Two Spirit

I've listened to Manson's music for a while now, but I only got obsessed with him recently. I know I'm late to the party, but better late than never.

Anyway, I just purchased a bunch of his albums and have been listening to them non-stop, so I thought I'd do a rundown of them.

Portrait of an American Family: I realize this is his first release, but I was bored throughout the whole thing. Manson was still developing his persona, so I forgive him for the dullness.

Antichrist Superstar: After the success of the Smells Like Children EP with the "Sweet Dreams" cover that launched the band into mainstream success, Manson went right ahead and crafted this masterpiece and unleashed it upon the masses. Not only was it successful, but it's beautifully crafted and is one of my favorites.

Mechanical Animals: This album does a 180 from AS and instead goes for a more poppy David Bowie-esque sound, and I love it. It definitely is a departure from his previous releases up to this point, but Manson is able to make it his own, despite being out of his territory musically.

Holy Wood: Easily my favorite album from Manson. It combines the eeriness and creepiness from AS with the pop elements from MA to create an otherworldly sounding record. Manson has also musically matured a lot by this point, and creates tunes that not only stick in your mind, but also make you feel many different emotions.

The Golden Age of Grotesque: By this point in his career, MM was clearly running out of ideas, but that doesn't deter this release from being among my favorites from him. I actually like how MM acknowledges that there's nothing shocking left to do, so instead he makes that the theme of the album and just plays along with it. It's kind of a running joke throughout this record that MM is just making more mainstream tunes for the hell of it.

Eat Me, Drink Me: I can't get into this one at all. I appreciate that MM is reflecting his life troubles in this album, but he just comes across as very whiny and overemotional. Not really the type of content that I like from him.

The High End of Low: This feels like Eat Me, Drink Me II without the vampire themes. It's really more of the same sappy, overemotional leftovers from the previous album. Nothing to see here.

Born Villain: Despite losing MM's sappy rantings, this album is just as boring, if not more, than the last two. I appreciate the artistic atmosphere he was trying to create for this, but it just falls flat and is extremely boring. He clearly forgot how to create a good album.

So there's my rundown of MM's catalog, with Holy Wood winning the crown. How about you guys? What's your favorite MM album and why do you like it the most?

sidewinder

I don't follow Manson's career anymore but Portrait of an American Family will always have a special place on my musical journey. I graduated high school the year it came out. I played the hell out of that tape, lent it to a friend, bought another copy one because I missed it, and then bought the CD when I got a CD player for my car.

The album was raw in the way that the deep cuts on Guns n' Roses' Appetite for Destruction were raw years before. Kind of like an industrial rock version of that album. Great samples used throughout, it's a fun and trashy trip.

Antichrist Superstar was pretty good but took itself too seriously in comparison. Mechanical Animals had some decent songs but wasn't very engaging. I never listened to anything beyond that.

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Cuthbert

Are they actually good? I dunno if I can be arsed cos he's always seemed like a gimmick to me.

Scarlett O'Hara

Mechanical Animals is good, well to me it is. Coma White, The Speed Of Pain and Disassociative are the best tracks. His music really suited being in the ninties, it helped angsty teenagers let out their feelings. But now? Not really. He's no longer got the spark.

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Cuthbert

I'll try that, AS and HW then. Never listened to him so I kinda want to see what the fuss was about. One of my best pals was a big Manson fan, had the hair and everything, remember him being very big in school along with Slipknot but I lump him in with people like Korn, Slipknot, Limp Bizkit and them kind of bands.

If it's anything like NIN I reckon I'll like it.

Two Spirit

You're in for a treat, then. Those three are highly regarded among fans as his best records.

I think the major reason why Manson faded outside of his musical output declining was the fact that he is seen by many as just another nu-metal band from the late 90's. His career went down along with all of those bands you mentioned. In fact, the only band from that era that still manages to sell tons of records is Linkin Park, but that's mostly because they actually evolved their sound, whereas their nu-metal peers stayed stuck in the same sound.

Rjinn

I never gave any of his albums a listen before, so I tried out Mechanical Animals. I don't find it particularly interesting... Half the album I almost fell asleep, then after it picked up, while it seemed more energetic, it still sounded average, instrumentally and vocally. I'm guessing the appeal lies in some lyrical shock value? I don't know.

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Janszoon

I think, when they were at their peak at least, Marilyn Manson generally appealed to people who had little to no familiarity to electro-industrial, EBM or industrial. But when you come at as someone who already likes that kind of music, their albums don't seem very interesting.

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Pumpkin89

I used to love Manson, but kind of lost interest not too long after Golden Age of Grotesque. Don't get me wrong, I still listen to him on occasion, but I think things went a bit downhill after that album.

Norg

I haven't heard Born villain yet I liked da single but yeah

I think obvs Mechanical Animals was his most popular and successful album had most of his hits on that one