While the Delorean time machine may not be available yet, we still have the power to go back to the past and rescue a beloved record from the Marilyn Manson vault; 2000's Holywood. Why? Because it has been already ten years since its debut on November 13th.
While the 90s X Generation may have been highly familiarized with Mr. Manson's ultra shocking imagery and music we wonder how these latter generation perceives him with all the Lady Gaga craze (mind you, we're not comparing them).
Originally titled as Holywood (in the shadow of the valley of death) it was a conceptual album intended to be the final (or in Manson's words initial) chapter of the Triptych which began with 1996's Antichrist Superstar. It emerged on an America overpowered by media violence and let's not forget that the Columbine massacre of 1999 turned into the thorn in the band's side.
The tenth track, The Nobodies was also included in some of the footage shown in Michael Moore's Bowling For Columbine, along with an introspective interview with Manson himself demystifying most of the bad press fed by angry parents and Christians worldwide. However, as one recent song cleverly suggests;
"whatever doesn't kill you is gonna leave a scar."
Soon after these tragic events the music industry had a radical the face lift. MTV's generation of doomed, grunge-infused teenagers was replaced by a swarm of reality shows, mega pop stars and the internet counterculture of downloadable media. The mid 90s batch of cinematographic quality video directors such as Samuel Bayer, Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry, Mark Romanek, Darren Aronofsky to name a few slowly fled to the movie business having even greater success. The following music genres became softened and with less and less shock value, threatening the old-school rockstars yet they didn't perish; they were just removed from the mainstream opposite to what occurred during the era of Nirvana-esque bands.
But the question is; was Manson prepared to make a successful transition to this new decade without being crucified? Yes Risk of being labeled and narrowed as a goth icon? Probably yes. This was well proven with the following records of The Golden Age Of Grotesque, EAT ME, DRINK ME, and the 2009's, The High End Of Low. Although they haven't been considered as the loudest and most important productions of the last decade in Manson's catalogue according to some music critics, they still remind us he's still an unkillable monster.
The cover song "Tainted Love" and video proved to be a parody of the modern goth culture and rap artists.
Hence, let's keep out chins up for the future. In the meantime let's take a walk around The Valley Of Death and remember what made so such a badass piece of modern rock, shall we?
"Jesus was the first rock star. The cross is the biggest, greatest piece of merchandise in history, bigger than any concert T-shirt. And Jesus was the first dead rock star. Like Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain and Jimi Hendrix, he became immortal by dying. A dead rock star becomes perfect, and he'll be that forever. He'll never change, never get old, never turn into something less great than at his peak, at the moment of his death. "
(The Dead Rock Star, Rolling Stone interview, 1999).
