MARILYN MANSON
Born Villain
Cooking Vinyl (2012)
Rating: 8/10
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Marilyn Manson stopped being dangerous more than ten years ago. Feared, loathed, and picketed during his heyday in the mid to late 90s, most entertainers in his shoes become caricatures of themselves. Manson continued to remain relevant based on his intelligence, sharp lyricism and keen songwriting. And while Eat Me, Drink Me (June 2007) and The High End Of Low (May 2009) left many fans disappointed, the quality songs continued to flow.
Born Villain marks the band’s first album sans Interscope Records, being a joint effort from Cooking Vinyl and Manson’s own Hell, etc. label. The album plays out like a cross between Antichrist Superstar (October 1996) – shifting between angst and moodiness – and the commercial, pristine flavor found on Mechanical Animals (September 1998).
Opener ‘Hey, Cruel World…’ lulls you in with its drum loop and simple guitar strum before tearing your head off the way Manson and guitarist Twiggy Ramirez do best. Segueing into the bounce and sheen of lead single ‘No Reflection’, the hook doesn’t let go. Twiggy’s songwriting prowess shines on the stoner flavor of ‘Lay Down Your Goddamn Arms’, a style the band hasn’t previously tapped. ‘The Gardener’, with its spoken word verses, expounds on a style Manson first explored on the last album’s ‘WOW’. In typical self-deprecating fashion, the track opens with this poignant line: “I’m not man enough to be human / But I’m trying to fit in / And I’m learning to fake it.”
‘Murderers Are Getting Prettier Every Day’ harkens faster paced tracks from the band’s catalogue like ‘1996’ (from Antichrist Superstar) and ‘Burning Flag’ (from November 2000’s Holy Wood (In The Shadow Of The Valley Of Death), and the tempo change mid-song decimates in much the same way ‘Antichrist Superstar’ did nearly 16 years ago. The bonus of Carly Simon’s ‘You’re So Vain’ features actor Johnny Depp on guitar, and it sits well alongside previous cover versions ‘Personal Jesus’ (Depeche Mode cover, taken from September 2004’s Lest We Forget: The Best Of) and ‘Tainted Love’ (Gloria Jones cover, from the soundtrack to 2001’s Not Another Teen Movie). Title track ‘Born Villain’ is dark and precise, and closer ‘Breaking The Same Old Ground’ is reminiscent of Holy Wood’s ‘Lamb Of God’.
And therein lies what makes this such an enjoyable album: Born Villain captures all that we love about Marilyn Manson. From the industrial-metal angst, to his penchant for word play and everything in between, Manson dusts off the ashes of the past decade in favour of the phoenix of yesteryear. And while it doesn’t really give us anything unusual or exclusive to expand the band’s repertoire, that’s perfectly fine.
Chad Olson
