Marilyn Manson

The Golden Age Of Grotesque

Wagon dissapearing in the distance...(thankfully)...

Review Score:

(2/10)
The other day, while surfing through music sites on the net i saw Marilyn Manson's name twice (on different sites) being mentioned as "Marilyn Mainstream". Now, there's some food for thought.
This album did -of course- ride the charts as had previous horror "Holywood". Mission then accomplished.
Manson has been constantly undermining whatever it was that he stood for (and there could be a whole catalogue of opinions about this). The momentum, but above all, the excitement generated by albums like "Antichrist Superstar" or "Mechanical animals" or even, before these, the more indepedent releases (Portrait of an american family) has withered to a long forgotten but sweet memory.

I hear (and read) that Manson wishes to relive an era of pre-WWII-Berlin with this album. Ok. There's nothing wrong of course with installing some healthy retro touches into your music. Not if there's any substance to it. But is there any here?
With song titles (and lyrics) that resemble something like "Kabooma-booma" or "Bazza-buzzo-bozzo-mojomuffin" any discussions about substance are far stretched. And the music? All done before but better (even by Manson himself) with the added element that not one of the here offered songs approaching the "memorable level". I apologise for being mild by the way.

Another thing that impressed me is that Manson has reduced himself to a kinda Eminem-metal guy thumping his chest and screaming how's he's gonna write a rock n roll hit and what he's gonna do with all the dough he's gonna pull in from it. Hmm. That's all very nice and interesting but why should we all care?
Fact is, increasingly more people are refusing to care about Manson's wishes. That might not hindern Manson from riding the charts, but then again, C.Aguilera is riding the charts too and so are dozens of boy groups and other oddities as well. Manson is beginning to be in good company. Because if horror is his mission i couldnt imagine a bigger horror than glancing at the charts at any given day.

Having uttered what i just did, i think that the Alice Cooper sequel for this era has reached its sad end. For those a little older in age, it must be mentioned that Cooper's artistic end wasn't pretty. You noticing any similarities?
Overall, this is an album-monument to nothingness. Musically, lyrically and image-wise. Being that it has -naturally- quite some success financially as it fits perfectly with its times. But this is exactly the juxtaposition, the contradiction here. Manson built his name by trying to oppose his times.

May the next Alice-Cooper-Manson take the stage please. Oh, but wait till the elephants and the clowns have left first.

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