ARTIST: Marilyn Manson
ALBUM: The Golden Age of Grotesque
RELEASED: 2003

RATING: 6/10
STANDOUT TRACKS: "Spade ", "Doll-Dagga Buzz-Buzz Ziggety-Zag", "This is the New Shit "

REVIEW: It is true that one can never know what to expect from the creature that is the band and man, Marilyn Manson. It is also true that with each album, the listener will either "get it" or they don't. With that said, this album is very different. Many Manson fans don't like it, others think it is phenomenal.

The album is supposed to have a sort of 1930s burlesque theme and it does...for about the first half of the album, then it just kinda fizzles into something else entirely. With the introduction of Tim Skold, formerly of electro-industrial band KMFDM, this album goes in a very synth-bass, very sterile and programmed direction. Personally, I thought the guitars throughout the album were overprocessed, to the point where they also became very sterile and instead of being heavy, they became a processed-machine.

For all of its faults though, it's still a good record that lesser bands would kill to be able to emulate. The lead single "mOBSCENE" is nothing particularly special and certainly not representative of the sound of the album as a whole. Some standout tracks are "This is The New Shit", "Doll-Dagga Buzz-Buzz Ziggety-Zag", for it's unusual onamonapoeia lyrics--strangely seeming like a 30s "big band" with distorted guitars and the title track which has a very eerie, "Moulin Rouge"-esque sound with some interesting vocal harmonics. As a whole though it's stil an in-your-face Marilyn Manson record, just not as much as past efforts.