Fan Reviews
courtesy of: mansonusa.com

Review by: M_Absinthe

This album is exquistely filthy. It reaks of Vaudevillian punk recklessness and Dada Death Rock to make Porn to.

With the title track, I fantasized I was slinging bottles of Absinthe with Manson while Ginger played the drums with his head and PoGo molested the keys. Spade and (s)AINT dripped with a certain GOTH THUG attitude you'd imagine P. Diddy remixing. mOBSCENE, The Bright Young Things , Use Your Fist...and Vodevil reminded me how good it is to have your fist in someones mouth-or another orifice.

This is what makes Manson great. he has come full circle artistically and yet he's changed the circle into a box and burnt it to the ground.

It mixes the childlike inhibitions of Portrait and SLC, the raging hatred of ACSS, the melodic melancholia of MA, the piss away attitude of OmEga, and the lyrical genius of all prior albums combined.

This album is as real as art can get. It's a no-holds barred strip joint throw down dressed in Pinstripes and topped off with a top hat, just to make sure it looks good."

Review by: trezin.AEZOL

"this isn't music and we're not a band / we're five middle fingers on a motherfucking hand." -vodevil

this sums of the entirety of the album. welcome to techno goth-metal artrock. you can visualise the scope of the album by reading random lyrics from it:

"we're the lower gloominati, and we aim to depress / the scabaret sacrilegends / this is the golden age of grotesque" -the golden age of grotesque

"you wanted perfect / you got your perfect / now i'm too perfect for someone like you / i was a dandy in your ghetto / with a snow white smile / but you'll never be as perfect, whatever you do" -S(AINT)

mr. manson is getting back at all the naysayers. you run these harsh lyrics, digital beeps, and enchanting rhythms through a glossy production--and you've got all marilyn manson's ever done thrown in a blender and recorded to a cd format. you hear the antichrist bellow, some mechanical glam, feel the crucifixion on the holy wood, and it's all in front of your portrait of an american family--and the whole thing reeks of children. it's all here. a fan's dream and a critic's nightmare. i'm curious as to how this will go over with the trl'ers and the entertainment weekly'ers. the mOBSCENE is coming and in manson's words "it's better than a sex scene..and it's so fucking obscene."

welcome to the golden age.

Review by: Digital Vampire

The Golden Age of Grotesque. To start off, I really must give our Arch-Dandy credit for being able to combine such drastically different musical types like vaudeville and industrial. I have seen a few burlesque shows, and I recognized it in Manson's new album very quickly. In "This is the New Shit" MM sings "Let us entertain you" ,a classic vaudeville line, and the swing/goth tune "Doll-Dagga Buzz-Buzz Ziggity-Zag" is a real throwback to the big days of jazz and swing.

"Ka-Boom Ka-Boom" is an "I'm a dirty rock-star" kind of song, while "Slutgarden" is just plain filthy. In a good way though. the 1st single, "mOBSCENE" is okay. It is this album's "Beautiful People" in the sense of catchy-ness. It will be the song that non-fans will be singing without knowing it's Manson.

"Use Your Fist and Not Your Mouth" was intended for the 1st single but was replaced by "mOBSCENE" for reasons unknown. However "mOBSCENE" is a tamer song and will be easier to get played on the radio. "U.Y.F.N.Y.M." has far more 'offensive' lyrics like "I'm on a campaign for pain/ and when I get elected/ I'll wipe the white off your house/ the smile off your face" and "I'm a hate, american-style, king" and "This is a black collar song/put it your middle finger and sing along/ Use your fist and not your mouth" and it may be misinterpreted as encouraging kids to use violence instead of reason. Although Marilyn Manson was founded on the intent of pissing people off, the pissy people still get their way, it seems. "

"s(AINT)" may very well be single no.2 with its catchy, clever lyrics, that will definitley please the radio-exposed ear. "Spade" is the slowest song on the album, but, it is in no way soft. Seems to be a song about betrayal. "You drew my heart/ and made a spade"

"Para-noir" is a song about fucking. Previously know as the "Fuck You Song" Dita Von Teese, our hero's girlfriend and modern day queen of burlesque, lends her lovely vocal cords for half of the six-minute sex anthem. Lyrics are basic, but impacting. "Fuck you for your money, fuck you because your famous, fuck you to control you..."

"The Bright Young Things" is the reminescent of "The Suck For Your Solution" in terms of speed, guitar playing, and Manson does something with his voice on both songs where it kind of sounds clear and staticky. Good song.

"The Better of Two Evils" is the actual "Fuck You song" on the album "Haters call me bitch, call me faggot, call me whitey/ but I am something you'll never be" "Step on you, on my way up, step on you on my way down" and the BEST phrase Manson has ever done, "Paparazzi-nazis" Just listen to the song bitch.

"Vodevil" is a very good song. Dark, heavy, very well written. "Wake up on the wrong side of the bed/ I am the whore in your head" "This isn't music and we're not a band/ We're five middle finger on a mother fucking hand" the first mention of the other members in a song. Speaking of members, Tim Skold has a presence almost as strong as Manson on this album. Some of the earlier songs reminded me of KMFDM a LITTLE bit.

The title track is the most moving song on the album. Dark, depressing, heavy, very interesting sound. this song is the jewel of the album. I can't find words for it.

Review by: Peter M.M

Marilyn Manson has safely stayed with the same dark issues over the years, maybe exhanging it for a positive outlook in some ways, depending on your view. Despite a changing look and an only slightly alternating perspective, it has not been wildly different but erratically mercurial.

Here we see the same purposefully vague and starkly ironic take on American culture. I've always seen Manson as the sort of artist who creates art that shines back in his face and mocks him somehow, grinning wide -- like Mickey Mouse. This has never been more aparent than on this recording. It's very unsuitable to the intelligence valued in older material. His critics will have so much trouble picking through this (like using boxing gloves to eat rice), they will, like the dullards they are, assume the music glorifies certain elements only because Manson (who is foremost a caricature of American people and ideas) extolled violence in a song. Imagine if Picasso was vilified for painting war? Oh wait, his painting 'Guernica' *was* recently censored during the Colin Powell announce of war! White draps hung over it while on television.

The thick metaphors of [Holy Wood] are gone, the result is a band that doesn't take themselves so, so seriously. I'll admit that [Holy Wood] is one of my all-time favorite albums. It spoke of an inability to inspire a revolution and so this current era has a slight relation to it, it doesn't try to inspire a revolution. In fact, it doesn't aspire to care. The message is, why explain yourself to a world that wants to hate you (?), why try to change a world that wants to stay the same? So learn to accept our fate ....change yourself and party till we die in a bomb drop. If in this age people will only listen when we are vulgar or grotesque, or will only only tune in when sex and violence is on, then we must use these tools as our form of expression and voice. Even though the movement is entirely misinterpreted, it's better than being silenced. People why a white male (Eminem) would be so angry. After all, in America, can't he have everything? People are more frustrated with the world around them, and young people are beginning to try to channel it in a more powerful expression. It is every bit as legitimate and natural as what happened in Weimar before *their* War, which was carefully dismantled afterwards by a large team of concerned NAZIs. So we are choosing music and profanity over marching protests, this allows us to be in an obvious state of distress at all times (and we don't need a Code Orange for that either). Search online for Dada-ism, German Expressionist film on eBay.com, cabaret, burlesque, etc.

Anyway, a spectacular new visual (for the band) has been developed just in time for the new album, in conjuction with Gottfried Helnwein who collaborated with him for the interior booklet and a fashion designer who's name escapes me. There's also a free DVD that's much appreciated. I'd imagine the live show to be among the best concerts ever given. It plays almost like a dark, even more openly hedonistic version of Andrew W.K. - the dark spin does not work as well, however it is as much fun to listen to as I assume it must be to perform. It has the arrogant, self-referencing lyrical wit of Eminem and the harshness of KMFDM. It's industrial burlesque, cabaret techno-pop. Already called 'Album of the Year', hype has been extensive for everyone from Jonathan Davis to Marshall Mathers III.

There's very little else to say, it's certainly entertaining, but you've heard it before in other places. M.Manson even humorously admits in the lyrics to having absolutely nothing else to say, like he did on ACSS. It's the group's most riotously enjoyable disc. The music itself can be shallow if you're in the wrong mood (Certainly nothing to experience on-line), but Golden Age of Grotesque is not merely about music!

Though people will have qualms with it, just forget you are listening to a band that could have made you think about a lot more than partying, violence or sex. In a time of War, it's hard to believe that people need these songs. If you can manage to take your mind off of all of what's going on in the world, you'll be more than pleased. Imagine our planet as being your suburban home, this record will help you to close the door of your room to escape and drown out your parents (Bush, Saddam, whoever). It's a fascinating concept that we seek to act this way at this particular time in history (how can we believe it will affect change? Through ironic mocking? Mocking of Who?).

Maybe change is unrealistic, after all, the President has admitted he 'doesn't listen' to all of these world-wide war protests. Just rock, dress for America's funeral, and forget all of this.