Well, well, well. Look who’s back. The Satanic, motley crew have once again graced us with their incessantly evil presence, and thankfully so. Enter Marilyn Manson with their latest offering to the Gods, ‘Holy Wood‘ (Nothing/Interscope). The songs on this new release, just like their predecessors, take on a life of their own inside the mind of this listener. Something inside me just snaps each time I hear this band get their groove on. There is something inescapable about this music. It has an overwhelming sense of wickedness within it that never fails to make a person want to do unspeakable things. But don’t lay blame on the band for your evil-doings. Look in the mirror instead, no matter how ugly the truth is.
‘Holy Wood’ opens it’s rusted iron gates with a sickening mindfuck of a video that will embed itself into your intestines while providing a virtual library of images bound to feed your nightmares later on. A track called “GodEatGod” immediately begins the conceptual road trip, and forces you down the violence-ridden, blood-stained garden paths of Manson’s mind at work. This is no Garden of Eden. ‘Holy Wood’ is a dark mouthful of brambles and beetles, complete with dead tree branches grabbing at your throat while you try to swallow it all down.
No way will I spoil the experience by making comparisons to this Manson fashion statement, or that last Manson CD. Nor will I give you too deep of a description of what you’re going to hear. You naughty little children! Just buy it, and listen, and experience the feelings that come with it. I will say though, that my favorite tracks are (and always have been) the slower, moodier, more deliberately cruel and suicidal ones such as “Coma Black”, “Lamb of God” and “Valentine’s Day”. Go figure.
Admittedly, I haven’t heard something this sinister since the news coverage of the Trenchcoat Mafia, whom some had the audacity to claim Manson himself was partially responsible for. Speaking of which, the presence of bullets and guns on ‘Holy Wood’ hangs so thick in the air that one has to wonder how much of the creation stage of the CD occurred just after the Columbine slaughter.
Visions of Manson and Twiggy Ramirez in the blue, cathode ray glow of a late-night news cast dance in my head. I can just picture the two of them toiling and troubling (and pointing and laughing) over the droning, repetitive blame-placers in the media. Walmart and Best Buy proudly banned the CD cover from their politically correct shelves, while retail chains like Tower prominently displayed the huge, jawless crucifixion on the outside wall of their store on Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood to show their support.
Yet, this type of hypocrisy makes for an excellent source of creative fuel. The type of fuel that drives Marilyn Manson all the way to the top of the rock charts, and back home to his impossibly sexy girlfriend waiting in their gorgeous Hollywood Hills mansion. I would be willing to predict that this release and the tour supporting it will be no different. The show in Studio City at Universal Amphitheatre sold out in 12 minutes flat.
‘Holy Wood’ is giving us Manson-ites a bargain for their hard-earned dollars. Not only do we get that lovely video included on the disk, but the artwork and design (by P.R. Brown) is both gorgeous and disturbing. There are 19 tracks total on the CD, and the cover alone is worth bootlegging into a massive poster at your local Kinko’s. Just don’t tell them I said so. With consistent quality merchandise and visionary ability on every song, Marilyn Manson aren’t the type to rip off their fans, so don’t go cheating yourselves by scamming up this CD off of Napster. This is worth the purchase, locally or online. Marilyn Manson have created yet another ominous work of art with ‘Holy Wood’. Do your best to experience it in it’s original form.
Lesa Pence
– lesa@unearthed.com
