2018: June 20th

I've been listening to the Lost Highway OST a lot again lately - it's never far from my ears - and I realized I don't think I've ever posted this track here blog before. Apple of Sodom, as well as Manson's cover of I Put A Spell On You, were the tracks that made me a fan of his. Previous to that, I actually disliked him quite a bit. The problem was, in the mid-90s when he first got huge, depending on what interview you caught with Manson, he might come off like a complete tool. Those were the interviews I saw initially, including one at Woodstock '94, which was right around the time Jeffrey Dahmer was killed in prison. During an interview with Empty-V, Riki Rachtman asked Manson if he felt sadness at Dahmer's passing and Manson went on some asinine diatribe about how a he felt a little piece of him had indeed died with the imprisoned serial killer. Now of course, I realize that Manson was probably fucking with the moronic VJ, while at the same time playing up the stupid image much of his fanbase at the time ascribed to him (the guy singing about worshipping no one but yourself liked to fuck with those who worshipped him). Whatever the motivation, as an early encounter with his persona, I rejected it. It wasn't until the Lost Highway OST that Manson's music music begin to seduce me, and dovetailing with that, a friend lent me his Autobiography, which fully revealed just how smart this guy was. Finally, a rebuttal Manson penned in Rolling Stone magazine post-Columbine, after being blamed as a catalyst for the event, was so well written and thought provoking, I plunged headfirst into his music. I really can only lay the 'genius' tag on two MM records - Antichrist Superstar and Mechanical Animals, but the man is an icon and a really good motivator for self empowerment if you listen to the lyrics. A couple of years ago I recall finding a lot of strength in Superstar while my life was imploding around me and the person I had trusted the most repeatedly stabbed me in the back. I remember her commenting on me listening to Superstar a lot at the time, as if she felt threatened by it. She was right to feel threatened - it helped me stay afloat in one of the most tumultuous times of my life.

Playlist from 6/19:

Danzig 1
Belong - Common Era
Nothing - Zero Day (single)
Nothing - Downward Years to Come
Christopher Young - Hellraiser OST
Marilyn Manson - Antichrist Superstar
Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport
Various Artists - Lost Highway OST

And Marilyn Manson's Phantasmagoria is FILMING???

Via the mighty Bloody Disgusting, you can read their article here. I had actually never seen this trailer before. If the film bears any resemblance to it this will be Phantastic!!!

Marilyn Manson - The Reflecting God

It's funny, when this album came out I was most definitely not a fan of Marilyn Manson. For much of his early to mid career, as he ascended into goth-metal-godhood I thought he was a moron. This was particularly based on an interview I saw him and multi-instrumentalist Twiggy Ramirez do circa mid-90's where they pretty much acted like morons and said some things that felt rather disingenuous. That's the funny thing about Manson, and something I definitely didn't get until much later - depending on what face he wanted to put forward at any given moment he was apt so play different angles on his character. Later the two songs on the soundtrack to David Lynch's Lost Highway soundtrack planted the seeds of my interest in his music. Piggyback on this his autobiography The Long, Hard Road Out of Hell - which I read in a day, and then finally his BRILLIANT post-Columbine rebuttal to the accusations of real morons that his music was to blame for that tragedy and I began to realize that this guy was a very, very smart person. And an artist of the highest order. As the years have gone by I've become more and more of a fan, Antichrist Superstar achieving a status in my personal hierarchy of music that puts it up there with the greatest concept albums ever made. This - very much like Pink Floyd's The Wall - almost feels transcendent of the idea that it is a concept album in a world where that term gets bandied about a little too loosely (smashing turnips' meloncholo and the infinite drabness a concept album? No.). Antichrist Superstar of course also has the distinct function of being a rather sophisticated act of Magick, and the power the cycle of songs achieves by the time it reaches the peak song The Reflecting God is something that can be physically harnessed and used to fuel all manner of creative, philosophical and empowering undertakings.