Album Review : Marilyn Manson - The Pale Emperor (2015)

Order THE PALE EMPEROR here

Wanna feel old? Remember when Marilyn Manson broke into mainstream culture and traumatizing EP SMELLS LIKE CHILDREN appeared on the shelves of your local record store? There were urban legends about how many limited edition EPs they had released back then and his mythos was often confused with Les Légions Noires, the underground French black metal collective. These were the good days. This all happened before and during the infancy of the internet.

Since the end of Marilyn Manson's conceptual period (headlined by arguably his best effort HOLY WOOD (IN THE SHADOW OF THE VALLEY OF DEATH) his career seemed to have spiraled down into purposelessness, in this new information society where shock has been commodified and integrated into consumer culture. Keeping a creative and dedicated rock star down is difficult though and Manson's back with THE PALE EMPEROR, where he finally seems to have found a new self worth creating music for.

It's strange, there were already four single out from THE PALE EMPEROR by launch date. The bulk of the promotion was done before the album was even made available. The strategy is unusual, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a bad song in there. Killing Strangers, first heard on the soundtrack of JOHN WICK, and Third Day of a Seven Day Binge both feel somewhat new to Marilyn Manson's musical landscape with the mid-tempo, bluesy influences, but have both strong and memorable identities. I've played the latter often and loud over the last couple months at my house. The last two singles Deep Six and Cupid Carries a Gun fit Manson's more traditional industrial-laced hard rock M.O, but they remain quality songs by the standard of what he got us used to over, let's say, the last five years or so.

The most agreeable surprise I thought on THE PALE EMPEROR was a song called Slave Only Dreams to be King, which is kind of a throwback song to his Antichrist/Holy Wood era where he was more upfront about where he stood socially. The lyrics of that song are classic, top shape Manson, and musically, it's still hard rock, but there's a bit of a new wave influence to it, especially in the drums. I know drums have always been a stalwart of Marilyn Manson's music, but you can feel the influence of new drummer Gil Sharone who literally takes over songs sometimes. Another one of my favourite songs on THE PALE EMPEROR is The Devil Beneath My Feet, which is probably the most new wave influenced and the most drum dominant song in the record, so I thought that it was a very successful component.

The imagery's always been fascinating. That has never wavered over the years.

Warship My Wreck, Birds of Hell Awaiting and Odds of Even are three slower, more tormented songs on THE PALE EMPEROR. I thought that Warship My Wreck was the most interesting of all three, which highlighted Manson's chameleon-like capacity of seamlessly mixing different musical styles together in order to create something original. He said in interview that he was influenced by The Doors a lot when writing THE PALE EMPEROR and I thought it showed the most on this song, which was an intricate construction of rock, blues and dark ambient with some Jim Morrison-like howls on vocals. Odds of Even is the last track on the record and, I though, the weakest. It's a long, dragging and aimless piece which I don't see the use of since you got Birds of Hell Awaiting settings more or less the same mood a little earlier on the record.

If you're wondering, the three extra tracks on the deluxe edition are ''unplugged'' versions of  Third Day of a Seven Day Binge, The Mephistopheles of Los Angeles and Odds of Even. They're fun but you know, they're a little useless. I would've loved to have some more original material.

THE PALE EMPEROR is a solid Marilyn Manson record. It's been a while since there was one, but this is it. It's probably not going to earn him new fans, but it's going to reconcile a lot of the alienated ones who walked away over the years, if they ever give it a spin. Manson's not the boogeyman anymore and he's finally come to terms with that alarming reality. There's been snuff films and religiously motivated beheadings on YouTube over the last couple years, so Marilyn Manson's coming off as a little too conceptual for the zeigeist. THE PALE EMPEROR's a very intimate record, a different kind of descent to Earth that MECHANICAL ANIMALS was. It's the dark, personal triumph of a fallen rock star who finally found a place in this brave new world.

Standout Tracks: Third Day of a Seven Day Binge, Killing Strangers, Slave Only Dreams to be King, The Devil Beneath My Feet