Epic Antichrist Fail

I am a huge Marilyn Manson fan. For the most part, I have nothing bad to say about him. I have almost all of his albums, I have read his autobiography, seen him in concert, wrote a philosophy paper about his music in college; I even have a pair of Marilyn Manson underwear.

I inquired about the cost of his artwork once, from his website but never heard back. That pissed me off, but only temporarily. So again, for the most part--all good things. I even decorated an Easter egg as a tribute (basically I mixed all those little coloring tarts together to make black).

Marilyn Manson's most recent album was released in May of 2009. I pre-ordered The High End of Low in high anticipation of 15 more Manson songs to listen to. What more could a girl want?

Sadly, this album was a huge disappointment. The first single, "Arma-goddamn-motherfuckin-geddon," has a way more menacing title than the song itself which is a common thread throughout the album The song is fairly mellow on the Manson scale.

Manson has created a reputation for himself that is hard to keep up, I'm sure. But, the song, "Four Rusted Horses" has a country twang that almost sounds like a banjo is playing which is just unacceptable on a Manson album.

"Wow" is trying to be dark and sexy but just comes across as annoying and way too electronic. Manson always use industrial metal elements in his music but if is just electronic editing to his voice the entire song, it feels like I am being cheated. I am not buying the album to hear Manson, remixed; I'm buying it to hear the delightfully creepy deep voice of his and I find there is much less of that on The High End of Low.

With titles like "Devour," and "Unkillable Monster," and "I Have to Look Up Just to See Hell," I expect to get some really awesome hardcore tracks but this album really failed in that regard. It felt like this album was forced. It was like his heart (if he has one) was not in it.

Marilyn Manson was the first artist I really liked that authentically got my parents concerned. They worried about who I was hanging out with, what I was doing after school, who my boyfriends were . . . it was glorious!!! For someone who barely rebelled at all, Manson made me feel a little scandalous; a little on-the-wrong-side-of-the-street. This album does not represent all that is wrong and corrupt in his music, which in fact is what his fans love. He is the anti-normality, and this album is just way too, well . . . Normal!

This album really let me down. I mean, he has acoustic guitar on this album for anti-christ's sake! (good one, right?) In all seriousness, I have a great respect for what Marilyn Manson has done to music and for that matter, culture and society in general. And with that great admiration, I know that he is capable of better. And if and when he releases another album, I will be running into Best Buy with bells on.

If you have never heard any Manson, here are a list of my favorites (none of which are from the above mentioned album):

"Great Big White World"
"Apple of Sodom"
"This is the New Shit"
"Rock is Dead"
"Personal Jesus"
"Tainted Love"
"This is Halloween"