8 I Want to Kill You Like They Do in the Movies (09:02) 9 WOW (04:55) 10 Wight Spider (05:33) 11 Unkillable Monster (03:44) 12 We’re From America (05:04) 13 I Have to Look Up Just to See Hell (04:12) 14 Into the Fire (05:15) 15 15 (04:21) |
| The High End of Low : Allmusic album Review : Remember when everybody was afraid of Marilyn Manson and Eminem? Then it turned out Detroits white king of rap was a celebrity-obsessed one-liner machine with a pathetic array of mommy issues, and Floridas homegrown Satan went through a bad breakup and released 2007s weepy (relatively speaking) Eat Me, Drink Me. Now, on The High End of Low, Manson is trying to regain his dark throne once more, and frankly, its unlikely to work. The track titles read like Manson-by-numbers: "Pretty as a Swastika," "Arma-godd**n-motherf**kin-geddon," "I Want to Kill You Like They Do in the Movies," "I Have to Look Up Just to See Hell," and perhaps the most unwittingly revelatory, "Were from America." This album marks the return of former bassist Twiggy Ramirez to the band, but as ever the Manson personality/persona towers over everything else, and his two or three musical ideas are repeated throughout the disc, with only a few exceptions. It doesnt help that hes never even tried to become a technically proficient vocalist; his desultory croon and hoarse shriek are the same as theyve been since the early 90s. There are a few catchy riffs here, and a nice tone on "Blank and White," but lyrics like "If you touch me Ill be smeared/Youll be stained for the rest of your life" (from "Leave a Scar") and "Everyone will come to my funeral to make sure that I stay dead" (from "Four Rusted Horses") feel like hes trying to convince himself as much as the audience. The albums middle stretch is a hard slog, with the six-and-a-half minute "Running to the Edge of the World" followed by the nine-minute "I Want to Kill You..." The former is a Bowie-esque ballad/epic (acoustic guitar, strings) that could have been great if it had only been two minutes shorter, while the latter is a one-riff trudge that never builds up any momentum. The aggressive "Were from America" has bursts of lyrical wit, but when your opening line, "Were from America where we eat our young," is cribbed from Funkadelic circa 1972, youre pretty much advertising that youre out of ideas. | ||
 | Album: 10 of 12 Title: Born Villain Released: 2012-04-24 Tracks: 15 Duration: 1:06:49 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Hey, Cruel World… (03:44) 2 No Reflection (04:36) 3 Pistol Whipped (04:10) 4 Overneath the Path of Misery (05:18) 5 Slo-Mo-Tion (04:24) 6 The Gardener (04:39) 7 The Flowers of Evil (05:19) 8 Children of Cain (05:17) 9 Disengaged (03:25) 10 Lay Down Your Goddamn Arms (04:13) 11 Murderers Are Getting Prettier Every Day (04:18) 12 Born Villain (05:26) 13 Breaking the Same Old Ground (04:27) 14 You’re So Vain (04:02) 15 No Reflection (radio edit) (03:30) |
| Born Villain : Allmusic album Review : With their eighth studio album, Born Villain, Marilyn Manson return from the depths of their mid-2000s limbo with almost an hour of the type of evil industrial and glam-infused metal they made their name on in their earliest days. While the bands blazingly controversial public profile died down tremendously since their late-90s heyday, legions of devoted fans followed them through the next decades bevy of changes. The departure of founding member Twiggy Ramirez coincided with a few of the bands weakest albums, and even his return to the fold on 2009s The High End of Low couldnt redeem a substandard record from what seemed like a flailing band past its prime. Born Villain sheds some of the more introspective leanings of prior offerings and accentuates all the throbbing rhythms, metallic guitars, and bilious disgust that defined the bands best work. Lead single "No Reflection" screams "comeback," with Manson channeling a Sisters of Mercy vocal over the sinister pulse of the verses before huge choruses explode in darkly catchy bursts. "Children of Cain" draws again on the later-period Bowie influence that defined much of the bands glammy Mechanical Animals album, and an unlisted cover of Carly Simons "Youre So Vain" turns the FM staple into a gruesomely churning romp. Moments like these are the aural equivalent of a knowing smirk from the band, acknowledging that even the princes of darkness might have a lighter side. "Lay Down Your Goddamn Arms" finds the band working in a curiously grunge-tinged mode, with sludgy riffs meeting huge distortedly melodic choruses that would fit in nicely with Badmotorfinger-era Soundgarden. All of these songs find Manson himself in typically depraved form, with lyrical content as sexually, morally, and socially devious as its been since 2000s devilish Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death). "Pistol Whipped" tells a tale in great detail of a sadomasochistic relationship and song titles like "Murderers Are Getting Prettier Every Day" speak for themselves. Even while Born Villain is a return to form for the band, the album becomes tedious at right about the halfway mark. The songs are overly long and all rely on similar dynamics to propel their crunchy angst. Though sounding inspired and sonically rejuvenated in its best moments, as the album wears on one gets the sense of a band trying a little too hard to revisit its former glory. Without remaking "The Beautiful People," theres still a feeling that theyre reaching to remember how to make a Marilyn Manson record and put the purgatory of their past few efforts behind them. All told, Born Villain is as valiant and exciting an effort as the group has come up with in years. While not reaching the dizzying heights of Marilyn Mansons early material, it suggests a band getting its legs back after a long period out to sea, and could lead the way to even brighter future wickedness. | ||
 | Album: 11 of 12 Title: The Pale Emperor Released: 2015-01-16 Tracks: 13 Duration: 1:05:31 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Killing Strangers (05:36) 2 Deep Six (05:02) 3 Third Day of a Seven Day Binge (04:26) 4 The Mephistopheles of Los Angeles (04:57) 5 Warship My Wreck (05:57) 6 Slave Only Dreams to Be King (05:20) 7 The Devil Beneath My Feet (04:16) 8 Birds of Hell Awaiting (05:05) 9 Cupid Carries a Gun (04:59) 10 Odds of Even (06:22) 11 Day 3 (04:13) 12 Fated, Faithful, Fatal (04:43) 13 Fall of the House of Death (04:30) |
| The Pale Emperor : Allmusic album Review : In 2012, icons of evil Marilyn Manson issued their eighth album, Born Villain, a surprisingly strong record that redeemed some of the weaker work that theyd been churning out since they reached their zenith of popularity and artistry in the late 90s. The album got closer to the intensity and showmanship of their most over the top days without simply sounding like a band trying to relive faded glories. With follow-up The Pale Emperor, Manson and his band continue to ride that comeback hot streak, this time working in a decidedly more blues-influenced vein, combining a trademark penchant for lyrical darkness with the most unholy type of biker rock for ten songs that swagger and simmer in unexpected ways. The album kicks off with "Killing Strangers," a slow-burning trudge of stomping percussion and sleazy guitar licks, coming off like a far more sedated if somewhat grizzled counterpart to the bands 1996 hit "The Beautiful People." Theres still some of the industrial metal backbone that the band developed throughout its career, but even heavier rockers like "Deep Six" and "Warship My Wreck" roll around in dusty tumbleweeds of blues licks, intense percussion, and depraved synthesizers. Many songs for the album were captured in a single take, giving even more cinematic blues ramblers like "Third Day of a Seven Day Binge" and "Cupid Carries a Gun" a heightened sense of abandon and danger. Production is loose and humid throughout, and above all Manson and company sound like theyre stepping away completely from the caricature of themselves that started looming on the bands weakest mid-2000s material. Taking their sound in a new, unforeseen bluesy direction accomplishes the near impossible by making Marilyn Manson sound even more sinister than before. | ||
 | Album: 12 of 12 Title: Heaven Upside Down Released: 2017-10-06 Tracks: 10 Duration: 47:28 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Revelation #12 (04:42) 2 Tattooed in Reverse (04:24) 3 WE KNOW WHERE YOU FUCKING LIVE (04:32) 4 SAY10 (04:18) 5 KILL4ME (03:59) 6 Saturnalia (07:58) 7 JE$U$ CRI$I$ (03:59) 8 Blood Honey (04:10) 9 Heaven Upside Down (04:49) 10 Threats of Romance (04:37) |
| Heaven Upside Down : Allmusic album Review : After a late-career rejuvenation with 2015s The Pale Emperor, Marilyn Manson extended his creative hot streak with musical partner Tyler Bates on the bands tenth offering, Heaven Upside Down. Originally saddled with the punny title Say10, the album bares sharper teeth and bloodier knuckles than its predecessor, combining Pale Emperors bluesy, vampire-roadhouse sleaze with the jagged industrial edges that first propelled Manson to notoriety in the 90s. Cocaine and heartbreak continue to fuel the reclusive ghoul, recalling the best of 2007s forlorn Eat Me, Drink Me, a record that gave listeners the first peek at Manson the man. That change in the perception of the artist -- who went from Americas Most Wanted to a fallible Hollywood Hills fixture in just a decade -- is part of what makes these late-era efforts so accessible and enjoyable. He can still menace and push the boundaries of taste, but with so many real-world monsters to worry about, Mansons brand of offensive troublemaking and reckless hedonism remains unique and oddly comforting. The album kicks off with the hulking "Revelation #12" -- stabbing like "Irresponsible Hate Anthem" twisted through Portraits organ grinder -- which forces listeners to choose a side at the end of the world. The explosive "We Know Where You Fucking Live" is the most overtly political statement on an album that could have actually benefited from more of the firebrands outspoken wit, but it pulverizes nonetheless. The pulsing "Kill4Me" flaunts its Bowie flair, while "Say10" takes its time with destruction, a slow burner that builds to a crushing chorus that would have fit perfectly on Holy Wood. Album centerpiece "Saturnalia" is an eight-minute epic that rides an elastic bass throb -- courtesy of patient and forgiving sidekick Twiggy Ramirez -- through a swamp of Manson-isms like "just smile like a rifle" and the appropriate-in-1999 warning of "I was invited to eat the young." "Je$u$ Cri$i$" continues to ride Twiggys bass groove as Manson fully embraces his persona with the tasteless but catchy "I write songs to fight and to fuck to/If you wanna fight, then Ill fight you/If you wanna fuck, I will fuck you." The album closes on a trio of introspection, the spiritual siblings to peak-era favorite "Coma White." Of these, "Blood Honey" is a grand moment that finds Manson taking a vulnerable look at his life, lamenting "Im not being mean, Im just being me," offering an intense peek at his emotional turmoil and damaging addictions. "Heaven Upside Down" is the de facto close to the album, with "Threats of Romance" the so-called final credits music where Manson reveals "I like you damaged/But I need something left...for me to wreck." For all his pain and suffering, he needs it to feel real in the end. Heaven Upside Down is Manson at his most human. If Pale Emperor was a welcome return to form that signaled a new day for the band, its successor is just as satisfying, if not better. | ||