Marilyn Manson

[implanted_microchip]

The best songs on MA are maybe his best ever -- Great Big White World, Disassociative, Posthuman, Coma White, etc. -- even a single like The Dope Show is fantastic poppy glammy gloom and nails what the album was going for. The artwork, the blue CD case with the changing booklet, the videos and the live performances were all creative peaks for the band and it's an inspired step in another direction when it would have been so easy to take the ACSS b-sides and pump out a basic follow up to that success. Some of the lyrics are very "teenager writing poetry after breaking up with a girl they dated for 3 weeks" but I think a lot work in that Morrissey sort of way. It was the album that got me into his work and still has his best vocals. He never screamed that well after Antichrist and his more melodic singing became a jangly Jim Morrison knock-off on later albums but Mechanical Animals has this great style and identity that beats out any of his other songs vocally by far.

As much as I like Holy Wood, I've always felt it was a shame that Columbine derailed his career and the band so heavily that we never got an appropriate follow up to the style and sound of MA, and it's the last album that didn't feel deeply influenced by what else was popular at the time (with Holy Wood trying to nail that harder sound again and Golden Age veering into nu metal territory, EMDM trying to get that Hot Topic money and every album since trying to imitate what made the band successful to begin with). There are some parts of MA that are very cringe-worthy but I'd argue Marilyn Manson is inherently cringe-worthy so it's easy to embrace that and have fun with the pseudo-campy melodrama of it all. It still sounds energized, the production has held up wonderfully, they managed to have a more accessible, poppy vibe without losing their transgressive edge and I never could believe that this was how they followed up something like Antichrist Superstar. Not a lot of bands pull off such a bold and massive overhaul without feeling like sell outs and this album nailed it. It's the middle of the best set of albums the band would ever make and the second to last one where it really still sounds like a band and not just hired guns trying to mimic an already set sound and standard -- one of the worst things that ever happened to Marilyn Manson was getting trapped inside of its own style and image and Mechanical Animals took a sledgehammer to that image and rearranged the shards in a way that no album after could manage to do again.

[ManBurning]

https://www.revolvermag.com/music/wh...album-all-time

[theimage13]

Me too ,i was sixteen at the times

I find it odd to see how much it is now seen as the band best work 20 years later ,i remember the uproar among the fan community when it first came out ,the Goth kids despised his change in apparence and sound and a lot of them jumped ship .

I didnt get it ,personnaly i was in love with this album on first listen ,GBWW is a great album opener and CW was the perfect closer ,the only song i didnt enjoy the first time was New Model 15

I was definitely one of those people. I started on MM back when it was still MM & the Spooky Kids, so I had already invested years into that fandom. When this came out, it was a huge "WTF is this shit?" moment for me. I didn't even buy the album at the time. For a whiny teenage faux-goth kid, that was a big protest.

Fast forward years and years, and I finally gave it a listen. I still wouldn't call it his best, but I at least understood why people liked it so much. I think there are equal parts "tracks I like / tracks I don't really care for" on MA. To each their own.

[kaydraven]

I think Antichrist Superstar will always be Manson's best in my eyes, but I love MA. Yeah, maybe some of it is hokey, but so much of it is great and holds up surprisingly well.

[Halo Infinity]

Mechanical Animals is still my my favorite Marilyn Manson album as it introduced me to Marilyn Manson in 1998. I didn't become an actual fan until 2002 though, but was definitely sold on The Dope Show, Rock Is Dead and I Don't Like The Drugs (But The Drugs Like Me). Antichrist Superstar is still a very close second though, and I switch between both albums quiet frequently whenever I listen to Marilyn Manson.

My favorite songs have all remained the same, such as Great Big White World, Posthuman and Fundamentally Loathesome just to name a few. However, Disassociative has been growing me as of late. I used to skip it to listen to The Speed of Pain instead. I also used to listen to New Model No. 15 so much more, but tend to skip it more these days. I also remember being very into ECDs back then before DVDs caught on, so I enjoyed checking out the Untitled/Omega track with the artwork on it.

[Jinsai]

nah, Mechanical Animals is bomb diggity. It also feels like he was pretty much passed out unconscious while the whole thing was assembled for him, but hey, maybe that's why it works.

I can't stand Holy Wood, and there's very little from what I've heard from after that album that doesn't make me feel bored to the point of running away screaming.

[kel]

i wanted to like holy wood so badly. i thought the packaging was incredible and the song sequencing a’la acss was intriguing. i liked one song, “born again.” that’s it. i jumped ship after that.

[halo eighteen]

i wanted to like holy wood so badly. i thought the packaging was incredible and the song sequencing a’la acss was intriguing. i liked one song, “born again.” that’s it. i jumped ship after that.

Born Again really is the shit! I also really liked President Dead and the Nobodies. I just think that album is crammed with way too many songs.

[Krazy]

i wanted to like holy wood so badly. i thought the packaging was incredible and the song sequencing a’la acss was intriguing. i liked one song, “born again.” that’s it. i jumped ship after that.

Same here for HW. Could never really get into that album when I bought it. It’s aged well- I probably like it more now than when it came out, that’s not saying much though- however not much really “sticks” for me unlike his previous releases.

[Space Suicide]

Same here for HW. Could never really get into that album when I bought it. It’s aged well- I probably like it more now than when it came out, that’s not saying much though- however not much really “sticks” for me unlike his previous releases.

Not sure if I believe you.

[halo eighteen]

^That was also one of my instant faves!

[Krazy]

Not sure if I believe you.

Oh, HW definitely has it’s moments no doubt about it. Just had a hard time listening to it in full. Maybe it was just too long for me to listen to at the time it was released and my attention span couldn’t handle a few songs in a row that I didn’t care for (ala The Fragile).

[theimage13]

Oh, HW definitely has it’s moments no doubt about it. Just had a hard time listening to it in full. Maybe it was just too long for me to listen to at the time it was released and my attention span couldn’t handle a few songs in a row that I didn’t care for (ala The Fragile).

Excuse me...The Fragile has "a few songs in a row that [you] don't care for"?

Turn in your badge and your gun. You're fired.

(/sarcasm)

[Krazy]

Excuse me...The Fragile has "a few songs in a row that [you] don't care for"?

Turn in your badge and your gun. You're fired.

(/sarcasm)

Yeahhhhh... TF is a great record, don’t get me wrong. But I can’t listen to it from front to back like PHM, Broken, or TDS.

[runs and hides from ETS forum for the next three weeks]

[Space Suicide]

Yeahhhhh... TF is a great record, don’t get me wrong. But I can’t listen to it from front to back like PHM, Broken, or TDS.

[runs and hides from ETS forum for the next three weeks]

I like The Fragile but it's not my favorite record. I could take or leave a few of the tracks also. We can run laps.

[SM Rollinger]

With all the material from The Fragile era, It really should have just been split into 2 (or even 3) separate albums with different artwork and everything.

As for Holy Wood, ive always thought there is too many songs on the album, and they are too short. Regardless the middle of the record is underrated and has some of my all time favorite Manson songs, especially the "D: The Androgyne" section, with Target Audience, President Dead, the title track, Cruci-Fiction in Space and A Place in the Dirt. Fuckin' killer stuff there. (and yes @halo eighteen , Born Again is the shit and is totally underrated. )

As far as Mechanical Animals goes, it hasnt aged very well IMO, although I can still get into some tracks like Disassociative, Posthuman, the title track, and I Want to Disappear. I was never a fan of Speed of Pain when I was younger but it has grown on me over the years. I rarely listen to this album anymore, it was my ex's favorite and fuck her so its hard to separate the two. Regardless, I would rather listen to MA over the new record, EMDM, THOTL or Born Villian. and thats pretty sad

[Sutekh]

he pussied out with the look for that era - should have been bald like he was in the initial promo photos. Album could have been shorter etc. MA was the plateau and HW was the tolerable start of the slide

[Halo Infinity]

Perhaps it's because I've stuck with Marilyn Manson altogether, even in spite of all the ups and downs, while actually also agreeing with a lot of what has been said here.

Holy Wood and The Golden Age of Grotesque were always among my top favorite albums. I'll always happily place both of those albums right next to Portrait of an American Family, Antichrist Superstar and Mechanical Animals. (Which is admittedly, albeit super generous on ETS.) I can only speak for myself, but I find myself making a separation between TGAOG and EMDM instead, and for now I also made another separation between The High End of Low and Born Villain.

However, there was an interesting fan-theory, at least among Provider Module about EMDM, THEOL and BV some sort of new triptych, which seemed to be debunked so far as of late, but it's rather fun to consider/imagine sometimes, at least to me that is.

It could probably also have a lot to do with having those albums come out when I was just a new MM fan, as I became a fan in late 2001. I'm only speaking for myself here, but they were like my Antichrist Superstar (With Holy Wood having a similar look and sound. It even felt like the closest he ever came to making another Antichrist Superstar.) and Portrait of an American Family (The word play, even though he does it all of his albums, kind of did it for me there. Not to mention, it was like there were some parallels between Cake and Sodomy and This Is The New Shit for me, lyrically as well. I also enjoyed how catchy it got at certain moments too.) for the early 2000s.

Eat Me, Drink Me has also been growing on me more and more, but I still ended up preferring The High End of Low more. I also still listen to Born Villain the least, but there's still a few songs that are actual favorites on it, so it was still worth listening to.

As for The Pale Emperor and Heaven Upside Down, I definitely find them to be very satisfying this time around. Aside from the pre-TGAOG songs, I hope to hear more from these two albums should I ever see him live again. I suppose I'll always be a fan in one way or another.

[Piko]

Holy Wood is hit and miss with me. Especially comimg after MA. TGAOG is solid. Everything after that are duds. A few good songs here and there. The glory days are over and long gone.

Hes washed up and too fucked up to care.

I rarely listen to his stuff anymore. No matter how good it was. It's branded into by brain how much of a clown he is now.

[Failure]

I think Holy Wood is an absolutely fantastic record.....and not just for the obvious hits (Fight Song, Nobodies), bangers (Burning Flag, Love Song, Born Again), and consistently amazing lyrics. It captures the widest artistic range that Manson had to offer during his absolute prime (even if Antichrist is his most important record and Mechanical Animals is his best).

To go from Valentine's Day (with that amazing space-rock intro riff) to Lamb Of God (Climbing Up The Walls similarities be damned) to Coma Black (severely underrated follow-up to CW) to A Place In The Dirt (imagery abound) to In The Shadow Of The Valley Of Death (great delivery) to Target Audience (potentially the definitive soft/loud Manson song) on the same record is a truly incredible feat. And "lest we forget" the truly creepy final 3-songs; which could have been their own horror-movie-score or EP. Aside from Disposable Teens (which was an obvious attempt to write a hit and duplicate the success of TBP), this is a definitive record in the pantheon of hard rock.

[Demogorgon]

I will always maintain that Holywood was the height of his creative wordplay and that it was the last time he truly had something important to say. I liked Golden Age for being a kooky industrial rock album, but that's all it was. After that, it's like he relied more and more on SOUNDING clever than in actually BEING clever. Holywood is the epitome of what might have been. The Pale Emperor had a lot of moments that harkened back to that era, and i had such high hopes for an upward trend. Then Heaven Upside Down comes along like a wasted frat boy with some of the worst lyrics ever on a Manson album, and, well... the old days are dead and gone.

[Piko]

To this day, I've never liked Fight Song. Death Song isn't far behind. There's either songs I consider boring and meh, or really good. I love Target Audience and President Dead. Coma Black is pretty good. Lava, I mean King Kill 33 is good for a ministry adaptation. It's a very hit or miss album to me.

[october_midnight]

Holy Wood is hands down the last great album, no doubt. Even the overplayed songs/singles still had the intelligence that everything since hasn't. Just read through the wikipedia page for it, and you'll see planning and forethought that he couldn't come close to achieving anymore.

[Kulerage]

While we're discussing it, Mechanical Animals DOES seem to suffer from too many choruses, though I enjoy the musical parts too much to dislike the album for that. As someone who didn't get into Manson until very recently, I had a great time listening to it, and I enjoyed ACSS and HW a lot as well.

Holy Wood's songs are definitely too short, and sound kind of awkward as standalone songs, however it's still fairly solid as a full album, and I like how it's a sort of hybrid of ACSS and MA.

[Shadaloo]

I rarely listen to his stuff anymore. No matter how good it was.

This, but because whenever I try nowadays, I'm just sort of overcome by a wave of sadness and bitterness and I don't want to feel nostalgic for better days.

There was a time where every other post in this thread would have been made by me and I just can't even bring myself to think about this band anymore.

[imail724]

After all the discussion regarding it lately, I decided to give Holy Wood another spin this morning. You people are crazy, that album still holds up. Yes its long, but I would have a pretty difficult time picking tracks to remove from it. Maybe godeatgod and The Fight Song, but thats about it. IMO, Manson has 5 great albums, and then a bunch of meh to shit albums.

[halo eighteen]

After all the discussion regarding it lately, I decided to give Holy Wood another spin this morning. You people are crazy, that album still holds up. Yes its long, but I would have a pretty difficult time picking tracks to remove from it. Maybe godeatgod and The Fight Song, but thats about it. IMO, Manson has 5 great albums, and then a bunch of meh to shit albums.

I completely agree on the beginning of the album having the weakest tracks. It's funny that when ACS was a new album, I thought the first few tracks of that album were amazing and it was mostly due to their moderate accessibility. Flash forward a few years later to Holy Wood though, and I hated the first part of that album for pretty much the exact same reason. Disposable Teens and Fight Song are so derivative that it hurts.

[elevenism]

I'm in the EXTREME minority i think in that nothing will ever top Portrait for me.

[kaydraven]

I listened to Holy Wood front to back a while ago and I agree with others who say it's a solid album, but way too long. It has some great moments, King Kill 33 and Lamb of God have always been some of my favorites, but there are too many songs that don't stick with me once the album is over.

MA is still high on my list of Manson releases. I think it's a fantastic album that was totally unexpected from him after releasing the beast that is Anti-Christ Superstar, which is probably my top fave.

And I still hold that Born Villain is another solid album. It was a relief after the shit that was THEOL. No, it's not his best or smartest material, but some of those songs I found so satisfying. To me, it sounded like he got some of his swagger back, but of course, it doesn't compare with his best stuff. I even thoroughly enjoyed Heaven Upside Down, though a lot of the lyrics are too "look I'm being shocking" for me.

[implanted_microchip]

Holy Wood is significantly too long but part of that is I think it’s the last time he had a lot to say — fresh off of being blamed for kids killing each other, the FBI supposedly tapping his phone, his relationships with McGowan and Twiggy starting to come apart, the left and right in America both embracing censorship, his unpublished novel — and he kind of tossed everything in there in some bizarre attempt to full-circle his albums and tie his half-planned half-improv triptych idea together.

It always felt like he took the poppier hooks he’d learned off of MA and tried to slap them onto a cleaner heavier sound and it’s the last time it ever felt like a full band album — the artwork, the music, the imagery of it all was extremely ambitious and I think they had a hard time trimming any fat from it but a lot of songs do the same thing and feel redundant, even though several of them are good. There are a lot of midtempo ones and the album is overlong and exhausting but it’s the last big, great album of his where he has more to say than cliches or girlfriend grievances and really put all his thought into it.

Also Diamonds & Pollen should have been on the main album, it’s one of the best songs of that era and A Place in the Dirt and Disposable Teens could both be dropped to the benefit of their sections. GodEatGod is a great opener, Target Audience summarizes a lot of what Marilyn Manson was at the time, In the Shadow is one of his strongest slower tracks, Valentine’s Day is a little too long but still kills, Fall of Adam is horrifying, President Dead and The Death Song both kick ass, King Kill is great, Count to Six is a haunting closer, The Nobodies is classic. There’s a lot of good there, and I can imagine it was very hard to want to cut it down even though the overall experience would greatly benefit from it. Antichrist is his only long album that benefits from it and it also stylistically plays around more than Holy Wood ever does. After Holy Wood his voice was never as good, his energy was never as high, his lyrics dropped off irreparably and it felt more and more like an ego-centric solo act every album after.