In approximately AD 36, the Romans and Jews conspired to crucify Jesus Christ. On November 22, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. December 8, 1980, was the day that Mark David Chapman murdered John Lennon. On April 20 of 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold unleashed the worst school shooting in U.S. history, wounding 23 people, killing 12 classmates, one teacher and then themselves.
What do these tragedies have in common? Nothing? Not according to Marilyn Manson. Manson sees parallels between these four events and himself. All include examples of martyrdom, and all are acts that he views as a testament of man's morbid fascination with death and violence. But beyond this is a social commentary on the state of the world today.
In comes Manson's latest album, Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death). Feeling the pressure and blame of the aforementioned Columbine shootings, he locked himself into his house for three months and wrote the words that would become the third installment in a trilogy (which also includes Antichrist Superstar and Mechanical Animals). And, if ...Superstar is the black sheep and ...Animals is the red-headed stepchild, then Holy Wood is the big, protective brother to both.
Not only has Manson responded to accusations of his music being the blame for the tragedy, but he's also made this album an open commentary on what's wrong with the world at-large. The focus is on the lyrics; you're drawn to them. Such maturation has taken place over the past 6 years of his career that Manson actually seems concerned. Concerned not only for himself, but also for thousands of misfits that are ignored by others. His thought is that if these outsiders continue to be ignored, who knows what else could happen?
Entertainment is not the culprit, he contends; the media, society as a whole, and parents are to blame: "I wanna thank you mom / I wanna thank you dad / for bringing this…world to a bitter end" (from the album's first single "Disposable Teens"). "I'm sorry you never check the bag in my head for a bomb," he says with his guns pointed straight at the parents on "Target Audience (Narcissus Narcosis)." These are no-holds barred lyrics. And, dare to be said, he's onto something.
Co-producer Dave Sardy and programmer Bon Harris (of Nitzer Ebb) have honed in on key sounds to make this arguably Manson's finest hour. And, along for the ride on his first studio album with the band, John 5 (aka John Lowery, guitarist extraordinaire of the David Lee Roth Band and Rob Halford's Two) makes huge contributions with writing credits on 15 of the 19 tracks. His crunchy, straightforward guitar on "Cruci-Fiction in Space" make it the most simplistic but heaviest track on the record. Of course, Twiggy Ramirez also gives his riff-heavy input to the proceedings, though not as much as on past albums.
With the odds stacked against them after what some view to be a dismal showing on Mechanical Animals, Marilyn Manson have returned with a powerful album. And this time they're not only powerful musically, but full of social incites that can make even the most conservative Christians take note and think. Striving to convince us it's not his fault in one of the band's most haunting songs to date, "The Nobodies," Manson holds fast to the thoughts of the Columbine killers: "We are the nobodies / We wanna be somebodies / When we're dead / they'll know just who we are." Or are those Manson's thoughts on his own life?
