Even great artists have fallow periods. It seems increasingly distant now, but when Marilyn Manson emerged, in a pre-Slipknot world, he represented one of the most energetically threatening rock stars on the planet. Shows were banned and/or picketed; his followers were dismissed as Satan worshipers; the media laid the blame for various crimes at his feet and stories emerged of cages full of children being lowered into the mosh pit for beatings prior to a show (untrue) and of groupies being humiliated and abused (true). What was less discussed was that Marilyn Manson had a considerable wealth of musical talent to back up his gloriously obnoxious presence. Whilst ‘Portrait of an American family’ lacked spark in terms of production, songs like ‘Lunchbox’, ‘cake and sodomy’ and ‘dope hat’ demonstrated a twisted ability to deconstruct pop hooks and reframe them within a gnarled industrial framework and if the live shows were what initially captured people’s attention, it was the music that kept it. Marilyn Manson’s next step, however, was a masterstroke. Raising his profile no end with a gleeful demolition of ‘sweet dreams’, the band set to work on ‘Antichrist Superstar’, a dark, evil conceptual piece that benefitted no end from Trent Reznor’s beautifully bruised production. Where Trent had stripped the sound down for ‘Portrait…’, on ‘Antichrist superstar’ the guitars were distorted to speaker threatening proportions and the album boasted some truly stellar tracks that remain in the band’s live set today. Leaving aside the ubiquitous ‘beautiful people’, tracks like ‘the reflecting god’, ‘man that you fear’ and ‘dried up, tied up and dead to the world’ showed that Marilyn Manson could carve out stadium-crushing anthems with real bite and even poignant ballads seemingly at will.
For me, however, the peak of Marilyn Manson’s early career was the Bowie-infused gothic pop of ‘Mechanical Animals’. Still packing a metallic bite, it was a brilliant and subversive conceptual album that showed Marilyn Manson to be an artist unafraid to move away from bludgeoning metal and it contained some of his most unnervingly interesting work. What followed was a period in the limelight that took in anthemic, industrial-strength rock (‘Holywood’) and gleefully twisted burlesque (‘the golden age of grotesque’), the latter album again showcasing Marilyn Manson’s ability to carve out his own take on an otherwise familiar form. With an excellent back catalogue at his disposal, a series of remarkable and provocative promo clips and film appearances, it seemed that the Marilyn Manson of 2003 had not only gained acceptance but even become part of the mainstream. It was not to last, however, and following a hell-raising tour to promote ‘golden age of grotesque’ Marilyn Manson retired from music.
Fans differ on what, and where, things started to go wrong. To my mind, the Marilyn Manson who returned to the music world in 2007 struggled to reassert himself as a dominant musical force. Shattered by personal trauma and beset by the demon of depression, it seemed that the Marilyn Manson had lived the ‘Antichrist superstar’ tail to its logical conclusion, the man becoming the character, and losing himself in the process. Although the three albums that followed the return to the fray were far from poor, they did not have the same sense of ambition that surrounded the most creative period and it seemed that Marilyn Manson would not match up to the promise of those amazing early albums. However, with ‘the pale emperor’ Marilyn Manson has truly rediscovered his muse and, aided by the uber-talented composer Tyler Bates, has recorded his most cinematic album to date. Where ‘the high end of low’ and ‘born villain’ offered up glimpses of greatness, ‘the pale emperor’ is stunning from start to finish and there is no question that it is one of his most mature and well realised albums to date, demonstrating that same sense of demonic confidence that marked his earlier work. In short this is Marilyn Manson back at his very best and it is a most welcome return.
The album opens not with a bang but with a sleazy, dirty trawl through the world of Depeche Mode on a come down. With a grimy, sticky beat and echoing electronica, what stands out immediately is that this is Marilyn Manson’s most assured vocal performance yet on record. His voice rings out loud and true over a track that builds up, layer by layer, his warped and lascivious tone sounding like a crack and nicotine-warped Bowie singing to the apocalypse. It’s a brilliantly dissolute introduction to the album and it grabs the attention immediately. Next up is the excellent ‘deep six’, a song that most readers will already be familiar with as it was released recently along with a suitably creepy video clip. With its dark, almost soundtrack-orientated programming, hard-hitting beat and dirty, incisive guitar, this is one of Marilyn Manson’s most memorable singles since ‘the beautiful people’ and it is, quite simply, a damn good heavy rock song no matter what your preconceived notions of Marilyn Manson might be. ‘Third day of a seven day binge’ is a dark piece of Bowie-esque pop complete with wailing guitars and the sort of nagging, insistent bass line that lodges itself in your brain without warning and stays there for days. With thunderous percussion, ‘The Mephistopheles of Los Angeles’ is one of the more familiar sounding songs, coming on as a spiritual successor to ‘the nobodies’ with its dusty guitar lines and growling bass. It’s another strong potential single and yet another affirmation of Marilyn Manson’s skilful integration of pop melodies and heavy rock. One of the album’s finest tracks ‘warship my wreck’ navigates conceptually heavier territory, with the music veering into the dark mix of post-rock and industrial utilised to such effect by John Murphy for “in the house – in a heartbeat’ (from the 28 days later soundtrack). If any doubts existed about Marilyn Manson’s ability to craft tracks rife with emotion and power, this wonderful piece of music will utterly erase them – it is an excellent piece of composition and a highlight not just of the album but of Marilyn Manson’s illustrious career.
The second half of the album kicks off with the creepy, sampled intro of ‘slave only dreams to be king’, a groaning industrial beast that advances like the T800 Terminator, oiled and gleaming and carrying with it an inevitability of purpose that is as menacing as it is impressive. Another track that perfectly casts Marilyn Manson between the evil sleaze of ‘Ultra’-era Depeche Mode, Glam-infused Bowie and Fields of the Nephilim is ‘the devil beneath my feet’, a dark-hearted glam stomp that perfectly fuses elements of electronica into its otherwise hard rock framework. ‘Birds of hell awaiting’ similarly employs its electronic elements to grand effect, with the band stripping back the banks of the guitar in order to allow the song to breathe and expand with the result being a dynamic and fascinating song. Another more traditional song, ‘Cupid carries a gun’ still benefits from a more subtle approach and Marilyn Manson’s ubiquitously excellent vocals, but it is the most obviously Marilyn Manson moment here. The album closes with the slow, sinister and rather beautiful ‘odds of even’, the sort of shimmering ballad that a recently exhumed Marilyn Monroe might sing if placed next to hell’s house band. It’s a suitably epic conclusion to the disc and it rounds out the album nicely.
It’s been a long hard road out of hell, but with ‘the pale emperor’ Marilyn Manson, alongside Twiggy, Tyler bates and Gil Sharone, has surpassed himself. The music here is grander in scope than any Marilyn Manson album since ‘Mechanical Animals’ and it stands as one of the best, if not the best, albums in Marilyn Manson’s canon. At only ten tracks, albeit lengthy ones, ‘the pale emperor’ benefits from being a concise work and the tracks flow perfectly from one to the next, further helping the listener to lose themselves in the album, and there are no weak moments here, the band evidently having exercised stringent quality control. It has often been easy for the press (especially those within the mainstream) to mock Marilyn Manson – something which might be argued is an inevitable consequence of a theatrical presentation – but ‘the pale emperor’ once and for all cements what Marilyn Manson fans have long known: that the band are capable of delivering great albums when given the necessary time and support. Despite being a long-time fan I would not be so foolish as to argue that Marilyn Manson’s output has been continuously excellent, although I have enjoyed much of it, but I would argue that both ‘Antichrist superstar’ and ‘mechanical animals’ are excellent albums of their ilk. However, what marks ‘the pale emperor’ out is that it is the great rock album that Marilyn Manson has always threatened to make. With excellent production, powerful songs, one of Marilyn Manson’s best vocal performances and a strong sense of atmosphere ‘the pale emperor’ is a brilliant record that will repay multiple listens. Essential for Marilyn Manson fans, it comes highly recommended to all rock fans and is well worth your time and money.
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