Marilyn Manson - Holy Wood (In The Shadow Of The Valley Of Death)
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Marilyn MansonEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Enhanced
Published: 2000-11-10
CD Release Date: 2000-11-14
Music Label: Nothing
Product features:
- MARILYN MANSON HOLYWOOD
- Godeatgod
- The Love Song
- The Fight Song
- Disposable Teens
- Target Audience (Narcissus Narcosis)
- President Dead
- In the Shadow of the Valley of Death
- Cruci-Fiction in Space
- A Place in the Dirt
- The Nobodies
- The Death Song
- Lamb of God
- Born Again
- Burning Flag
- Coma Black: Eden Eye/The Apple of Discord
- Valentine's Day
- The Fall of Adam
- King Kill
- Count to 6 and Die
Free Music Notes for Holy Wood (In The Shadow Of The Valley Of Death)
Free Music Review: Gods Eating Gods
Hit: 5 Stars
This is the last of Marilyn Manson's three best albums, & it combines the glammy, schizophrenic, glittering druggy sounds & poetic images of 1998's 'Mechanical Animals' with the self-destructive nihilism & chaotic abuse & satanistic darkness, that was 1996's 'Antichrist Superstar'.
The album opens with the anti-god anthem, 'Godeatgod', a masterpiece of anarchistic, Nietzschean darkness, wrapped in a mood of nightmares, while retaining a great melody. It is mythic & dreamy in the most sinister way, a twisted star...
'Love Song' is a glammy pop-rock song, the album's most commercial offering, a great Bowiesque rocker buoyed by characteristic Manson lyrics & devilish vocals.
'The Fight Song' steals from Blur's mediocre 'Song 2', but the end result beats that song so much, that it doesn't matter at all. 'The Fight Song' is probably the definitive anti-society anthem of all time, beating even 'Anarchy In The UK' in mere anger & despair. It is violent & abrasive, while still catchy. Darkness glowin'...
'Disposable Teens' follows in the vein of 1996's 'The Beautiful People' and 1998's 'Rock Is Dead' (just as 2003's 'Mobscene' and 2005's cover of 'Personal Jesus' would continue this divine style). The song is a great anthem for, well, dysfunctional teens, a Nietzschean 'dethrone-the-god' song that lands just between the chaos of 'Antichrist Superstar' and the psychotic glamour of 'Mechanical Animals'. The lead single of the album and deservedly one of Manson's biggest hits.
Thus ends the first cycle of songs, 'In The Shadow', which paints the scenario for Manson's brooding, doomed world, with Nietzschean murals & Crowlesque carvings.
The next cycle, 'The Androgyne', is made mostly of melancholic, ennui-filled songs, reminiscent of 1996's 'Man That You Fear' and most of the songs on 'Mechanical Animals'. It is these kinds of songs that Manson does best, even better than his rockers, and that is why 'Mechanical Animals', which has them in abundance, always will be a greater album than even 'Antichrst Superstar', that only has a few, and 'Golden Age', which only has 'Spade'. But 'Holy Wood' also has its fair share of these dark epics.
'Target Audience (Narcissus Narcosis)' is made out of several different parts, most of them being slow & dark, while others rocking almost as heavy as the songs from the previous cycle. It is a gloomy jewel, arguably superior to the glam-industrial rockers that precedes it, & definently a haunting anthem for a world gone wrong.
'"President Dead"' is faster, but rid of much of the glammy hooks of both 'Mechanical Animals' and the previous songs here. Instead it is a strange stomping number that reminds one of 'Antichrist Superstar', especially the main chorus, but still the pre-chorus is infinitely catchy, a pure drowning joy. Not the best song on the record, '"President Dead"' is still a discordant picture of a twisted America, and a song that beats most of the heavy rockers that Manson would later reveal on the otherwise decent 'Golden Age' album.
'In The Shadow Of The Valley Of Death', arguably better than anything before it, is one of the darkest & most depressing of all Manson's slow, hungry-for-death-or-some-other-release songs. "Heaven wasn't made for me" he sings with his most weary vocal yet, while "I wish that I could be king" reminds one of Bowie's '"Heroes"', though here the mood is darker, the singer already having surrendered to his doom, abandoned by all of the world.
The song gets heavier later, in the "Death is..." part, but it retains all of its majestic dark glory. Especially the ending, "she's a burning string / I am just the ashes" is as haunting as any, made from a depression that can never be faked, an ennui that must be real.
'Cruci-Fiction In Space' starts with an intro reminiscent of Hendrix's '51st Anniversary'. It is more spacey & sci-fi than most of the other songs, while Manson sings of the twisted evolution, "the monkey / the man / and then the gun". The mood is bottomlessly dark, & the song blends industrial music simply with an eternally black colour. Not a song to cheer you up, but certainly one to ally with, when you are out there...
'A Place In The Dirt', which ends 'The Androgyne'-cycle, retains the sci-fi mood of the previous song, blending it with more Bowiesque sounds. As you can tell from the title, it is an anthem for all those damned by their surroundings. The chorus breaks away from the frail & dreamily darkened verses, into a slow crunch of industrial rock, that follows in the vein of 'Antichrist Superstar's slower & heavier rockers, while it retains the dark poetic aura, that the later rockers on 'Golden Age' would fail to do.
The next cycle, 'Of Red Earth', opens with 'The Nobodies', another great outsider-anthem, a bit more melodic & less impenetrably dark than the songs of the previous cycle, but still genuinely sinister, led as it is, by a satanic organ of some sort, & perfected with a heavy chorus with richocheting & ghostly sounds in the background. It returns somewhat to the glam vein of 'Mechanical Animals' rockers, though it is still mostly indebted to the darkness of 'Antichrist Superstar'.
'The Death Song', which is more glam-rock than anything since 'Disposable Teens', also blends some great discofied dance beats into the void, without thereby discarding any of its bleak majesty. The lyrics are self-destructive, but more proud of themselves than many of the previous, surrendering-to-the-doom themes.
'Lamb Of God' is a slow piece, following the themes of previous songs with similar excellence, and followed by the hard-hitting 'Born Again'. The lines "I'll put down your disco / and take your heart away" is as wonderfully anarchistic & world-wearily angry as The Smiths' 'burn down the disco / and hang the blessed DJ'. With its glammy darkness, this song ranks among Manson's very best, incredibly underrated & thrilling in all its excess & disposable glory & anger.
'Burning Flag' is even faster, & imbued with great, differently distanced vocals & a glam-rock chorus right out of the same book as 'Mechanical Animals', and a weary post-chorus that leads into the groove of the next verse. Splendid!
'Coma Black' is not as great as 'Coma White' on 'Mechanical Animals', but it is, arguably, the closest contender on any other album. It is everything that's great about Manson's slower songs wrapped up in one, an eternally frustrated dark epic, that also brings the albums arguably best lyrics, "this was never my world / you took the angel away". Such items can only be written by those who have actually been out there. And only be really understood & appreciated by others also from that realm.
'Valentine's Day' is only marginally less divine (or are these 2 songs just mere gods transformed to music?). It mines the same territory with a little faster & very glammy melody, a great chorus & a nothing short of [un]holy post-chorus ("flies are waiting"), which leads into another divine chorus!!!
'The Fall Of Adam' then, is another slow, dark piece, startling beauty & gloomy discordant 'dark-god-rising' chorus (so it feels). There's a nazi-parade feel over it, which only adds to the madness & darkness of the mood.
'King Kill 33' is a metal-dance-song, with the perhaps most cruching guitar hook on the record. The vocal is almost hidden in the song, before it is unleashed, still mechanically twisted, later in the verse, in something that seems like a chorus never really completed, but instead left half-born & undead at the end of the song's only verse. The song just builds & builds with these hauntingly sinister would-be-choruses, before stalling in a split-second.
The album ends with 'Count To Six And Die (the vacuum of infinite space encompassing)', which is eternal sleeping evil, the mood being holy, haunting & blasphemous all at the same time. The song is actually Satie-like, with the gloomy piano dominating along with the close-to-veiled lyrics.
All in all, 'Holy Wood' is where Manson pours out all that he has learned from 'Antichrist Superstar' and onwards, perhaps not gaining much new ground (apart from 'The Nobodies', 'Count To Six And Die', and, especially, 'The Death Song'), but instead perfecting this album with all the skills that he has. Thus this album easily becomes as great as any of his best records, and as it has something for actually every kind of Manson fan, I'd recommend it to anyone...
Holy Wood (In The Shadow Of The Valley Of Death) Poster
Japanese version of forthcoming album is now confirmed to have two bonus tracks, both of which are exclusive to this release and do not feature as b-sides to the latest import single, 'Dispossable Teens'! Bonus tracks, 'The Nobodies (Acoustic)' & 'Mechanical Animals (Live)'. 21 tracks in all.The impact of Marilyn Manson's subversive musical agenda has waned, and what's left is a provocative, talented artist writing affecting, powerful, and yes, controversial songs. Although Holy Wood is the third title of a trilogy that began with 1996's Antichrist Superstar, the album stands on its own. Rife with references to the Beatles and the Kennedys, and full of pop-culture barbs, Holy Wood is a musically diverse and powerful statement. The memorable sing-along "Disposable Teens" boasts the same kind of staccato, Teutonic, first-thrusting power introduced with "Beautiful People," while "Fight Song" is the Sex Pistols meets Blur by way of Nirvana. While a futuristic, nihilistic tint pervades Manson's work, passion is also prevalent, notably in the spooky acoustic number "A Place in the Dirt" and the brutal "Death Song." Like Marilyn Manson the man, Holy Wood is intelligent, dynamic, and multifaceted, with myriad charms that are evident to the tuned-in listener. --Katherine Turman
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