Marilyn Manson, The Golden Age of Grotesque

I'm a fan of Marilyn Manson. Given his unique style, one-of-a-kind voice, and industrial grunge-like instrumentals, it's hard not to like his music. The Golden Age of Grotesque is one of my favourite albums of his, with hit songs like "This Is The New Sh*t", "(s)AINT", and a cover of "Tainted Love" making it more than enjoyable to listen to.

The Golden Age of Grotesque is definitely an interesting work. Marilyn Manson has changed his style and target, and has centered this album around themes that seem to be twisted themes from previous albums. Topics covered are sex, abuse, drugs, and controversy in artwork. While it is significantly darker than previous albums, it sometimes emits an air of silliness in songs such as Vodevil ("Kiss, baby, kiss, bang, baby, bang, suck, baby, suck, it's Vodevil") and Ka-Boom Ka-Boom ("I like a big car, 'cause I'm a big star""). However, it sounds nice, and while it may not be his best work, it's worth listening to.

The CD was great I mean its Marilyn Manson whats not 2 like about him he is the best andIi love him the The Golden Age of Grotesque was great just like all the other CDs.

MARILYN MANSON'S GOLDEN AGE

Marilyn Manson's latest album, entitled "The Golden Age of Grotesque" was released on May the 13, 2003. Marilyn Manson has produced 6 albums before

1) Portrait of an American Family (release date: 19 January, 1994)

2) Smells like Children (release date: 24 October, 1995)

3) Antichrist Superstar (release date: 8 October 1996)

4) Mechanical Animals (release date: 15 September 1998)

5) The Last Tour on Earth (release date: 16 November 1999)

6) Holy Wood (release date: 14 November 2000) (best and most recommended album)

REST FOR THE WICKED

Marilyn Manson laid off the anti-christ theme as he probably thought he'd overdone it in previous albums. Instead, he relaxed. Although this is not as silly as the loops, synth and other weird and wonderful sounds of the 16 tracks of Smells like Children, you can definitely sense a feeling that although Manson gave himself three years to think of an album, it was more relaxed and more appropriate for partying. Maybe he wasn't working as hard as he had been in previous albums such as Antichrist Superstar which had had a lot of thought put in in the space of a year.

TRACKS ON THE ALBUM

THAETER: This was just a bunch of random loops strung together.

THIS IS THE NEW S***: One of the most famous and widely spoken about tracks on the album (all tracks in this list are listed in order of appearance on the album). The new s*** made great success in capturing fans.

mOBSCENE: Based upon Manson's idol, the rebellious author Oscar Wilde, mOBSCENE blasted its way in at track 3 on the album.

DOLL DAGGA BUZZ-BUZZ ZIGGETY ZAG:

The track title may look like some jargon Manson was talking when he was stoned but this introduces us into the German references in the album. His use of German words (e.g. Dopplegangers) americanised Germany in this section of the album.

USE YOUR FIST AND NOT YOUR MOUTH:

Very catchy chordline and quite original fo the album. Not much more to say.

THE GOLDEN AGE OF GROTESQUE:

The most German track in the album. The title track introduces more Americanisation of Germany. Or maybe not. Maybe Manson disliked or was oposed to the idea of Americanisation and used Germany as an example and expression of this.

SAINT:

This maybe one of Manson's blandest albums but saint is manson's blandest song. He sucks the potential flavour out of this song. He seems to like D as a bassline.

KABOOM KABOOM:

This is the kind of song you can party to or watch someone strip to. It just makes you think of sex, I dont know why.

SLUTGARDEN:

A lovesong and a sexsong. About the only point in the album that refers to god. Not exactly in the bulletin chart.

PARA NOIR:

Notice, the title, Para-noir (Paranoia) and Noir in french means black. Also, Para is french for through so the title means Through Black but at the same time sounds like Paranoia. Enough of that Enigmatic mumbo-jumbo. It's a damn good song.

THE BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS:

You can let this song off for being unoriginal by its power. Power can neutralise the patheticness and sheer suicidal stupidity of unoriginality.

BETTER OF 2 EVILS:

Good. Like Kaboom, it's a good party anthem. Half of it is based on truth (haters call me bitch, call me faggot, call me whitey) and half of it is based on metaphor (I wanna hang all you cattle with my velvet rope). So it's kind of like 2 evils, the evil pain of truth and the evil lying used in metaphor, the evil pain in truth being the better of the 2 evils.

VODEVIL:

If you ever play the bassline of this song on the bass, you will have just played the greatest bassline in the world. Plus, I love the guitar. Perfect.

OBSEQUEY (THE DEATH OF ART):

Marilyn Manson is a lover of art and would never like to see it die so he imagines the prohibition of art and the small glimmer of rebellion with the piano and loops playing in a tiny background.

TAINTED LOVE:

Atrocious, ruined and BADLY Mansonised, the 3 perfect adjectives for this song.

BABOON RAPE PARTY:

A lyricless Americanised German song, metaphorising the baboon rape of Americanism.

Get this album. It's the latest album and it's a stunner.

If this weren't Marilyn Manson then I'd rate this album on it's individual merits and say it was a spot-on piece of Industrial stompy-glam-rock with gorgeous production and some excellent hooks. I'd comment on how Tim Skold (Former KMFDM/Meat Beat Manifesto) has really helped to level out Mansons style and that this is a really impressive piece of musical development for the fella.

But of course, myself being a "Goth" I'm not allowed to do this as this is the guy who made "My" culture and "my" music mainstream and I hate having little kiddies (who I label as wannabies as they don't own as much Bauhaus as me) dressing like me and going to my clubs. Therefore this album is totally rubbish, repetitive and generally the most non-goth-album ever.

Please note, the above is sarcastic....

Marilyn Manson can either seem extremely cool or extremely stupid. I can't say I think he is either stupid or cool. Being the gothic freak I am, I'm afraid I am not satisfied at this attempt to please us zombie-vampire-weirdo's. I think Marilyn Manson seems only to please little wannabe people wanting to fit into some group. Sorry, but none the less, not THAT bad.