Marilyn Manson : Born Villain

<img src="http://www.qromag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/marilynmansonbornvillain.jpg" alt="Marilyn Manson : Born Villain" /><br /> Marilyn Manson has pushed the boundaries for far too long and done way too many shocking things to be able...
Marilyn Manson : Born Villain
6.4 Cooking Vinyl
2012 

Marilyn Manson : Born Villain Marilyn Manson’s worst enemy is not God or the government or societal norms.  No, Marilyn Manson’s worst enemy is himself.  He has pushed the boundaries for far too long and done way too many shocking things to be able to faze anyone anymore.  He cannot top himself.  The only boundary he is pushing now is daring to still be around.

He has been public that he was going through numerous personal struggles during the recording and release of his last two albums, 2009’s The High End of Low and 2007’s Eat Me, Drink Me, and from listening to those, it was no secret he had lost his edge.  Not to mention that his longtime friend and collaborator Jeordie White (a.k.a. Twiggy Ramirez) wasn’t even present from 2002 to 2008.  The one thing he does have going for him is that White is back; Manson clearly does his best and most driven work when he’s alongside him.

Manson’s latest offering, Born Villain, has been a few years coming.  It was rumored to be a bit of a departure from the sounds of his previous works, but these days, what album isn’t rumored to be a departure of some sort?  For as ‘re-self-discovered’ as this album sounds or was supposed to have been, it has to be said that this is also the same old Marilyn Manson everyone loves to hate.  He has one of the most original-sounding voices in rock – a very distinctive moaning drawl.  Breathy sounds and the dragging out of vowels are abundant, which exhibits nothing new to those who have heard his albums.  There’s also a decent amount of whispering on songs like “The Gardener”, where Manson whispers in the intro, “I’m not man enough to be human, but I’m trying to fit in, and I’m learning to fake it.”  The honest truth regarding Manson is that saying things like this are old hat for him.  Really the only new ground he covers on this album is his sound. 

A standout track is its lead single “No Reflection”.  It has these foreboding synthesizers in the background that when prominent make the song sound like it belongs in an ‘80s John Carpenter movie such as Prince of Darkness.  If Manson was going for a creepy vibe, he found it on this track.  “The Gardener” is mostly led by bass guitar with a straight across drum beat, which a slight breath of fresh air.  The rest is chock full of chunky guitars and various disturbing sounds. 

Song titles that push the limits have always been abundant on his albums and Born Villain is no exception, with tracks such as “Pistol Whipped” and “Murderers Are Getting Prettier Every Day”.

Born Villain still exhibits the industrial metal sound that Manson has been known for all these years.  This isn’t a complaint necessarily, but he certainly isn’t as disturbing as the Marilyn Manson the public beheld back in the days of Antichrist Superstar, Mechanical Animals, and Holy Wood.  Back then there seemed to be a collective, “Oh my goodness!  Who is that?” surrounding Manson, but these days that has evolved more into an, “Oh yeah, that’s just Marilyn Manson being Marilyn Manson.  What’s for dinner?”  Born Villain does feel personal to him; it’s clear that he made this album for himself and no one else.  So on that level, as cliché as it sounds, it can be considered a success.  Or could it be that the joke is on us, that the shocker this time around is that he didn’t set out to shock anybody?  D’oh.

MP3 Stream: “The Gardener

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