With a career spanning two decades containing run-ins with the law, the media, the church, common decency and millions of angry parents, it seems strange that nowadays Marilyn Manson's biggest enemy is himself. Since 'The Golden Age of Grotesque' in 2003, Manson has been attempting more and more to be perceived as an artist, but the public just remembers Manson as the spooky provocateur; you know, the lawsuit for allegedly draping his genitals on a security guard at one his shows, the collection of skeletons and Nazi memorabilia, and that time he posed nude for an album cover save for prosthetic tits and androgynous bump protecting his modesty. I'm sure, in fact, that Manson probably sits up at night unable to sleep because nobody understands him, and refuses to let him go through a Bowie-like reinvention of himself. He will always be shock rocker Marilyn Manson, no matter what he says, wears or releases.
And so, in 2015, we find Marilyn Manson in an awkward place. Does he go down his artistic, intellectual route playing twenty minute long Theremin solos to nobody, or does he throw down a heavy beat and scream his lungs out about something goth? It would be incredibly easy to slag off 'The Pale Emperor', but on this, Manson's ninth LP, he manages to somehow marry the two together with a relative degree of success. It's actually pretty good, all things considered.
That said, the album opens with the Manson by numbers dirge-athon that is 'Killing Strangers'. This song is so typically Manson to the letter that it almost sounds like a parody. It's full of icy cold synths, crunchy basslines, annoyingly apathetic vocal delivery and some pretty turgid lyrics such as, 'You better run, we got guns'. It sounds very tired and incredibly uninspired.
Continue reading: Marilyn Manson - The Pale Emperor Album Review
Marilyn Manson at the 'King Arthur' premiere
