Marilyn Manson

Antichrist Superstar

enter the all-American Antichrist

Review Score:

(10/10)
In my opinion, one of the ballsiest, important and most conceptually brilliant albums I have heard. Marilyn Manson started out as a shock, vaudevillian Florida band, but with this album brought great maturity and the surprise of the American audience. It is said that in order to get people's attention, one must do it with a scream, and that's what this album did targeting closed-minded right-wing Christian America as the enemy. In doing this, Manson used a biblical-like storyline, gothic-style art, and good old-fashioned rock and roll (turned up a notch).
The journey into this Christian nightmare begins with the thundering IRRESPONSIBLE HATE ANTHEM, painting the picture of the world the listener is getting into before the actual start of the story. It is February 14, 1997, Valentine's Day, as the crowd is ironically shouting the new anthem "we hate love, we love hate" showing that the people are now idolizing the new supreme and ultimate rock star, but in order to find out how he came to power we must start at the beginning...
THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE paints a picture of the world the solemn character of "the worm" is born into. A place where it's "all anatomic as the size of your steeple." If you are not one of "the beautiful people," you might as well just get out.
DRIED UP, TIED AND DEAD TO THE WORLD then shows as The Worm is growing being used by others and to ultimately be "all dried up and dead to the world."
The song TOURNIQUET then in a way illustrates The Worm's love life as in his dreams he dreams of creating the perfect woman. But in the end, he'll just end up being her "tourniquet" just like with any other woman.
The Worm grows and the thunder returns in LITTLE HORN as the forsight of destruction is drawing nearer as The Worm urges everyone to "save themselves" from what he is becoming, but he knows in his mind that it is too late to be saved.
CRYPTORCHID is the beginning of The Worm's long transformation as he sees that despite his weaknesses, he will be growing stronger.
DEFORMOGRAPHY is then the real start of his growth as his rise to become a rock star begins and he starts to realize the love and hate that comes with the business, being conceived as a "dirty rock star" and the control he has over people.
WORMBOY sees The Worm again changing, but is it happening now or being forseen? "Oh no, I am all the things they said I was..." he is just starting to realize what he is becoming.
With MISTER SUPERSTAR, it strongly outlines the whole rock-star life and what he can do with people as THE ultimate rock star. People are now willing to kill themselves for him, he is not only a superstar, he is a leader.
ANGEL WITH THE SCABBED WINGS is a much too late rocking wake-up call that this "superstar" is no longer human and that the followers are doomed, that they must turn back now... but it is too late.
KINDERFELD goes backwards a bit and gives some new light on The Worm and what he has been through and why he is now ready to make his grand entrance as the Antichrist Superstar.
ANTICHRIST SUPERSTAR is then, of course, his coming and him telling the people flat-out that they are the ones doing this to themselves that it wasn't himself that made him become this monster.
1996, an election year, comes pounding into the eardrum illustrating the empowering antics of the new leader. "This is where you faith ends!" he howls as the others scream along with him, doing his bidding. This is the highest point of his power.
Things begin to slow down and turn the other cheek in THE MINUTE OF DECAY in the aftermath of all the carnage. Nothing is left and he might as well go down to, but not unless he can take anyone remaining with him.
The final storm hits with THE REFLECTING GOD chronicling his escape and his revelation that the only God that ever was was him himself. He shall give himself or anyone left "no salvation, no forgiveness"
The epilogue MAN THAT YOU FEAR then settles it all down to a bittersweet ballad in the message that it can happen again. In the end, the boy that you love could always be the "man that you fear." Don't make the same mistakes.
The emotional rollercoaster comes to an end with 5 minutes, and 80 tracks of silence followed by TRACK 99, an electronic reminding, or is it plea from the Antichrist. Is he really gone?
This album i believe did much more than try to sell records, it did, in Manson's artistic and fascinated mind, try and make an apocolyptic rock and roll story to try and show us the wrongs and rights of our modern-day society. However you decide to interpret is up to you, but to just at least listen to this album and actually think about what you're hearing.

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