Of all the controversies Marilyn Manson has been in the center of, the only one I’ve ever dignified with a serious discussion is his occasionally contested abilities as a musician.
Many believe he peaked out with Antichrist Superstar, and hasn’t done anything worthwhile since. And with a larger than life, schtick-heavy artist like Manson, there’s a great risk of eventually arriving at the land self-parody.
For example, while I think 90s contemporaries Rage Against The Machine quit right before they wore it out, Green Day’s newest, in my opinion (not to discredit Johnny’s), is one American Idiot too many. And so a new Marilyn Manson album might be one too many, if all it was was a dozen more songs about Satan, blood, sex, drugs and violence.
I love Mechanical Animals, and I think Holy Wood & The Golden Age Of Grotesque were extremely underrated. 2007’s Eat Me, Drink Me is Britney Bernstein’s favorite of all, for a very valid reason; It’s a bravely raw, personal, album- it was Manson at his most vulnerable and honest, by far. While I recognize and appreciate that, the music was not on par with the lyrics and vocals. I found it to be a low point in that sense.
With Twiggy Ramirez returning to the fold for High End Of Low, and a single called Arma-Goddamn-Motherfuckin-Geddon, my hopes were high for a return to form. The only question was if songs like I Have To Look Up Just To See Hell would bring musical achievement to match the song-naming achievement, or if the clichés would be left standing naked in the cold. It’s a fine line to walk. And the first track to be released, We’re From America, didn’t excite me.
The album opens with Devour, which I expected to be nothing more than a prologue, given Manson’s affinity for setting the scene with spooky noises and the like. It starts with an understated guitar hitting some high notes, very reminiscent of A Perfect Circle’s Thirteenth Step album, not to make any accusations. Lyrically, Manson throws right down the center: I’ll swallow up all of you like / a big bottle of big big pills… You’re not crying / this is blood all over me… Then the lead drops out to footnote the chorus, where Manson howls, And I’ll love you / if you let me / And I’ll love you / if you won’t / make me stop… It’s almost as if he’s teasing you, picking up right where the last album left off- and maybe he is. Or perhaps he’s just threatening to do it all over again, for anyone out there that might assume he has any regrets. But then the song explodes, screaming, over and over, The pain is not ashamed to repeat itself / I can’t sleep until I devour you!
So that’s how the stage is set, and then comes the onslaught we’ve all be hoping for. Pretty As A Swastika obviously has a fair share of shocking, oh-so-Marilyn-Manson imagery at the core, introducing a play on symbols where the US dollar sign stands-in for the swastika, which we’ll see more of in a bit. But the rock song written around it is dynamic and hooky. It’s not one of the most outstanding tracks on the album, but it confirms that there’s a bite to go with the bark.
Leave A Scar follows, which had previously leaked with the title May Be Harmful If Swallowed. It’s centered around another bold Manson-ism; Whatever doesn’t kill you / is gonna leave a scar. But it’s a mature composition, as the beat drills the song through alternating electric and acoustic verses, aerodynamic pre-choruses, and screaming choruses. This one is an outstanding track, as is the follow-up, Four Rusted Horses, with a swaggering, bluesy acoustic guitar riff that warrants a crossroads analogy I can’t quite come up with.
With a name like Arma-Goddamn-Motherfuckin-Geddon, you expect Marilyn Manson to pull out all the stops. And he does, calling for nothing less than the end of humanity, while more subtly calling back to Golden Age Of Grotesque with a swinging vaudevillian rhythm. For the hell of it, we did something we normally don’t do, and checked out the “clean” version of the song. It sounded like a bad drive-thru speaker, or a 50 Cent song on the radio- every other word missing. Here’s the “dirty” version:
Blank And White is another pleasant surprise. It starts off basically straightforward, with Manson in typical form, threatening to choke the world, over a bassline that builds to a battle song of sorts. But the chorus brings an interesting new sound; with subtle piano highlighting the power chords, the band nods towards the Rolling Stones.
I Want To Kill You Like They Do In The Movies has a similar structure, but with a brooding goth-rock tone. Unfortunately, it drags on a bit too long, and together with the indescribably bad head-scratcher WOW, comprises, well, the lowest point of The High End Of Low.
Fortunately, the aforementioned I Have To Look Up Just To See Hell is indeed worth such an audacious name, as I had hoped. It’s a essentially a power dirge, but the vocal rhythm is constructed for a pop song, keeping you on board through sparsely placed hooks that lead into a chorus that defies the odds by not coming off as overly contrived.
Running To The Edge Of The World, Unkillable Monster and Into The Fire provide the album’s ballad relief, all mostly acoustic, with Manson waxing poetic over drawn out passages and solos. Into The Fire is the superior of the bunch, but none wear out their welcome in between the ragers.
The bottom line is that whatever you may have to say about Marilyn Manson as a person, as a demon, as a cultural icon, relevant or not, he’s a true artist, that continues to produce good albums. He shows no signs of abandoning the image & schtick that has always been central to his artistic expression, and in fact this newest album may feature more Manson-isms and controversial sound bites than any other. At the very least, they’re far less hidden than the usual. And many actually seemed to be designed to be dramatically, soberly repeated on television by a concerned parents’ advocacy group.
But contrary to what the naysayers and shit-talkers may have to say about Manson’s modus operandi, you can’t build a career on astonishing sound bites alone. If that’s all there was to the guy, we’d all just have a chuckle and leave it at that. You know, like we do when Ted Nugent speaks.
The High End Of Low may not be quite the masterpiece that Antichrist Superstar was, especially given the latter’s perfect timing. But it’s an accomplishment, effectively signing a new lease on Marilyn Manson’s artistic relevancy.
The High End Of Low
May 26th, 2009
Interscope
01. Devour
02. Pretty As A Swastika
03. Leave A Scar
04. Four Rusted Horses
05. Arma-Goddamn-Motherfuckin-Geddon
06. Blank And White
07. Running To The Edge Of The World
08. I Want To Kill You Like They Do In The Movies
09. WOW
10. Wight Spider
11. Unkillable Monster
12. We’re From America
13. I Have To Look Up Just To See Hell
14. Into The Fire
15. 15
UPDATE: The album now be streamed in its entirety on MySpace. Check it out.
Thanks to Base Tendencies for the tip.
About Skwerl
Kevin "Skwerl" Cogill was taught his first computer programming language by his Mother's marijuana dealer at age ten. His first job involved hustling TicketMaster lines on behalf of a New Jersey concert ticket broker at age fourteen, followed by a job in graphic design shortly after graduating high school and trade school simultaneously in 1998. He built his first website in 1996 or so, and continues to do things the way they should be done, rather than the way everyone else does. He's a bit of an asshole, but he's fiercely loyal to fellow fans of good music.
Born and raised in Philadelphia, Skwerl now resides in Los Angeles.
May 22nd, 2009 at 1:38 PM
Skwerl: i need a fucking non cheesy title for this marilyn manson review
Skwerl: it’s basically like… you know, he totally risks self parody with each new shock-heavy album, but sometimes the music is good so he gets away with it
Skwerl: or else it’d just be embarrasing like the last one, crying about vampires and shit over drum kit beats cause his band and way too hot girlfriend left him
Jeremy Azevedo: hmm
Jeremy Azevedo: how to make that into one succint sentence
Jeremy Azevedo: Marilyn Manson, the artist most likely to self-destruct in a bloody haze of self-parody, somehow manages to not do so yet again…
Jeremy Azevedo: too longish?
Skwerl: haha
Skwerl: yes but it helps
Jeremy Azevedo: Marilyn Manson, again defies expectation by not sucking his own dick on record for 90 minute straight
Skwerl: haha
Skwerl: y’know if i had my way every title on antiquiet would read like that
Skwerl: hmm i’d dig a short version of that but i’ve played out the word expectation
Jeremy Azevedo: Marilyn Manson: When is he gonna put out a shit record and OD already so we can really start making fun of him?
Jeremy Azevedo: Marilyn Manson: As usual, only half as shitty as I thought it would be
Skwerl: hahaha now we’re getting away from anything helpful but the ideas are getting awesomer
Jeremy Azevedo: M&M, you’re not a vampire and it isn’t Halloweenie time so just give it a fucking rest and maybe we’ll start treating you as a serious artist that’s maybe just a bit eclectic, like Prince
Jeremy Azevedo: there it is
Skwerl: ok we’ll go with that
May 22nd, 2009 at 2:22 PM
How about, “Marilyn Manson: Getting away with it one more time.”
That song is kinda Portrait of an American Family-ish. I like it. Having Twiggy back is well worth the price of admission. Can’t wait to see Manson and Slayer battle it out this summer…..
May 22nd, 2009 at 7:38 PM
Skewrl I suggest you shop around for some taste in music. You’ve been giving praise to crap albums for most of the time. I don’t think any other artist (at the moment) is more irrelevant than this man. I heard that “We’re From America” song, and it was quite possibly the worst song I’ve ever heard (hyperbolic, I know). It might have appealed to me when I was 10 years old, but really, it’s just a light, watered and pissed down version of what he already accomplished with Antichrist Superstar. Manson has nothing new or interesting to say. He’s just another Eminem.
May 22nd, 2009 at 7:47 PM
the last verse of blank and white is reason enough to buy this album.
May 22nd, 2009 at 8:06 PM
my taste serves me just well, bella, so i’ll be sticking with it. if you’re going to be making any more suggestions, i ask that you lick my balls while doing so. thanks for your patronage.
May 22nd, 2009 at 8:11 PM
No thanks.
May 22nd, 2009 at 10:04 PM
seriously. Johnny is propping up that completely indefensible new Green Day album and you wanna go after Skwerl? really?
May 22nd, 2009 at 10:32 PM
Both Johnny and Skwerl suck the cock when it comes to music. They review mainstream crap and this site sucks.
May 23rd, 2009 at 4:49 AM
/troll
May 23rd, 2009 at 7:09 AM
I’m thinking: Marilyn Manson makes another bad album. Read all about it!
But seriously, if I wanna listen to one guitar strumming tune after another, I won’t search under Marilyn Manson to find it. This isn’t even the same genre as Antichrist Superstar, and that was the genre that MM did well.
May 23rd, 2009 at 12:18 PM
f’ally’all.
May 23rd, 2009 at 4:51 PM
1. you’re not even kinda southern, ya’ll belongs to us and only us…
2. fuck you too mister “we should appreciate vapid meaningless pop bullshit because it has a societal impact”
:-D
May 23rd, 2009 at 5:26 PM
1. tell that to the northeast, the nyc / philly jersey folks.
2. i’d never call for appreciation based on societal impact. i barely even pay attention to lyrics. i always only judge based on the quality of the music coming out of my speakers.
;)
May 23rd, 2009 at 5:40 PM
I second that shit with a hearty bout of guffaws. Keep whining – we’ll keep cutting the path for you. And I reckon you can lay claim to all the hillbilly talk you like, just as long as y’all come back now, y’hear?
May 24th, 2009 at 1:51 PM
Fuck it, you’re here reading this “shit”. So, who cares? you’re here anyway. Talk all the shit you want, that will leave a trace that will make you crawl back here and read some other update, just for the “i-don’t-like-this,-i’ll-write-shit-about-it” cycle of a whiny bitch behaviour.
So, fuck it. Really.
Kisses & Hugs ;-)
May 24th, 2009 at 2:09 PM
That’s the spirit!
May 24th, 2009 at 6:23 PM
just listened to the first 4 tracks off this, seems solid so far
May 26th, 2009 at 10:34 PM
Geez..people still listening to Marilyn Manson? Cute..
May 27th, 2009 at 3:31 PM
just listened to ‘Into the Fire…’ he’s covering Oasis now!! LOL. I hope they dont true and sue. I can imagine all the goth kids holding each others hands at the concerts to this track, and especially ‘Running To The Edge Of The World’ weeping with happiness! haha. most of this is nothing like any of the previous albums at all. the best track is easily Armagoddamnmotherf*****ggeddon, simple shouty nu-goth! haha
May 30th, 2009 at 12:09 PM
Hey SKWERL, I think most interesting/talented people are bits of assholes. Some of them are whole ones… It comes with the territory, I imagine. But you’ll never see an asshole stay in character while they’re playing with their cat. Cats are awesome, therefore they are every asshole’s undoing.
*watches this post becoming ranked high on Google for the number of times the word “asshole” is uttered
-Pram
fellow asshole
…and creative fuckstick
myspace.com/prammaven
June 7th, 2009 at 9:34 AM
trent on manson in the new mojo
———————
Marilyn Manson got a nice character uppercut by Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor just recently. Reznor has spoken out against his former protégé Marilyn Manson, calling him “a dopey clown” in a new interview with Mojo. Reznor: “He is a malicious guy and will step on anybody’s face to succeed and cross any line of decency. Seeing him now, drugs and alcohol now rule his life and he’s become a dopey clown.”
The love between both musicians began to deteriorate during NIN’s “The Downward Spiral” tour in 1994 says Trent: “During the Spiral tour we propped them up to get our audience turned on to them and at that time a lot of the people in my circle were pretty far down the road as alcoholics. Not Manson. His drive for success and self-preservation was so high, he pretended to be fucked up a lot when he wasn’t.” And he adds: “Things got shitty between us and I’m not blameless. The majority of it though was coming from a resentment guy who finally got out from under the master’s umbrella and was able to stab him in the back.”
And the Nine Inch Nails frontman concludes: “He used to be the smartest guy in the room. And as a fan of his talents, I hope he gets his shit together”.
“The High End of Low” is the seventh studio album by Marilyn Manson. It was recorded in the Hollywood Hills throughout 2008. Sean Beavan, who mixed “Antichrist Superstar”, “Mechanical Animals”, and “Eat Me, Drink Me”, is co-producer of the album. The album was released on May 26th, 2009. The album’s first radio single “Arma-goddamn-motherfuckin-geddon” was released on May 14, 2009.
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:12 PM
so true- i think he needs to waken up and try alot harder. ‘eat me drink me’ is actually far better than alot of this, and mechanical animals and holywood are some of the most intelligent musical works of the last decade. he seems to have just lost it. ok, so its not awful, and even on this album hes still quite clever-the oasis parody ‘into the fire’ does work for example, and most of this should sound great turned up to the max and live, but if you just dont ‘get’ the humor, it could well be the worst thing youve ever heard. lol. more quality control, brian, if you really plan on being around for another ten years! it might not hurt to even stay off the drugs and (possibly the core of the problem) stop using people and being so selfish ;) he got a 1/5 review for this album in Kerrang, a uk magazine which normally drools over him, so hopefully this will be a kick in the chops to stop being lazy and make a decent album. what happened to the ‘mechanical animals’ manson from 1998, where almost every track could easily have been a single? quality control please, next time!
August 6th, 2009 at 5:33 PM
the worst “music” (if it even deserves to be called that) he has ever produced. it’s annoying, boring and irrelevant. when he’s not trying (unsuccessfully) to be controversial he’s just putting you to sleep. i just can’t understand how people don’t realise that the whole album is one giant filler song. there’s just nothing memorable or imaginative. even the production sounds flat. i really can’t say enough bad things about it.
September 16th, 2009 at 7:31 PM
Devour is the only TRULY good song on this album.. Running to the edge of the world is also fairly good after a few listens, but the rest are lacking
October 11th, 2009 at 11:25 PM
Every album except Holywood has been horrible since Antichrist Superstar. Before that (and holywood) the guy was gearing to be a legend but this could pass as an alternative/soft rock album compared to Portrait or Antichrist.
November 6th, 2009 at 12:18 AM
[...] grade of Manson’s music. And while this new single is not the strongest track by any means, his latest album outshines the shtick for the most part. With that said (and we don’t want to presume too much [...]
January 7th, 2010 at 12:20 PM
If I were to put MM album’s in order they’d go something like:
1_ Antichrist Superstar
2_ Mechanical Animals
3_ The High End of Low
4_ Portrait of an American Family
5_ Holy Wood
6_ The Golden Age of Grotesque
7_ Smells Like Children
Last_ Eat Me, Drink Me
I have not included the Last Tour on Earth as its a live album. And I havn’t included any other albums, as I don’t own any other MM albums.