I remember I was 14 or 15 years old and living in Venezuela. I had turned Headbangers Ball on MTV Latino. There was a video on by some guy named Marilyn Manson. It was either “Lunchbox” or “Dope Hat.” It was such a strange video, and the lanky, black-haired waif was either a really weird looking guy or a really nasty looking girl. Shortly thereafter I bought Marilyn Manson’s Portrait of an American Family. With songs like “Cake and Sodomy, “Get Your Gunn” and “Snake Eyes and Sissies,” I was hooked. It was obscene and vulgar. It wasn’t the best music I had ever heard, but it was novel. It was like an insane, psychedelic Satanic Big Top. It was creepy like the clown in the movie adaptation of Stephen King’s IT. It appealed to the inner child with quirky piano and goofy sound effects all the while being juxtaposed by shredding guitars and disgusting lyrics.
A couple years later, in 1996, Marilyn Manson released the concept album, Antichrist Superstar. It completely destroyed Portrait. Portrait of an American Family was eccentric shock rock. Antichrist Superstar was – I don’t know. It was like nothing I hade ever heard before. Ever. There was nothing quirky about this album. It was dark, dark, dark. It was a rock and roll nightmare explosion. Distorted guitars and bass guitars gnawed at your eardrums so the drums could break through and liquefy your brain. Screaming and shrieking, Marilyn Manson the front man and namesake for the band itself, celebrated everything from sodomy to suicide to murder to necrophilia to drug abuse. He told you the Devil did not exist – but neither did God. He spit on Evangelical hypocrisy and then spit on you. Certainly Portrait of an American Family had parodied America and it’s culture. Antichrist Superstar vomited all over it. Even in the more tame (relatively) hit singles “The Beautiful People” and “Tourniquet,” there was nothing but the macabre. The songs that didn’t get too much airplay (“Dried Up, Tied and Dead to the World,” “Irresponsible Hate Anthem,” “The Man That You Fear”) were well-crafted, bile-soaked hymns of evil spat from the seething mouth of Manson.
It was amazing.
It was awesome.
It drove me nuts because – IT WAS ROCK AND ROLL. Pure unadulterated Rock and Roll.
It was like the hold music on Satan’s customer service line.
And Marilyn Manson didn’t just make Satan’s music. He personified the antithesis of morality. At least that’s what a lot of people thought. As soon as Marilyn Manson opened his trenchcoat and exposed Antichrist Superstar to the innocent ears and eyes of America’s youth, adults everywhere went nuts. Suddenly freedom of speech didn’t seem like such a good thing. Good Christian families locked their kids indoors when Marilyn Manson came to town. Townships attempted to ban him from playing in their backyards. At shows, Marilyn Manson crawled through glass, wiped his ass with the scripture, got fellated and fellated others. He didn’t want you to think he didn’t practice what he preached, sonny. The Church of Satan showed it’s appreciation when it’s founder, Anton LaVey, made Manson an honorary Reverend of The Church. Like anything that gets a lot of attention, rumors began to circulate: Marilyn Manson had his lower ribs removed so he could orally pleasure himself and that he purposefully gave himself HIV. Rock hadn’t been like this since Ozzy, Alice Cooper, Twisted Sister and Judas Priest, and even those guys looked like saints after Antichrist Superstar ripped your face open.
One thing I can’t stand now is that everyone who has an album where a guitar and a set of drums are involved is deemed “Rock Star.” That’s nonsense. John Mayer is NOT a rock star. That’s like saying Paris Hilton is a porn star because she is a damaged blonde bimbo with a few sex tapes. She’s just a dumb, blond whore. John Mayer is a musician, but just because he has a guitar and just got some tattoos doesn’t mean he is a rock star. Marilyn Manson was a rock star. Antichrist Superstar proved it.
Marilyn Manson came out with a follow-up album, Mechanical Animals, a few years later. I liked it. It was good. It wasn’t, however, Antichrist Superstar. I stopped listening to Marilyn Manson after that. Honestly, a lot of it had to do with my own personal insecurities. There were too many idiots running around with eyeliner and white faces, and I didn’t want to be grouped in with those creeps. A couple of years ago, I got Antichrist Superstar again. It was just as good. Better actually. The album had stood the test of time. It had come out, appropriately, at the twilight of my Golden Age of Music, over 10 years ago, and it still rocked. If you had been in the same predicament as I had been, try the album again. It’s worth it.
Note:
Marilyn Manson made one more good album after Mechanical Animals – Holy Wood: In The Shadow of the Valley of Death. I encourage you to try it out. It is good, but it is paled by Antichrist Superstar. Unfortunately, he hasn’t made anything good since then. A few months ago, Brandon burned a copy of Manson’s newest album, Eat Me, Drink Me. Boo. It was lame. It was just a whiny, pathetic emo album.
- David C. Garcia
You make some good points here. I’m not a fan of MM, although his remakes are awesome, and I do like “The Beautiful People.” I think I was turned off by him after I read his autobiography. He reveals himself to be a selfish, self-centered, whiny, immature little princess. TRUE.
Oh God! BOOOOOOOOO!!!! MM is horrible. He is not Rock n Roll. He is a whiny reject who got made fun of in High School. God just like hearing angers me like when I read that article in that magazine. Remember? I got so mad I threw it across the room. Only to find out later that it was Brandon’s. Oops, sorry about that B.
Soooo, do you not like MM, Meggie? It’s hard to tell.
:D
Here:
http://inmattsopinion.blogspot.com