Marilyn Manson: Shocking Reviewers Into Realizing That He’s Kinda Interesting At Times

Our look at the closing lines of the week’s biggest new-music reviews continues with a roundup of reactions to The High End Of Low, the seventh album by Marilyn Manson:

• “Eclectic, I’m-gonna-devour-you-oh-yeah-the-world-is-ending love jams.” [Christopher R. Weingarten, 1000TimesYes]

• “Manson may be the self-proclaimed God of Fuck and Antichrist Superstar, but he’s just another monster under the bed these days, a particularly non-scary monster at that. The transformation suits him when he embraces it–here’s to a new era where Manson can be his weird-assed self without pandering to the disaffected goth youth. He’s so much more interesting when he does it that way.” [Matt Schild, Aversion]

• “Whip-smart intelligence and a staggering lack of self-awareness have always co-existed on Manson discs, and this one is no different. These days he has to labor much too hard to be a provocateur. He doesn’t seem to realize it, but he’s much more interesting, much more human, as a spurned lover than he is as a fusty culture war relic, rattling his chains.” [Allison Stewart, Washington Post]

• “Musically, the new tunes mostly evoke warmed-over Nine Inch Nails crossed with mediocre ’70s metal, and occasionally, the results can be fairly satisfying. But unless you’re a very impressionable 15-year-old, Manson’s safe as milk doom metal is unlikely to leave even a superficial cut.” [Tom Sinclair, EW]