Anyone else curious about this? I thought "The Pale Emperor" was his best album since "Holy Wood" but obviously this new album will sound very different, of course.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven_Upside_Down

Born Villain wasn't that bad either. I don't think I've heard Holy Wood. Still, I'll give this new one a shot.

You should, it's unquestionably one of his better albums, if not the best.

New single:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmblT8_9-7U

Awesome stuff, sounds a lot like NIN but also like previous MM albums.

Really couldn't get into the new single. Too artsy, even by my standards. Music and vocals don't really fit together, the track lacks fluidity and sounds coldly overproduced and the lyrics are tiresome. It might have been cool to use swearwords fifteen years ago but today Manson rather sounds like a eighteen-year old stuck in the body of a forty-eight year old. The last album I appreciated was Born Villain but his last really great output was Eat Me, Drink Me. Feels like his career is pretty much done.

There's a thing I've noticed: musicians eventually become what they used to mock.

I'm not a huge fan of any MM album, but the early ones were interesting. They had a Holden Caulfield quality, a bullied kid making fun of all the pretension he saw around him.

In his biography, he describes how as a child he had a really strict Baptist teacher. One day he took a peek inside the drawer of her desk, and it was full of salacious bodice-ripper romances. That's Marilyn Manson in a nutshell: anthems to fact that America is all fake and nobody actually lives up to their pretensions.

But now, Manson has BECOME pretension. Dating Hollywood starlets. Trying to become a director. Art galleries. Limited edition absinthe lines. Featuring Johnny Depp on his albums. The guy badly wants to be remembered as an edgy counterculture figure like Hunter S Thompson, at the expense of his authenticity. He's become something as manufactured and artificial as any pop star.

You could compare him to Howard Stern: the guy who used to mock vapid shitty talk shows, but for all that, would just LOVE to be the next Jay Leno.

Some of his newer music is OK. I still can't shake the feeling that 18 year old Brian Warner would look at 48 year old Brian Warner and try to fistfight him.

~

Hmm, I guess I beg to differ. First of all, he started dating Hollywood starlets in 1997. He became interested in directing films in 2000, and he has been directing his own videos for many years now. He opened an art gallery because he has always painted in his free time and everybody was encouraging him to do so. He launched Mansinthe because of how absinthe was important to him creatively. And what's wrong about having Johnny Depp on his albums? They became friends even before Manson had formed the band, and JD has always been a musician even before he became a famous actor. As for your opinion that "He's become something as manufactured and artificial as any pop star", I think his artistic work over the years proves otherwise.

I'll definitely be checking it out. Been a fan since around Holy Wood and, like the OP, I feel The Pale Emperor was his strongest since that album (although Eat Me, Drink Me runs it quite close). The new song is quite good from what I can recall, although I'm not going to be giving it too much attention for now to keep it fresh for when the album is released.

Finally putting out that death metal album we were all promised?

I assume you're referring to "Born Villain". The funny thing is, before releasing the album, first they said that it was going to be death metal, then EBM, then glam, then punk. And then we ended up with just a generic industrial rock album...

Nah you're thinking of Nitro.

Funny you say this, as Marilyn Manson was just interviewed by Howard Stern today. Michael Rapaport called in to diss Manson after he had some not so nice things to say about Justin Bieber.

And honestly I don't think Howard would love to be the next Jay Leno. He hates that dude.

Marilyn Manson has evolved as an artist. It would be pretty absurd to still have him in the same frame of mind he was in when making "Antichrist Superstar". That stuff was good because it fit the times. "Mechanical Animals" and "Holy Wood" didn't try to emulate his earlier material. There was a progression...that's what makes the truly great artists interesting. The drive to scale new heights and challenge yourself. If some of the stuff he's making now sounds more stylistically conventional than his past works or more artsy than immediate, it is all part of the progression and I'd rather hear that than half-assed regurgitations.

I was very impressed by Pale Emperor. I always thought Marilyn Manson had been stale for years and years. probably since Holy Wood. But that album totally surprised me. It felt fresh! I have only given the new one one spin but so far I feel its back to the old boring Marilyn Manson. The refreshing feeling from Pale Emperor is gone. It is also sad when one track so clearly takes inspiration from a track off his former album (Day 6) which itself was heavily leaning on "Live in Fear" by Mark Crozer. I liked Day 6 but borrowing from your own song that itself borrows from another songs seems to me to be a lack of creativity.

Amen!

I really liked The Pale Emperor, which is the first time I would say that since Holy Wood. Born Villain had a couple of decent tracks too. I really like the songs that have been released for this album thus far though. I think the evolution of Manson has sometimes been forced, but I like what I'm hearing these days. Will be checking this out for sure!

I didn't know he was still going. It seems like the last time I listened to MM was about 10 years ago literally. Might have to check him out for old times sake.

I love the new album. Has some elements from his classic albums (Portrait-Holy Wood) and some Pale Emperor-esque stuff as well. I've been a fan since Antichrist Superstar, which is one of the best albums of all time, but I had given up on him after Golden Age. That was until Born Villain blew me away. That was his true return to form.

I just saw him live on Sept. 28th and he still puts on a great show. His voice is also sounding better than it has in a very long time.

I mostly agree with what MawBTS said.

I loved him in the mid-90s, last album I bought when it was released was Mechanical Animals, and even then I thought he was going downhill. I've bought some of his other stuff recently just to see what it was like. Might give this one a try, sometimes things surprise you.

Incidentally, Manson's cover of Gary Numan's "down in the park" (from the CD single for "lunchbox") is what got me into Gary Numan in the 90s, and he released a lot of garbage post-2000 also and I liked his new album. I try to keep some faith that other musicians will surprise me and I'll like their new stuff, also.

The new album I’m actually really digging. Man is that Saturnalia track a rip of Bauhaus’s Bela Legosi’s Dead. Still really like it though.

Spinning it for the first time and it's even better than "The Pale Emperor", and easily the best one since "Holy Wood". The artwork is excellent too, and Manson's voice sounds better than ever. To me it's the non-metal AOTY. And I love the fact that it's his shortest album ever, as several of his previous albums had too many songs, IMHO.

marilyn manson is the best band to ever grace my eardrums.