0069. Marilyn Manson
Antichrist Superstar
Time for some satanic posturing on the list then: Antichrist Superstar is Marilyn Manson's second studio album and it's a three-part thematic album (divided into cycles). And what's obvious is that they shouldn't have fired the guitarist.
But over to the review! This is a string of seventeen tracks telling the story of a catepillar turning into a butterfly (or as the band would prefer: a worm turning into an angel with scabbed wings who is the man that you fear, but who's writing this review, ey?) and on that gothmetal-journey there are some highs and some lows.
Among the highs spins The Beautiful People, which is a snappy song - it's got the stuff that usually works: a steady beat, a chorus that's incredibly easy for the audience to remember and scream along to. The next good-to-great track is the self-loathing Turniquet, which breaks off from the album's main vein by not having the song obscured by distortion or heavy doses of other effects. Then there's the tracks like 1996 where it gets pretty boring with the screaming and whatnot, so, as I said: an album of highs and lows.
The best tracks have one thing in common: the music was in part written by the guitarist (with the silly moniker) Daisy Berkowitz who, being a founding member and concept (co-)creator, got kicked out halfway through the recording. Pretty much the band's loss, I think, cause they never quite got it right after that (even though he also co-wrote Wormboy).
