Marilyn Manson "Antichrist Superstar" (1996) - got it
I actually found it a little difficult to revisit this one. I picked
it up when I was a teenager, and as with a lot of this sort of angry,
nihilistic, twisted music it was a good release for me when I was going
through a whole lot of my own stuff. The off-shoot of that is that
this music is now largely tied to some pretty uncomfortable memories.
Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor had taken the band under his wing and
produced their first couple of releases. He initially helmed the
sessions for Antichrist Superstar too, but was around less in the second
half of the process due to his commitments working on David Lynch's
"Lost Highway" soundtrack.
The album still has a NIN 'Downward Spiral' vibe to it though with
crunchy guitar riffs, roomy drums, bleakness and a touch of ambient
treatment to some of the arrangements. The album starts full pelt with
propulsive metal of "Irresponsible Hate Anthem" before seguing into the
successful single "The Beautiful People" with its industrial-meets-tribal drumming and simple but effective guitar riffs.
Much of the album has a beaten, feral intensity to it, but the brakes
are applied in a couple of places, most noticeably the melodic
"Cryptorchid" with its squelchy beats and creepy synths, and album
closer (save for the 80+ tracks of silence and the hidden track at the
end) "Man that you fear"
which almost has a creepy post-apocalyptic triphop vibe to it, like
someone trying to emulate Portishead except that person is a crazed
serial killer and is unable to hide that in the music.
Musically it is as strong a rock album as you could hope (though
trimming a track or two wouldn't harm it). Apparently there's some
lyrical chain throughout the album so that it's kind of a concept
album/rock opera, but I never really paid too much attention to that.
All I know is that at a certain time in my life it was the right album for where I
was at, but I don't give it many listens these days.
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