Artist: Marilyn Manson
Album Title: The Golden Age of Grotesque
Label: Nothing
Bones:
Summary: The creature has returned
Reviewed By: Sparticus

If I were an evil doctor living in a lonely castle on a mountainside I would create a creature called Marilyn Manson and I would send him out into the world to seek his fortune. Every few years he would return clutching a CD and I would smile at him and say 'splendid'. The creature and I would spend a few happy together and then I would send him on his way again.

The Creature has returned this time with another magnificent piece of work.

There are moments of pure ugliness, moments of writhing pain and moments when you feel like a large moving object has passed you by and you've been caught up in the slipstream.

There are moments which sound as if you'd kidnapped a 1920s big band, put them on a steam train taking a 200 year round trip through hell and then asked them to tell you a little something of their journey.

There are moments which sound as if you'd systematically disemboweled a kitten in front of a class of kindergarten children.

There is nothing completely new or original here; The Marilyn Manson attitude is still the same. The Marilyn Manson sound is similar, if not a little more polished. But that makes it vintage, not boring.

The creature has already left his mark on history which means he now has nothing to prove. But for as long as he returns to the castle, I will make sure I have the time to listen - after all; I created him.