Antichrist Superstar

I bought 'The Golden Age of Grotesque' at the time which I thought at the time was a great album (though I haven't listened to it in a while).

I like their heavy guitar/bass sound and the songs where he makes more or an attempt to 'sing', or at least a more restrained growl. I dislike the out and out screaming numbers.

Some stuff on here I love (Tourniquet) and some I don't (Irresponsible Hate Anthem). But mostly it's ok.

Everything about this album and artist is foul and putrid. The toughest listen yet.

Even before the allegations, I think my attitude towards Marilyn Manson was shaped by that Onion 'Marilyn Manson now going door to door trying to shock people' story. If you take away the controversy-baiting stuff, this is kind of repetitive.

Edgeslop. Whatever accurate social commentary Manson has here is lost on how awful he sounds and how crude and immature his lyrics are. The Beautiful People goes kinda hard tho.

Awww hell man these lyrics were sooo bad but ya know what the guitar was kinda groovy so I'll let it slide

Though I'd like it more since I like other albums more but it was a bit too long and too few bangers that caught me

I never really liked Marilyn Manson. I appreciate the influence he had on shock rock, but I never liked him. He is a bit too obnoxious, like I cringe when I see him or when I read the lyrics. I like The Beautiful People though. For that reason only I give this a 2.

💩, obv.

As Ghosts is to black metal so MM is to industrial.

Good fun but feels like cosplay of the real thing .

Give me front line assembly or scraping fetus any day

That was truly the most dreadful album I’ve had to listen to so far in this challenge. Marilyn Manson embodies everything I detest about 90s rock music: posing, senseless extreme volume, deliberate provocation and calculated shock tactics, all for the sake of causing a scandal. Musically, there’s nothing special behind all the screaming and those late-adolescent porn lyrics: Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne and Alice Cooper did the shocking stuff better back in the 1970s, and Gary Numan’s ‘alien image’ was far more convincing and less ridiculous. Music for 90s kids who wanted to shock their parents. Nowadays, nobody talks about Manson anymore. And for good reason.

Not my cup of tea. Pass

Great, I thought this album was shit, and now I know it’s shit.

Feels bad even listening to it.

I’m very much a ‘separate the art from the artist’ person.
Here you don’t need to.
They’re both shit.

You just absolutely cannot capture the mid 90s cultural feel without the intrigue and outrage over this band and album, especially being from South Florida like I am. Marilyn Manson was something EVERYONE was talking about, whether it was going to a show, that he was the literal actual devil, or that he had undergone a dubious medical procedure in order to achieve autofellatio. Huge cultural impact. Cannot be overstated.

I never was super into the band, other than a few of their BANGER singles that got MTV/radio play; I was more of a grunge guy at the time. Honestly, I feel like I have missed out on this album. It's a lot better than I thought it would be.

I'm astonished at the rating I'm giving this, based on my preconceptions.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Full disclosure - I used to listen to Marilyn Manson years ago. A shock rock band with elements of goth and industrial metal was bound to get my attention, especially one with such public notoriety after the release of the concept record Antichrist Superstar. But after a while, I became fatigued with listening to their music, ultimately phasing out of my interest in them around the time the sexual assault allegations against the namesake frontman came out, actions which he himself admitted to. If there is one aspect of my album journey that would be truly challenging to me, it would be re-examining the demons of my past. It would take some sheer willpower to cast aside any hesitancy in listening to an artist I had previously left behind. With all that said, how did it feel listening to Antichrist Superstar?

Well, let me start by highlighting the two big advantages Marilyn Manson had early on in their career: the knack for coming up with a decent hook and surrounding themselves with great producers. It is fascinating how many grooves were found in the underlying industrial foundation, bolstered by Twiggy Ramirez's distorted guitar riffs and Ginger Fish's punchy percussion. Even if the bass isn't as prominent or doing anything distinct compared to the guitars, there are still enough heavy musical phrases that penetrate through and linger in the mind. I found myself recalling the likes of "Irresponsible Hate Anthem", "Mister Superstar", "Angel with Scabbed Wings", and the pairing of the title track into "1996" as they festered. Even though I am thoroughly sick of "The Beautiful People" with how overplayed that single is, I cannot deny that it's an earworm.

Of course, as I've alluded to, the other big boon for the band was the producers they aligned themselves with early on. In this case, we have the likes of veteran industrial producer Sean Beavan, former Skinny Puppy producer Dave Ogilvie, and Nine Inch Nails mastermind Trent Reznor. There is something grimy about how this album is mixed, with buzzing electronic whirs and decrepit synths layered throughout. Hell, I was particularly intrigued when the intensity was dialed back on the rare occasion for a more brooding atmosphere, such as with the prominent Mellotron on "Cryptorchid". I wouldn't say the production goes as hard as some of these gentlemen's other works, especially how weirdly muted it is in comparison, but it's decent at setting the mood.

That all said, at some point, the fatigue starts sinking in, and I am reminded of why I grew tired of this band. This album does feel long at over 71 minutes, even if it is reasonably structured into three acts for its concept. Now, I've certainly enjoyed my fair share of long records on this album journey thus far. But I feel limited by how muted the overall sound is on this record, and how limited Marilyn Manson, the frontman, can be behind the mic. Between the guttural whispers and restrained screams, I can't help but find an imbalance in his vocal presence, not quite going for broke.

Even still, probably the most damning aspect of this album is how tame this shock rock record is. After the initial uproar of "Irresponsible Hate Anthem", complete with full-on use of the hard-R N-word that I wasn't particularly into, the rest of the tracks fall into rather standard industrial music with elements of Bowie-esque glam rock in between. Hell, the titular Antichrist Superstar can be viewed as a slightly darker version of David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust character, a supernatural rock star sent to disrupt the status quo. It's probably in my favor that I have immersed myself in more abrasive and potent industrial music over the years. For me, it makes Marilyn Manson's shtick easier to digest, which means I can look past the veneer and recognize the social critiques being made at celebrity idolatry and the burgeoning fascism within the Christian conservative movement in the United States, both of which are unfortunately increasingly relevant in today's world, to the point where they seem to go hand-in-hand. In that regard, I can recognize how seemingly prophetic this album became and how so many people now embrace Marilyn Manson's brand of nihilism, which means my listening to this record came with little surprise. If the shock value is no longer there, then the only thing a performer can rely on is their musicality, and if the best I can call the musical performance on display here is decent, then it leaves a lot to be desired in my eyes.

At the end of the day, I recognize the historical significance Antichrist Superstar had at the time, as Marilyn Manson had once thrived in the perceived ideological villainy, with at least some musical sensibility. But I also recognize that I've grown up and moved on from this band and its frontman. To a shock rock artist, that would be the scariest thing to say.

Will not be separating the art from the artist here

Manson is a piece of shit and this isn't even one of his better albums. One extra star because Beautiful People is still great

Honestly I didn't hate this as much as I expected to. However. Even if I knew absolutely nothing about Marilyn Manson as a person, hearing a white guy say the n-word in the opening track alone is enough to make me give it one star.

Ooooh another spicy artist. Like Kanye, ya gotta separate the art from the artist. This is a highly influential album from a highly influential arrist, like it or not. Manson challengeer societal norms and this album is full of bangers. Unfortunately Manson is a part of a pivotal time in my life, when i was going through a crisis of faith and realizing that the first couple decades of my life were wasted being brainwashed in a cult. As i spiraled, i discovered Manson's music and a lot of it resonated with me, particularly anything involving calling out Christianity's hypocrisy.

He has since proven to be a pretty terrible person, and i hate that i resonated with some of his music. In the end though, im a much better person than i was before, and i really dont know why im putting this in my review.

I bought this album when it came out and I remember thinking to myself that I am buying this to laugh at it later. Clearly I didn't listen to it though because I barely remember any of these songs. I think somewhere in the middle of making this album he forgot he was a kitsch clown making a parody of the most kitsch musical and fully believed he was Marilyn Manson, and never came back. just completely full of himself. Which is too bad, because there is a whole lot of queer coded messages in this album and even more so on his next album. If he wasn't such a shit head this could have easily been rediscovered as camp. but he fucked that up