Marilyn Manson
So what are your (very likely very divided) opinions on Marilyn Manson?
I would consider myself an ex-fan turned into a nostalgic one. By that I mean...
The concept of Marilyn Manson as a band was great: test the limits of censorship without shocking just for the sake of it (take that, Rob Zombie creep!). A lot of his songs do have a very intelligent undertone if you read between the lines. He sings about some things going seriously wrong in today's world, such as the growing influence of radicalism in different religions, the weapon lobby in the US, growing conservativism, ... Sure, he is a shock rocker, but the songs are more intelligent than you'd think.
Portrait of an American Family wasn't bad (I especially like "Dope Hat" and its insane video, and "Dogma"), Smells like Children was bizarre enough as an experiment to enjoy in a weird way (his "Sweet Dreams" cover indeed was good, the Dope Hat remixes were decent, and I liked that "Sympathy for the parents" with the distored piece taken from a TV interview) but the true masterpeaces were "Antichrist Superstar" and "Mechanical animals".
Mechanical Animals it was got me into Marilyn Manson. The photo on the CD cover was fascinating me: it looked cold, emotionless, perfectly suiting the album. Songs such as "Great big white world", "Rock is dead", "The dope show", "I want to disappear", "Coma white" (love the video!) were all very good tracks in their own way, and the hidden track playing only in computer was a great conclusion of the story the album is telling: a cold, emotionless world which remained after the apocalypse that was described in the Antichrist Superstar album.
Antichrist Superstar was chaotic and very heavy, but I love it. "Irresponsible hate anthem" (yes it was recorded live!), "The beautiful people", "Cryptorchid" (video and song are masterpieces), "Minute of decay", "The reflecting god" (fantastic!), "Man that you fear" : all great songs that fit extremely well with the conceptual album it came from, telling the story of Marilyn's vision of the apocalypse, meanwhile in a metaphorical way also describing the transformation of Brian Warner into the "antichrist rock star" Marilyn Manson.
However, Mechanical Animals (my favourite Manson album) was so good that it became a bit tough to make a follow-up that would not disappoint a bit. "Holy wood" (great sleeve pic) opened very promising with "GodEatGod" and "The love song", "Disposable teens" and "The nobodies" also showed the brilliance and video creativity of the previous two albums. However, the rest of the album left me a bit disappointed.
With the trilogy completed, I think we can say Marilyn's status as an intelligent rock artist terminated along with the trilogy's conclusion. The albums that followed seemed to not have a theme or concept, and it seemed all he was interested in was to shock. Occasionally there was a decent track but I had the feeling that the focus shifted from good music with a deep meaning to just trying to shock. His live songs became worse too; urinating on stage, ripping off the underpants of a girl dancing in her underwear, ripping Bibles apart, ... let's just say this is immature and unless you are 15 years old or younger it is NOT funny. The videos for "(s)AINT" and "Heart shaped glasses" were much of the same: sure, it was shocking, but if the song sounded better then it wouldn't come across as pathetic and childish. The following album was just bad. Really bad. So bad I didn't find the interest anymore to give his latest release a listen.
Live it was much of the same. The last time I saw him live he was so stoned he forgot parts of the lyrics, stopped a song halfway (clearly not planned in advance because the other band members were as surprised as the crowd), at one point Jeordie White (Twiggy) even had to do some vocals because Marilyn was too stoned to do it. Also, saying "fuck" every 30 seconds just doesn't suit a grown up person, even if your're a shock rocker.
To me Marilyn Manson was a fantastic performer with an amazing concept and a message that had to be told, and his first releases were simply great and are still great to listen to. Once the Antichrist Superstar-Mechanical Animals-Holy Wood trilogy was completed though, it went downhill very fast so for me the career of the Manson I appreciate actually ended with Holy Wood. What followed was not the Marilyn Manson I appreciate.
I still love listening to those older songs. Call me an ex-fan who is very nostalgic for the sound of early Marilyn Manson, but realistic enough it's unlikely he'll ever make an album like Mechanical Animals again (actually, even half as good as that one is still unlikely)