I've never really been a fan of Marilyn Manson, although I admit I've always kind of been fascinated by him. And he has had a handful of good singles-- "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" is still pretty awesome.
Anyway, the one album of his I own is Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death), which came out in 2000. I was inspired to dig it out today, because the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy's assassination has been all over the news; and there are several references to JFK in the lyrics of Holy Wood; and there's even a scrap of an autopsy report in the corner of the album cover that reads "22 November 1963."
So I decided to listen to the album this afternoon, to see what my impressions were after not hearing it for several years. I remembered that I appreciated the album at the time because it wasn't all screaming and abrasive industrial noise, as opposed to Antichrist Superstar.
I mean, there's still a lot of that, but there's also a number of quiet moments, where Manson uses his creepy baritone over slow, distorted, minor-key arpeggios (think the intro of "Sweet Dreams"). Nightmare fuel, basically.
But I don't know how anyone could listen to this music all the time. It is bleak. Like, nihilistic. It gets a bit oppressive by the time it's over. And yet, it's still not as bad as Antichrist Superstar. I tried to listen to that album once, and that was one of the few times I can think of that I actually felt bad after listening to music. It was unsettling.
But this album isn't nearly that bad. Nevertheless, I still think I need to go watch some Care Bears episodes on YouTube to balance things out. =D