Marilyn Manson

[mrlee]

Your probably right on your Prince timeline.

Although, as ive already said, his latest effort has been much better.

With Manson, he has alot less albums to offer than Prince.

Mansons last good album in my opinion, was Golden Age. I felt he mixed the industrial sound real cool.

[axlrosegnr]

"May be Harmful if Swallowed" is a badass song.

[CheapJon]

Marilyn Manson ?High End Of Low? Album Track-By-Track
jamesgill / Uncategorized / 07/04/2009 16:38pm

Metal Hammer has heard nine new Marilyn Manson tracks from the new album, ?High End Of Low?. Has he halted his slump? Come on in to find out.

Devour
The first of the 8 tracks, opens with a classic Manson-esque ?noise? track ? super 8 running a loop or something. This si followed by a dulcet clean guitar strum up the neck, which sounds surprisingly gentle and serene ? very un-Manson ? more like the post-hardcore sounds if Isis or Russian Circles. When his voice joins the bass and guitars, it?s back to the great old troubled tortured alien of Mechanical Animals ? far superior and more earnest than the last album (what was it called again?). The refrain, ?I will love you, if you let me? rings out before the heavy guitars and rocking drums hit the mix proper ? but only after 3 minutes and only for 40 seconds. The track reaches its crescendo with the repeated phrase ?I can?t sleep, until I devour you? screamed over and over. This is the best Manson has been since New Shit from The Golden Age Of Grotesque.

Leave A Scar
The track bursts open with drums, bass and a swaggering guitar riff with an additional high guitar lick that all subsides before you can grab onto it, as the vocals kick in. The track?s mid-tempo 4/4 beats are slow dancefloor fodder and the pleading chorus ?whatever doesn?t kill you, is gonna leave a scar? are anthemic Manson par excellence. The grating twanging insistent guitar riff comes back with the twinkling and distorted guitar loop that again yield to Manson?s vocals. His tone here in the verse is less emotional, but the short middle eight has his signature split harmonies using falsetto and harmony to eerie and evocative effect.

Four Rusted Horses
Sounding like Seasick Steve, the track opens with an Americana-inspired acoustic guitar and foot-stomp. Manson?s voice soon joins the ensemble ? along with synth strings ? reminiscent of ?Coma White?. The track keeps you anticipating a massive chorus as the chorus bridge teases you with what we all love ? huge searing soaring Manson screams and ma-hoo-sive guitars. The track builds from the bottom up, with layers being added and added, only to be stripped down again. Fucking, tease. Manson has always been good at autobiographical catharsis by spinning an extended metaphor (dare we say ?concept?) It?s less clear here what that might be, but the lyrics ?Everyone will come to my funeral to make sure I?m dead? hint at a faux-persecution complex (though Manson?s history of complex narrative, allegory and irony it?ll be nearly impossible to tell until he tells us). Sadly the massive money-shot climax never happens and the track just fades into amp feedback and disappears. Sonically this is another step forward for Manson, but musically the song lacks the peaks we crave.

Arma-God-Damn-Mother-Fuckin-Geddon
Heavy basslines, a stomping back-beat and a very traditionally Manson glam-chorus are the order of the day. It?s this glam rock tinge that really shines through on the track, nodding to his penchant for decadent 70?s rock but with an old school Manson industrial shade.

Similar to the more Rock Is Dead side of Manson?s work (albeit with a sound that is more sinister than was evident on Mechanical Animals), it doesn?t echo the darkness of Manson?s earlier work but it is of a higher quality than anything he has put out in a long, long while.

It?s great to hear Manson being genuinely defiant again, throwing caution to the wind with the couplet ?fuck the goddamn TV and the radio/fuck making hits, I?m taking credit for the death toll?. He may not be as dangerous as he once appeared but it is good to hear Mazza using one of those many middle fingers he was born with once again.

Blank And White
Manson has always had a fascination with 70s glam: the likes from Slade to T-Rex and David Bowie, and this tune has the foot-stomping tambourine-rattling swagger of any of the greats, and the guitar twangs it?s riff like an Aerosmith oldie. The tempo is back a bit and the melodies and lyrics and rhythms all combine to awesome effect in the chorus. Again, while the subject matter isn?t totally transparent it appears to be about ?stupid teenage girls? and their appreciation of music/bands. It?s interesting that Manson seems to have ditched much of the ?metal? base of his sound, only adding in distorted solos and walls of guitars to obviate the stripped nature of the rest of the tracks. The final chorus here is an album peak, with a signature aggressive sleazy solo, mounds of ugly guitars and Manson screaming his lungs out? finally finishing with a haunting and exhausted whisper. He may be all old and happy now, but he still knows where the anger lives deep down.

Running To The Edge Of The World
With more acoustic guitar, this sounds initially like 90s Bon Jovi solo material. But then the clicky/bleepy electronic beats kick in and you know ugly juxtaposition is coming. Manson joins in with a sad ? almost melancholic ? vocal line about burning houses. Joined by strings, the slow plodder plods on and without a strong vocal melody the chords sound like ?Love Is All Around? by Wet Wet Wet. Manson?s clever wordplay was always one of his most endearing facets, and sadly he seems to have run slightly dry. The interesting little middle eight isn?t enough to save this song from being quite dull ? especially when the six and a half minutes of it seems to offer little to warrant such length.

White Spider
Here is the Manson bombast back in the h-zooos. Massive chords replete with omonious semi-tones. This may not be groundbreaking stuff for the band, but it is what they do best. Spooky black-glam vocal delivery and taunting bullying choruses with falsetto layers that dance round you like a black mass meets the hokey-cokey. Lyrically, the themes fit, with accusations of ?possession? and an aggressive recurring ?you?. Again there are melodic similarities to material from Holywood, but not so much as to be embarrassing. The pop-structures of previous tracks from the album are gone and what he learned from Trent Reznor is back ? whether conscious or not: the track builds and builds without changing direction. Again the slower tempo brings the album average down, and you might find yourself wanting something a bit quicker to plug-in the aggression ? the kind that has you pounding your steering wheel and you pass a born again Christian who?s been blocking you since the service station on the motorway. Or something.

We?re From America
The last track of eight, sees the tempo finally elevated to fist-pumping pace, and features a riff that sounds like a Manson-ed up Muse riff and another Manson signature, the low rumbling toms. The lyrical themes are overt and feature the good old Manson wit we all love: ?We?re from America, where Jesus was born; we?re from America where we speak American? and ?God is an excuse.? There is also the overt criticism of the pro-life neo-cons and their anti-abortion policies ? this is by far the most direct song on the album, and will doubtless become an anti-anthem in line with Fight Song or Beautiful People. Again, while the backing track offers little musical complexity, it hammers home the message and allows Manson?s voice to carry the tune ? building like some apocalyptic dance track? played by a metal band.

The WoW
Put simply, The WoW is a grinding, NIN-tinged sex anthem. Genuinely filthy and intensely sexy, The Wow sees Manson riding a dirty Twiggy Ramirez bassline in an almost spoken-word style.
Quirky keyboards interject all the way through the track while sexual female groans (occasionally spoken in German) swarm behind the crunching industrial backing track.
The WoW doesn?t have anything in the way of memorable hooks but it is the sort of track that would sound amazing in a goth stripclub?if one existed.

Source : Metal Hammer UK

copied this from mansonusa though, Mechanical-Worm it's your job to report about manson to us (me) 

this together with AIC is probably the 2 records i'm looking forward to hear the most 

[mrlee]

excited about what they seem to be saying is a return to the mechanical animals type of sound.

[Mechanical-Worm]

A fucked verison of Devour leaked online today. it has sound clips of Arnold S. during parts of the song added in by the leaker.

Devour is now my new favorite song. It's really amazing. Take my word for it.

As for official, I bought the WFA single yesterday and I foudn the Four Rusted Horses mix on it great.

[GnFnR87]

Album Cover:




Official track listing:

01 Devour
02 Pretty as a Swastika
03 Leave a Scar
04 Four Rusted Horses
05 Arma - goddamn - motherfukin - geddon
06 Blank and White
07 Running to the Edge of the World
08 I Want to Kill You Like They Do in the Movies
09 WOW
10 Wight Spider
11 Unkillable Monster
12 We're From America
13 I Have to Look Up Just to See Hell
14 Into the Fire
15 15

[CheapJon]

i'm pretty sure this will be a top3record of 2009

[Gunner80]

i'm pretty sure this will be a top3record of 2009

I'm hoping so too.    I'm seeing Manson with Slayer again this July in Denver.

[mrlee]

i'm pretty sure this will be a top3record of 2009

I'm hoping so too.    I'm seeing Manson with Slayer again this July in Denver.

how many times has he toured with those guys now lol

[LeftToDecay]

Looking forward to this!
So Amazing Twigs went back.
Cover looks like something made for an unofficial bootleg tho:O

[Gunner80]

i'm pretty sure this will be a top3record of 2009

I'm hoping so too.    I'm seeing Manson with Slayer again this July in Denver.

how many times has he toured with those guys now lol

This is the second time I believe.

[GNR4L]

Wasn't impressed with Were from America.

[jarmo]

Wasn't impressed with Were from America.

I thought it was kinda catchy...



/jarmo

[Mechanical-Worm]

New Arma-goddamn-motherfuckin-geddon music video (it debuted yesterday)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN7DOdApRuw&feature=channel_page

It's also on his site in better quality.

[Mechanical-Worm]

Elegy Interview about the new album translated to english

Q: You are currently shooting the video for ?Arma-goddamn-motherfuckin-geddon?. Is it the first single of your album?

MM: I suppose, technically speaking. But you can?t really talk about singles because of the evolution of music technology and industry. You can?t release things when you want the way you want. But in any case it is the first video that will air on MTV for the new album?

Q: It must be funny doing a video for that song?

MM: Well, we are shooting it with the same attitude that I had when I wrote the lyrics. It?s funny and surprising that the label is trying to distance themselves from what I say, they want to tone it down, I think?But I don?t care now. I am so happy to come back with this new album which also marks my best friend Twiggy?s comeback in the band. Twiggy and I have gone through so many weird things together in our lives, the making of this album included. It was incredible to work together again. And we have a really good time shooting this video, because we keep the same attitude?Did you manage to listen to the album?

Q: Only eight tracks?

MM: You still get an idea, then, because it?s difficult to use We?re From America as a single, it isn?t the most representative song on the album. You may have heard Four Rusted Horses which is in my opinion a lot more representative.

Q: The beginning of the song sounds like a blues song a bit like ?Personal Jesus"?

MM: Well, yeah, maybe ther is a little of Depeche Mode or Johnny Cash in it, not only musically but also in the themes used on the whole album. The songs appear in the order they were written. We spent three months recording the music, and almost the same time for the lyrics. We officially finished the recording on January 5th, my birthday. The last track is called ?15? because 15 is a number I have a fetish for. It has many meanings for me. It is the exact number of letters in my full name, Brian Hugh Warner, it also represents my birth date; 1, 5 = January 5th, my birth year which is 1969 and 6+9 = 15, and so on.

It is very present on Mechanical Animals. Speaking of ?15?, this song can be understood on several levels. The last three songs on the record were written during one of the most difficult moments in my life. I cannot separate my life from my art, and I don?t want to. I recorded the lyrics of most songs in one take, instinctively. I was under the impression that I had sung them before, as if I picked them up from nowhere, as if they flown through me. I felt like I was going back in time and going forward at the same time. I knew why I was here and what I was doing, but it was hard to be aware of it without being on drugs. And all of this stopped the first week of January, when I finished the last lyric recordings for ?15?, as I told you, on the morning of my birthday. I never really have a party for my birthday, unless starting now when I sing that song.

Q: On Four Rusted Horses you speak about a coffin and seem to project yourself into your own funeral...

MM: Yeah, this record is still very new for me, even if it is the first that I like to listen to again and again after having recorded it. That?s because each time I listen to it, I discover new meanings in it that concern me. I wrote all this so instinctively. There is a strong unifying thread. I was not in a good place. It is very autobiographical because I wrote it while looking into my life and thinking that things were getting better but I realized that wasn?t the case, they were getting worse. I ended up writing 15, it was a necessary act for me. I thought the album was finished with Into The Fire, but I realized that I hadn?t accomplished everything. And when you ask me about Four Rusted Horses, I realize I?m still wondering what this song is about?I know what I wanted to say when I wrote it, but it seems to have another meaning today. I didn?t understood how much it was talking about the band, about the writing process and whatever I may say, people will always read an apocalyptic feeling into it. You are the first person that I?ve spoke to about the album in an interview. I haven?t started to promote it yet, so I still need to start thinking objectively about what the album means to me.

What I wanted first was to take people into my bedroom. On my website you can see a photograph of me sitting on my bed, surrounded by walls where all the lyrics are written. It?s not very decorative but it is where I wrote the album in those six months. There is no better way to explain the process behind the writing, apart from listening to the songs. I talked about that a little [to Kerrang], but I?ve not been interviewed yet on the songs, you?re the first. It is still a little difficult for me, but I suppose I am well placed to talk about it (laughs).

Q: The new album is titled The High End Of Low. Is that a reference to a new beginning, finally seeing the end of the tunnel, to an extent?

MM: Well, that?s a possible interpretation [laughs]. Someone asked me how I felt, and I told him, ?Well, I?m at the end of low?. And I didn?t really say it in a way that was positive, but there is sort of an allegoric or metaphoric meaning to it that I didn?t think about at the time. Trial by fire?Like Lucifer falling from the skies. I started afresh, like you said. So the ?low? was me feeling at the bottom of a hole, and the ?high? is the fact of me feeling well, so I said to myself that I?d reached ?the end of low?. So I suppose it is actually a rather positive title, and at the end the record is about redemption. In any case, that?s how I look at it now.

Q: Again the vampire theme is present. Devour, for instance, makes me think of Trouble Every Day?

MM: One of my favourite films! That?s a great compliment. That was the first song that I sang and the photographs for the album are closest to it.

[Mechanical-Worm]

Q: Also listening to Leave A Scar, does that relate to Mutilation Is The Most Sincere Form Of Flattery?

MM: Uh, yeah, I suppose. That?s probably a theme which fits with a lot of my life. But I wrote the song because of, and for, Evan, the day we broke up. Perhaps it was a little cruel to write a song like that to somebody, but what I sing is really what I felt at the time, and it was my intention to let her know it in a song. For me, it?s like the sticker you put on a car you want to sell, it?s vintage so it looks really cool but you find that if often breaks down [laughs]. The car is me. Everyone seems very concerned by what people are likely to do when they listen to my music. But that surprises me as they aren?t really concerned with what I do to myself. I think the principal thing I wanted to do on this record, though it?s rather sad, is to express the feeling that I have never lived alone in my entire life. When I left home, I started a band, and so on.

Recently, I found myself completely alone, and it felt like being on holiday. I realize now that I?ve become a new person. In some ways I?m a better person, but in others I?ve become a much more dangerous person. I feel like I have nothing left to lose anymore. When you become aware of that, you realize that when you find something important again, you have a lot more to lose, and you hang on to it desperately and try really hard not to fuck it up because otherwise life won?t be worth living anymore. So I think this record, instead of being desperate, is about redemption so much as it does danger. I wasn?t afraid, this time around to say ?Don?t fuck with me because I have nothing to lose?, -- but I didn?t turn into a bastard either, it just allows me not to compromise myself for people that don?t respect me the way I do them. So I wasn?t afraid to write songs that convey different emotions, not just anger but sarcastic remarks and things that will make people laugh. This album represents who I am but it also represents Twiggy and Chris [Vrenna]. It has just as Twiggy?s heart in it as mine, but he does it through his guitar playing.

Q: So would you compose songs together, him with the guitar and you singing, or was the process altogether more complicated?

MM: It was simple and, at the same time, much more complicated than that. To start with, I don?t sing, I let them come up with the music, then I write the words. But I still try to be musically productive while guiding the whole process towards some kind of chaos that I knew I finally wanted to avoid. All of this is really instinctive. I think we can feel that everything has been easier than ever. But this is actually my goal to make things look like they?re easy. It may only take me one minute to write a song, but I actually spend 15 years thinking about it before it gets out.

Q: Are you discovering some new meaning to your old songs, like the ones from your first two albums?

MM: No. But that could undoubtedly be interesting for a psychiatrist to look at. I don?t listen to my old albums any more, and I don?t want to either. There are periods of my life which I am not so interested in anymore. The only song that I listen to from my old records is If I Was Your Vampire, everything else is the work of a fractured personality, whereas this new record represents me as I am now. I don?t want to remember what I was like before. Listening to those songs would only bring back bad memories.

Q: Is it the same when you paint? Do you put your life on the canvas and then you never want to look at it again?

MM: No, that?s different. I don?t know...I think painting is an objective kind of art, people look at a painting and then they like it or they don?t. A song is more complex, you can feel it, there is much more at stake in a song. Most people hear a song, and they like it or they don?t, but when they do love it, they grow emotionally attached to it. When you like a song, you like it because of the singer and a whole bunch of emotions that are much more different that what a picture or a painting can convey. But painting makes me feel free because I can show my work to people and they won?t know I am the artist. People can like it even if they hate my music. I try to use what I learn while painting in my music.

Q: Then, perhaps you should change both your voice and the way you look?

MM: (Laughs) I think I can listen to this album without necessarily attaching to the music all the feelings I had while writing the songs. When I let some of my friends listen to ?15?, some cried. I actually stayed calm, which is different from my other albums, which proves that I really do keep growing.

[Mechanical-Worm]

Q: What albums make you cry when you listen to them?

MM: Diamond Dogs by David Bowie, I think. There is also this song that keeps haunting me. It?s called ?Quiet Inside?. I don?t even know who sings it or who composed it, it?s the song that plays during the end credit of The Jacket (the song is by The Jane Does). My attachment to this song is linked to the movie, but not only that. There?s also this song that could be played at my funeral, it is ?Exit music (For a film)? by Radiohead. I stopped being sad when listening to it for a while but now it gets to me again. That is a track that actually creates some really strong - and sometimes really bad - feelings when you listen to it. But I think that if this song doesn?t make me feel as sad as it used to, it?s because I?ve changed. I am no longer the kind of person who just seems to forget things. Anger or salvation, these are the only two options that are available. I prefer being angry than sad. I?m obviously in a good mood today because I can talk about it and laugh at the same time. My whole life has been dedicated to anger and hate. Everything interesting I?ve read, seen or heard was born out of frustration because you cannot live your life the way you want to so you try to express it through writing, painting or music. I think it is what I?ve always tried to do, maybe I achieved my goal, maybe some people can relate to what I?ve been trying to express. Fans have been able to listen and to like my music because we feel the same way. But I made this record for me rather than for other people. I actually realized, since I am a rather difficult person to content, that if I can still impress myself and make me happy it means that I managed to make this record for me rather than for others. That should be the one and only criteria. I don?t really need people?s opinion. I don?t need to be successful. Whatever people might think of this record, nothing can make me doubt anymore. I?ve tried as hard as I could not to hide behind excuses. If something is wrong, I?ll be the only one to blame. Everything that might occur in my life, occurs because I want it to. And, somehow, that is what this record is about. This is about my new choices, my own life, the fact that i stopped trying to fool my ego, this record is my salvation in a way. However, my songs might die, and I don?t even have a coffin for them!

Have you seen Toby Dammit de Fellini?s movie [Histoires Extraordinaires]? It is my favorite film. That film summarizes my life and i would like to pay it some kind of tribute in my videos, but it really is impossible. Trying to explain to someone that I actually live in a house, smoking a joint and watching TV like everyone else. Don?t laugh, even though I know it?s kind of funny. At the same time, I don?t think anyone could think that a serial killer?s bedroom could be more unhealthy than mine already is. This is what is truly ironic about my life. Marilyn Manson?s house is both much worse than anyone else?s and disappointingly normal. My friends? reaction when they come home is very surprising, even more when a girl gets into my room after a whole night of debauchery and sees panties hanging from every lamp in the room, that?s both comical and sad. Trying to put all of this in a movie is impossible; it?s something you need to live. My life is a movie. People look at me like I?m in a movie because I write about my life and media write about it too. Perhaps this is both my life and my new source of inspiration for art. This also the evolution of artists I admire like Andy Warhol or Dali. Being me is complicated. Trying to make my life into a movie with an actor playing Marilyn Manson seems pretty useless, why can?t I just be me? People say that I?m a genius, that I?m ugly, that I?m a total freak or that my bedroom sucks, that?s what people say when they watch the movie that my life is and perhaps it is what they?ll say when I?m dead. I am both a director and an actor and I am the one pushing the ? laugh? and ?applause ? button for the audience.

Q: Weren?t you supposed to shoot a film with Jodorowski?

MM: Yeah, and I still plan to. I?m currently trying to find people who believe in this project, financially speaking. This is the kind of project that breaks your heart, even more when you have to present it to producers, explain how you feel about it to people who don?t have feelings. I?d rather shoot it with my cell phone. The most important things are the ideas. I can feel the realization of something I could have missed, like any artist who can?t finish his project properly. When I first started Marilyn Manson, I didn?t have any money, I didn?t even know how to sing, I only had a tape recorder. I don?t think you need anything else. Anyone can come up with his own ideas on Youtube or Myspace. I want to make it in this kind of simple way. I don?t need anything but my ideas. When you create something, you do it in order to communicate with others. That?s what I do when I write songs, I describe things, I don?t make any statements. Like how for Into The Fire, which is one of the last three songs, I wrote the lyrics on my bedroom walls, it goes from one side to the other and between those two walls: chaos. I?ll send you some pictures so you can put them in your article, it will make it easier to understand than if I try to explain it with words. I?ll take a picture with my phone. I don?t know what I?m going to do with those walls but they?re my best piece of art so far. They?ll be used for the album?s artwork. I?ll miss these walls when I go on tour. I?m afraid that someone?s going to set them on fire.

P.S. Sorry for so many posts.

[mrlee]

i checked out those leaks of 6 tracks.

fuck, they suck.

He has lost it. There is no power, and all of the songs dont go anywhere, its repetative, and bland.

Retire.

[Mechanical-Worm]

i checked out those leaks of 6 tracks.

fuck, they suck.

He has lost it. There is no power, and all of the songs dont go anywhere, its repetative, and bland.

Retire.

Have you heard Pretty As A Swastika?

[mrlee]

i checked out those leaks of 6 tracks.

fuck, they suck.

He has lost it. There is no power, and all of the songs dont go anywhere, its repetative, and bland.

Retire.

Have you heard Pretty As A Swastika?

nope, that one was missing in the collection of leaks i got. it went from track 1, to track 3.

But out of the ones ive heard, im very dissappointed. This stuff so far, sounds even worse than the last album.

I mean, it makes me laugh how he was describing it a few months ago in that magazine. The line about tearing rip cage open or something.

Anyhow, i think hes gone wrong with his methods of writing. Being that, before, there was still a overall band element and contribution. Now its just him, and whoever his main writer is, last time it was Skold. This time its Twiggy.