Born Villain
Marilyn Manson toys with identity, reputation, and expectations on the smoldering, groove-heavy *Born Villain*. The metallic contortions of \"Slo-Mo-Tion\" illuminate the rocker\'s embrace of sensational, NSFW spectacle, while the splotchy, industrial downpour of \"Pistol Whipped\" favors sexual double entendres, establishing a link between seduction and violence. Manson even puts a gothic New Wave spin on Carly Simon\'s \"You\'re So Vain,\" taunting anybody who thinks that they can pin him down.
Some things to know about the eighth Marilyn Manson album: it is the first on his own label, ‘Hell, etc’; trailing it is a short film, directed by Shia LaBeouf, which features weird-looking people getting their hair shorn off, topless acrobats, midgets with no legs being stroked by busty hookers, an old man having a gun put in his mouth by Manson, and Manson reciting lines from Macbeth (“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”); to make the album, he ditched the grandeur of the Hollywood Hills and went back to the squalor of the apartment where he made ‘Antichrist Superstar’, aiming for back-to-basics grit.
Discover Born Villain by Marilyn Manson released in 2012. Find album reviews, track lists, credits, awards and more at AllMusic.
Marilyn Manson was a force to be reckoned with back in the 1990s, but despite being hailed as a ‘comeback’ album by Manson himself, Born Villain does nothing to halt his decade-long skid. It may not be as egregiously awful as 2009’s The High End of Low, but it is built on a similarly shaky foundation of second-hand riffs, unintentionally camp vocals and sampled drum hits – expertly programmed to simulate an acoustic kit as played by a dickless robot.
Get past the shocking images and purposeful controversy and when it comes right down to it MARILYN MANSON has survived, thrived, and released some great albums and equally great songs over the years. Even with the occasional misstep, the band's legacy is intact as one based on over the top entertain...
Let’s face it, Marilyn Manson would probably be pretty pretentious if his music wasn’t so gosh-darned populist.
Their eighth album serves up more cabaret antichrist shtick, plus Johnny Depp. CD review by Thomas H Green