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.