So...Marilyn Manson's two latest records are actually damn great and i had no idea.

[Tiago Rodrigues]

First of all i'll start by saying i was a kid when this band started, back in the 90's. So i never really explored their discography until, believe it or not, 2009. (i was 21)
I had heard The Golden Age of Grotesque back in 2003 when it was released cause MTV (oh the good ol' days) played m'Obscene a lot and i enjoyed the song.
I didn't really enjoy the album and never cared for them again...until 2009 when they released The High End of Low.
I liked a few tracks but still...not my thing. Since I was also older by then and I realized it was time to give The Golden Age of Grotesque a 2nd chance. I did and enjoyed it more. (btw, i still think production-wise it aged really well by today's standards).
I also decided to explore their previous albums and honestly, i was kind of blown away by some of their work. To me, Holy Wood is still their best album.
But i kind of left their music behind.
Until the other day. I was watching John Wick for the first time in years, and Killing Strangers started and i realized i didn't know what this bad was up to for a while, and decided to check their latest 2 records: The Pale Emperor and Heaven Upside Down and honestly? I was kind of blown away.

These albums are pure Marilyn Manson, while sounding mature and meaningful. Specially The Pale Emperor, which is, to me, their best record since Holy Wood from 2000.

Am i alone in this?



Heaven Upside Down was also great, even if the mixing is kind of odd? Or is it his vocals? Something about this album's production was a step down comparing with the previous album, but it's still a great piece of work!



Let me also just add this as a bonus, cause even when i didn't care much about the music, i always thought the man behind it was actually really intelligent and way more than people usually care:

 

[Cipher Peon]

The Pale Emperor is alright. I liked Deep Six, but could leave the rest

 

[Capricorn]

The Pale Emperor is definitely his best album in a very long time, but I didn't really care that much about Heaven Upside Down. I guess it's still better than most of his output since Holy Wood, but that's not saying much...

I've always been partial to the Mechanical Animals era anyway.

 

[Deleted member 9241]

I liked his collaboration with Rob Zombie.

 

[Fallout-NL]

Am i alone in this?

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No, I enjoyed them too. It's a shame he doesn't give a crap anymore when it comes to live performances. Especially weird for me cause one the all time best live performances I ever saw was Manson during the Mechanical Animals tour in '98.

 

[Skiptastic]

No, I enjoyed them too. It's a shame he doesn't give a crap anymore when it comes to live performances. Especially weird for me cause one the all time best live performances I ever saw was Manson during the Mechanical Animals tour in '98.

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That's the goddamn truth. I saw him last year and it was the last show of his tour. I told my dad, "Either this is going to be a great show or it'll be terrible." It was the latter. So disappointing.

I've read that these last two albums are well received so that's cool. I think I listened through Pale Emporer while mowing my lawn once and thought it was okay.

My peak Marilyn Manson will always be Astonishing Panorama of the Endtimes. What a great song.

 

[Sweeney Swift]

Heaven Upside Down was phenomenal. Still need to listen to the other one

 

[Fallout-NL]

That's the goddamn truth. I saw him last year and it was the last show of his tour. I told my dad, "Either this is going to be a great show or it'll be terrible." It was the latter. So disappointing.

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Yeah, I hear ya. Good call though going in. It was more of a surprise for me.

My peak Marilyn Manson will always be Astonishing Panorama of the Endtimes. What a great song.

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For real, awesome pace.

 

[CurseVox]

I don't know about great, but they were decent. "Great" ended with Mechanical Animals IMO.

 

[atomsk]

No, I enjoyed them too. It's a shame he doesn't give a crap anymore when it comes to live performances. Especially weird for me cause one the all time best live performances I ever saw was Manson during the Mechanical Animals tour in '98.

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saw them live a bunch of times between 99-2001 and it was always a stellar show

then saw some in 2004 and it felt like the quality/energy was falling off, haven't seen one since.

still check out the albums when they drop though, the band was a HUGE part of my high school years.

 

[Extra Sauce]

Mechanical Animals is a great album.

Astonishing Panorama of the End Times is a great song.

The soundtrack to masterpiece Lost Highway is great.

I could take or leave the rest.

 

[Link the Hero]

I miss the old days when Marilyn Manson was still a real band. Or at least seemed to be a real band (I guess Brian Warner always had the last word), when Madonna Wayne Gacy, Ginger Fish and Twiggy Ramirez were still there.

But yeah, their two latest albums are quite good. The music was mainly composed by soundtrack componist Tyler Bates on these albums. But he's gone now and that's why Marilyn Manson's next record will definitely differ from Pale Emperor and Heaven Upside Down.

 

[CopperPuppy]

Mechanical Animals is a legitimately great rock record.

Outside of that, he has made a couple great standalone tracks here and there (as others have said, Astonishing Panorama of the End Times may be his best song). And outside of that, most of his catalog is derivative or corny.

 

[Deleted member 2109]

Yeah I really enjoy them.

 

[Deleted member 10612]

I so much hoped he would grow as a musician and develop into a Nick Cave on Drugs kind of guy, doing Tom Waits music...

Dont really care for any of his stuff since Holywood.

 

[Fallout-NL]

I don't know about great, but they were decent. "Great" ended with Mechanical Animals IMO.

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I think MA is better than great. I could even go so far as to call Mechanical Animals a master piece. There's not a weak track on the whole thing. The production is amazingly layered and it's pretty much the perfect combination of pop music, metal, glam rock, Bowie, a dash of Nine Inch Nails and industrial influences.

 

[Dirtyshubb]

Holywood was the album I first got into back in the day when it released, had quite the impact on me with its questioning of authority and religion (even as someone who never believed in God).

Of course got into his previous work and would say HW and MA are my favourites, AS is great too.

Probably dropped off after GAOG which I enjoyed but heard a few singles since and never got round to checking the albums out since he seemed to have lost it.

Might have to check some out, since this year has seen some great/amazing albums from Korn, Slipknot and Rammstein, it feels right to go back to some others I loved growing up.

 

[CurseVox]

I think MA is better than great. I could even go so far as to call Mechanical Animals a master piece. There's not a weak track on the whole thing. The production is amazingly layered and it's pretty much the perfect combination of pop music, metal, glam rock, Bowie, a dash of Nine Inch Nails and industrial influences.

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I agree with this actually. The album is phenomenal. I still listen to it to this day in fact. Unfortunately, that level of creative magic isn't easy to follow up. Everything after that, even the decent stuff just seems by the numbers in comparison.

 

[Pyramid Head]

I was a huge fan during the Portrait/Antichrist/Animals era but fell off after Hollywood. Haven't really listened to anything since.
He's pure shit live these days. At Waken Open Air the other year he screwed up the Beautiful People (somehow, it's the most basic song in the world) and lay down on stage for a while. Then also told the German Compere lady to ask the crowd to seem like they were more into it. I think you've kind of lost your audience by that point.

 

[LossAversion]

The Pale Emperor is fantastic and easily his best since Holy Wood. I was pretty disappointed with Heaven Upside Down though. It wasn't nearly as consistent as The Pale Emperor. It still has some great songs on it though.

Mechanical Animals will always be my favorite Manson record. The production is just incredible. I actually think that Eat Me, Drink Me is really underrated.

Mechanical Animals
Holy Wood

The Pale Emperor
Eat Me, Drink Me
Antichrist Superstar

Heaven Upside Down
Born Villain

High End Of Low
Golden Age Of Grotesque

 

[DJChuy]

I love both albums. I want to see him in concert, but you assume the risk of having a drugged up Manson on stage.

 

[astro]

I head Killing Strangers and thought it was awful... is that track indicative of the album?

 

[LossAversion]

I love both albums. I want to see him in concert, but you assume the risk of having a drugged up Manson on stage.

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I saw him back in 2015 and I lucked out. The shows before and after mine, he was a complete mess. But at our show, he sounded fantastic and I think it was because he was digging the crowd for whatever reason. Sometimes he feels like giving a shit... sometimes he feels like laying on the ground and throwing up. It's a complete gamble seeing him live these days, lol. Only time I've ever seen him live personally, so I'm glad it wasn't an off day. He even ended it with Coma White...

 

[Thriftweed]

I've been meaning to check these albums out for a while now so hearing positive feedback for them is encouraging.

Mechanical Animals is superb, only recently did I realise the significant influence from David Bowie on it.

 

[DJChuy]

I saw him back in 2015 and I lucked out. The shows before and after mine, he was a complete mess. But at our show, he sounded fantastic and I think it was because he was digging the crowd for whatever reason. Sometimes he feels like giving a shit... sometimes he feels like laying on the ground and throwing up. It's a complete gamble seeing him live these days, lol. Only time I've ever seen him live personally, so I'm glad it wasn't an off day. He even ended it with Coma White...

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Damn that's cool and lucky. Coma White is probably my favorite track from him.

 

[frenchmovietheme]

Holy wood aged terribly. Poaf, acss and MA are still great. Pale emporer was pretty ok

 

[CopperPuppy]

Damn that's cool and lucky. Coma White is probably my favorite track from him.

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I honestly think the only Manson track better than Coma White is arguably Great Big White World. Mechanical Animals is the closest thing he has to an enduring classic. Great, great record. Still feels current today.

This quote about Manson from a review about Mechanical Animals sums up the record really well:

He's said all along that dirty media dominance is the cleanest and closest thing to divinity in a world that crucified the god in itself and replaced it with blind faith.

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MA will forever be the absolute pinnacle of his career and of Marilyn Manson as a concept.

 

[Fallout-NL]

I agree with this actually. The album is phenomenal.

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Nice!

I still listen to it to this day in fact. Unfortunately, that level of creative magic isn't easy to follow up. Everything after that, even the decent stuff just seems by the numbers in comparison.

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No, I definitely don't hold it against him. Only one way to go after an album like that.

 

[staedtler]

Holy wood aged terribly. Poaf, acss and MA are still great. Pale emporer was pretty ok

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i agree, i take a run through his discography every year (been listening to him since POAF) and yah, Holy Wood is pretty meh but i wasn't a huge fan of that album when it came out. probably one of the best concerts i've ever been to is when he was doing a tour run for anti christ, l7 opened and man what a fucking show.

 

[chaostrophy]

Portrait of an American Family is his best album. Loved the industrial meets carnival sound. Still stands out and sounds unique.

 

[Rotkehle]

No, I enjoyed them too. It's a shame he doesn't give a crap anymore when it comes to live performances. Especially weird for me cause one the all time best live performances I ever saw was Manson during the Mechanical Animals tour in '98.

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I saw him the last time in 2007 at Rock im Park and je was very Good. Played coma white and coma black. I was happy.

 

[Book One]

Agree with the comments about MA. I will still give it a listen from time to time.

 

[Coolsambob]

Yup, they're solid. Just don't have that instant classic song of the others.

Absolute best album of his is Eat Me, Drink Me and anyone who says otherwise is stupid.

Also his best touring period.

 

[Deleted member 49482]

Right there with you, OP. Saw the band in a festival setting when they were touring behind Pale Emperor. I hadn't listened to that album at all at that time, but really liked a lot of songs during the concert. Listened to the full album afterwards and I was floored by how good it was!

Because of that, I was anticipating the release of Heaven Upside Down, which I think is also quite good, but never hit the highs of Pale Emperor and isn't consistent throughout.

 

[ChubbyHuggs]

I don't remember enjoying the last four at all.

 

[Deleted member 30395]

Loved the band in my teens but dropped off with Golden Age. I think the run from Portrait Through to Last tour on Earth still holds up pretty well, particularly mechanical Animals and ACSS. Really great aesthetics and feel. People like Holy Wood but I think it's pretty bloated and marks the start of the decline.

Would have liked to have seen what the celebritarian stuff had evolved into but seems like that was all scrapped in favour of eat me, drink me.

 

[Freddy=Legend]

Heaven Upside Down is damn good. Plus, SAY10 is one hell of a live track. He rocks the shit out of it on stage.

 

[Michael F. Assbender]

 

[Carnby]

I stopped listening to Manson when he started singing about killing women who break up with him. After Evan Rachel Wood's testimony and Manson's actual love for Nazi paraphernalia was revealed there was no going back for me.

Anyway you cut it, it's basically incel themed music. And if Manson was even the slightest relevant he would have been cancelled by now.

 

[DashReindeer]

I was the biggest Manson fan you could possibly imagine back in the mid-90s, starting with Portrait of an American Family and up through Anitchrist Superstar. I could never get into Mechanical Animals, and everything after that just lost the edge that had drawn me to Manson in the first place. Everything had this newfound pop sheen that just did not work for me in the slightest. Even now, I'd rather go back and listen to early Spooky Kids demos than anything from MA onwards. A bunch of that probably has to do with nostalgia over feelings of youthful rebellion, but whatever the reason, it holds true.

Reading the responses in here though, it sounds like a lot of people like his post-MA work more than his pre-MA work. I might have to go back and listen to some of these newer albums that I only gave one listen to before. My tastes have changed a lot since middle school though, so let's see what actually clicks with me these days.