"The Pale Emperor": Marilyn Manson goes from gothic to blues
Marilyn Manson flourished as a gothic rocker and antichrist superstar in the 1990s. At the dawn of his fifties, his vision is still as violent as ever, but he has found a much more subtle musical vehicle: the blues.
"The Pale Emperor", Marilyn Manson's first album in three years, was released on Tuesday. He's stepping away from the searing aggression of guitars and synthesized minor chords that have helped define himself and make him one of rock's most controversial stars.
The opening track of the new album, "Killing Strangers", begins with the muffled sound of bass and drums so dear to early adopters, but is immediately followed by a guitar that borrows more from the bluesmen of the Delta. from Mississippi to heavy metal, traditional Manson inspiration.
But the two musical genres are not that far apart, since Black Sabbath, pioneers of heavy metal, created their sound heavily inspired by the blues. Manson has achieved a new balance in songs like "The Mephistopheles of Los Angeles" or "Cupid with a Gun", where the expression of blues melancholy meets the characteristic blackness of the rhythm section metal.
Create surprise
Manson had said, in interviews leading up to the launch of "The Pale Emperor", that he had been drawn to the harsh aspect of the blues, and that he wanted to turn his music upside down for his ninth album. "The 'redneck' in me is expressed through my voice, and it's filled with old blues mixed with elements of pure hard rock," said Manson, who grew up in a working-class family in the Ohio (north), in an interview with the British metal magazine Kerrang.
Explaining that he wanted to preserve the most striking aspects of his music, the singer who appreciates the shocking aspect of his work was also afraid of having become too predictable. "If there is no chaos, things get linear. It is always necessary for someone to come and destroy the game plan that everyone is using," he told the magazine.
More circus atmosphere
Manson has wreaked havoc on him over the course of his career. The tour of his album "Antichrist Superstar" (1996) was full of anger and passion. Manson, made up like a character in a horror film, had scandalized many Christians by tearing pages of the Bible on stage.
The singer had been widely criticized in 1999 after the shooting at the Columbine high school (Colorado, west) where the two young shooters had mentioned being fans of his music. Marilyn Manson, who claimed that her view on religions was inspired by Nietzche, quickly distanced herself from the massacre and insisted that American society needed a scapegoat.
Still antichrist
The singer, who has just celebrated his 46th birthday, has not changed his view of the world. In the track "Killing Strangers", he once again attacks the hypocrisy of society in the selective condemnation of violence. "We kill strangers so as not to kill those we love." His vision of theology resurfaces in "The devil beneath my feet", where he sings "I don't want your God and his supreme power", and "I don't need someone watching me. from above".
He explained that he forged his character because of his childhood in a Christian family of ordinary appearance but where he spied on his grandfather slipping away to satisfy his needs for zoophilic pornography.
Manson was very close to his mother, whose death last year affected him greatly. With his music reduced to the essentials, Manson hinted that his eccentric character might retire. "This P.T. Barnum (creator of circus and" monster "shows) aspect of Marilyn Manson has sort of evaporated," he told Rolling Stone.
