MARILYN MANSON – One Assassination Under God – Chapter 1

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• Bands:
  MARILYN MANSON
• Duration: 00:43:26
• Available from: 11/22/2024
• Label:

• Nuclear Blast

After the publication of “We Are Chaos”, Marilyn Manson personally became the monster he has always interpreted artistically: the suspension of disbelief collapsed like the fragments of a mirror, piercing a man who, despite professing his innocence, is was easily erased from the international scene thanks to the bad reputation that his extreme character had always contributed to fueling. Abandoned by the band, the management and the record label, the worst was feared for Brian Warner, who in recent years has only made himself known artistically with a guest from another highly problematic figure, that of a Kanye West who challenges censorship, close to psychological collapse and the delirium of omnipotence.
With calm and clarity, supported by his fans and the unconditional support of his partner Lindsay Usich, Manson still managed to re-emerge artistically into the world, supporting Five Finger Death Punch on a huge tour in the United States, presenting the new lineup alongside Tyler Bates and Gil Sharone (The Dillinger Escape Plan) the talents of Piggy D (Rob Zombie) and Reba Meyers (Code Orange) and finding a contract with Nuclear Blast which, without going too far too much in the media circus, gave the possibility of releasing an album divided into two parts, while the first tepid court victories arrived and the music biz turned towards the Diddy scandal.
Previews suggested that “One Assassination Under God – Chapter 1” would be different from the last three album chapters, with Manson recovering the now almost abandoned aesthetics of his early days, leaving out the blues rock that had characterized “The Pale Emperor ”, “Heaven Upside Down” and “We Are Chaos”.
Of course, the fundamental industrial element of the historical albums is absent, but it is undeniable how the first single “As Sick As The Secrets Within” has touched the right keys with a heavy and cursed song accompanied by an artistic video, cryptic and vivid in its images. Then came “Raise The Red Flag” and “Sacrilegious”, more school songs that wink at older listeners with familiar tones and shameless fan service – unfortunately and fortunately the most negligible songs in the collection.
Because the rest of “Assassination” is really in focus in its cleanliness, in its coldness and in the extreme darkness that permeates it: we listen to a sober and dry Manson who renounces the historical effects/overdubs on the voices to abandon himself in desperate ballads and midtempos that they reread the past and update it in a mature and thoughtful way.
We hear the oppressive atmospheres of “Holy Wood” in the first pieces, first turning up the volume in the noisy aggression of “Nod If You Understand”, based on groove, bass and drums; later we return to high levels, with “Death Is Not a Costume”, capable of channeling the visceral energy of Manson's poetics into a minimal and sinister song with a huge chorus, while the disturbing “Meet Me in Purgatory” offers moments of reflection, demonstrating the author's ability to evoke powerful images and emotions. Two songs that evoke the gothic atmospheres of 90s alternative rock, which can be combined with the legendary soundtrack of “Il Corvo”.
The long final ballad “Sacrifice Of The Mass” closes the work in an interlocutory manner: after all, in Manson's words this is only the first half of his story, an autobiographical tale that will only be complete in the second chapter.
So is Manson really back? Not really: there isn't Reznor's legacy, the wild and iconoclastic side is dormant, there isn't even the maturity and spontaneity of the adult parenthesis, rock and blues.
Today's Manson is an embittered, lucid and sober man who rereads the past in an analytical way and updates it as best he can, also landing masterstrokes. A Manson who still has something to say artistically speaking, always arm in arm with Sister Controversia, who will realistically accompany him until the end of his days. A Manson who drastically refuses to put an end to his career and his art.