Marilyn Manson

Born Villain

Written by: PP on 11/10/2012 06:51:44

Another year, another Marilyn Manson album. The aging shock rocker has been releasing a new record every two or three years for the majority of his career, but it has been almost a decade and a half since he's put out anything remotely interesting, or more specifically, relevant to the modern music industry. It's weird that one dude can ride out the success of his 1996 and 1998 albums "Antichrist Superstar" and "Mechanical Animals" for so many years without fading into obscurity, but that seems to be exactly what's happened because there is still an unbelievable amount of people who go to his world tour stops around the world. It's weird, because how many people do you know who would buy a new Marilyn Manson album in 2012? Yeah, exactly.

So "Born Villain" is the eighth Marilyn Manson album and the first one since his major label contract with Interscope Records. It's also one where he has explicitly stated that he's gone back looking for the sound and inspiration that made him write his most famous albums in the mid 90s. To some extent, he has succeeded in re-energizing his tired and cliché industrial rock sound, because Manson hasn't sounded this gratingly heavy since the 90s days. It wipes the floor with both "Eat Me, Drink Me" and "The High End Of Low", anyway. "Pistol Whipped", "The Flowers Of Evil", and others have clearly been inspired by Killing Joke, Nine Inch Nails, and Revolting Cocks, at least much more so than his recent output, and as a result the songs sound way better. Weird intros with industrial noise experimentation, whisperous vocals that break into full-scale screaming, and all that stuff is back with a vengeance, and the songwriting in general is in better form than in years. As a result, the critics seem to agree that "Born Villain" is a return-to-form sort of album, especially after praising "Lay Down Your Goddamn Arms" as the best song on the album despite its blatant Deftones rip off.

The real question is, however, does it really matter anymore that Manson produces a decent album? Does anyone still care? Slipknot has its legion of fans ready to suck in whatever the band puts out next, and I guess Manson has that too. But are there seriously any new people who pop on a pair of headphones and think "well, let me listen to the newest Marilyn Manson album"? I highly doubt it - especially because industrial rock hasn't been 'in' for such a long time now. But despite that, it's actually a surprisingly solid and interesting listen, one which feels like a refreshing change from the limitations of his major label past, so creative ideas have been more free to flow here. Still, it is a Marilyn Manson album, and that can only go so far in this scribe's mind.

Download: Pistol Whipped, Lay Down Your Goddamn Arms
For the fans of: Killing Joke, Rob Zombie, Nine Inch Nails, Revolting Cocks
Listen: Facebook

Release date 01.05.2012
Cooking Vinyl / Hell, Etc

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