A Return Into Industrialism: Marilyn Manson's 'Born Villain'

MARILYN MANSON: BORN VILLAIN 

SCORE: 80/100

For those accustomed to Manson's industrial charm, Born Villain is the next logical step in his discography, with this album reigning in every sound that has made the band so iconic throughout their four-decade long career. It's sharp, aggressive, and highly potent with songs that stick and stab on every turn. Produced by Chris Vrenna (who had departed from the band before the album was fully completed), who has also worked as the bands' keyboardist and drummer in the past after previously working with Nine Inch Nails, Born Villain continues the sound that the band had left off on with The High End of Low, creating something that is less troubled while still showcasing Manson's signature grit and despair through song. This is another return to industrial for the band, using thick, riff-packed industrial songs to create a harsh and aggressive palate that sounds just like classic Manson. It's a return back to the specific sound palate that had made the band so massive in the first place, and Vrenna as a producer is the best the band could possibly have, with his work spanning albums like Jack Off Jill's Clear Hearts Grey Flowers and Hole's Celebrity Skin, as well as albums by Nine Inch Nails, Scarling, Evanescence, and Metallica. Vrenna had also worked with the band on their previous album, as well as projects like Antichrist Superstar and Portrait of an American Family. Although some of the songs aren't quite as memorable as material from the band's earlier albums, this is a highly logical step in their discography that helped to revisit and recreate their classic sound with something that transitioned into the 2010's exceptionally well. It's harsh, violent, and everything that is undeniably Manson - and the filth of the album washes clean into pure industrialism in the finest manner, even when some of the songs don't land as well as others. It's just as shocking, gritty, and snarling as Manson's other works, with his same persona being in tact and the riffy sound of the production adding a layer of enjoyability to the album. It's a project that fans of the band are sure to adore in every way, and it's one of his most hidden and underlooked bodies of work. Born Villain is a hidden gem amongst a sea of underrated projects, and I think that it is truly impossible for there to be a "bad" Manson LP, with this album being just another piece of his unbreakable puzzle. The songs are all unique and drastic, with a consistent sound that uses a variety in songs to create something where every song is something different from the last. It's the kind of album where the songs are replayable and memorable, and they work outside of the album just as well as they do in it. Eight albums in, Manson was more involved than ever in the composition of this album, with his work being much more tightly wound and true to himself - especially due to his departure from his previous record label, Interscope; which meant that his creativity was no longer being censored or dampened by the band's record label. This became what would be their first album without their prior drummer, Ginger Fish, as well as the first since the issues that Manson was going through in his personal life and love life during both Eat Me, Drink Me and The High End of Low. This led to a dark, clarified album that feels like one of their most truly organic projects, with great pacing, a returning format, and a quality that showcases the artistic prowess of Mason through and through. Signing with Cooking Vinyl Records allowed for Manson and the band to retain full creative control for their albums, providing this album with a refreshingly complete sound that feels polished and reminiscent of his previous projects while still being new and different enough to warrant a brand new era for the band. Their grown, matured sound is definitive of the moving of the genre while adapting to changes, struggles, and doubts, and the sound of Marilyn Manson has managed to stand the test of time and still sound fresh to this day - no matter the album. For such an underlooked and unloved album, this is another incredible piece of the band's discography. The sound of this album is hugely reminiscent of their previous albums even despite it not spawning any real major hits - but it shows that the hits don't count, nor does the popularity. The band has never focused on being radio friendly, and some of what is considered to be their heaviest material resides on this album - both lyrically and instrumentally. Twiggy had considered this album to be the band's best, citing it as a more "punk rock"-esque version of Mechanical Animals - without being too pretentious in the process. The band had started work on the album while touring to promote their previous record, and the result is an album that is complex, with more romantic songwriting that takes the content and styles that the band is known for in a new direction. The album is cohesive and contains everything that fans of the band know, love, and want - and it proves that there is no possible way for Manson to make a bad album, let alone a boring one. Hour-long runtimes never go by as fast as they do within the Manson catalogue, and Born Villain is another victory lap for the band, reigning in their older sound to create something familiar, yet new and exciting despite it all. Over a decade later, the album has held up incredibly well as a less-welcomed part of their discography, and die-hard fans are sure to see the charm in the album that some outsiders have not been able to open up to. Rarely can a band take every sound that they have ever worked on and pack it all into one album, but Marilyn Manson did just that with Born Villain, with this album sounding like every single era of the band meshed into one. It showcases learning and growth while adapting every skill and change into the album's soundscapes, and the result is an album that is highly impressive and generally deeply enjoyable throughout its entire runtime. In an interview with Loudwire Magazine, Manson had referred to this album as the "grandest concept album", with references to both the media scrutiny that Manson had faced amongst the Columbine Massacre controversies, as well as a concept that is rooted in the biological argument of nature vs. nature. This led to an album that is incredibly dark and grimy, returning back to the major themeology of Holy Wood while taking major influences from Mechanical Animals. Manson had a very clear idea for the album that was presented almost immediately, and his different view over Twiggy led him to be the one that was majorly in control of the album and the ideas within it. The album alludes to themes like violence, guns, flowers, and various different pieces of media, film, and literature, which included poetry amongst other sources of inspiration. The album was worked on in a very minimal apartment space, which allowed for Manson to create without much distraction - leading to a very clear album that showcased the exact direction he was looking for. He had become the only writer of many of the album's songs, as well as the composer for over half of the album. Some of the band's absolute heaviest material resides on songs like Murderers Are Getting Prettier Every Day, and the sound is deeply refreshing and rejuvenating. The space in which Manson was working in was also the space he had created his first painting in during the mid/late-90's, an apartment above a Liquor Store based in Los Angeles. The later half of the album is where the sonic elements really start to shine, and it's an album where you can feel the band coming out of their shell as it progresses. It's a slow burn that builds gradually and creates scenic and harsh pieces throughout, and some of Manson's most impressive artistry lies in the cracks of this album. "On the last two records I made, I was trying to make people feel what I was feeling—which wasn't a good idea, because I was feeling like shit. Check mark number one: don't make records that make people feel bad." -Manson [Vanity Fair] Rather than discussing struggle, Manson returned to deeply abstract concepts to create an album that is less melancholic and struggle-filled than the last two efforts he had worked to create, making for something fresh and heavy sonically rather than emotionally. Like any other Manson record, the album still does have it's moments of gloom and doom, but this is painted through aggression and steadily building grooves rather than static and scathing attacks at former lovers. The album blends various different dark genres to create an album that is primarily industrial at its core with gothic and metallic elements shining through in various different tracks and the moments within the album. The band had experimented with distortion of sound effects that were beyond human hearing comprehension, hoping to make listeners "nauseous" through these explorations into the controversial hypersonic effect. It's an album that fans of the band are sure to love, and although it isn't as known as the band's previous works, it's one that is deserving of much more than it gets. It's sharp, heavily industrial, and deeply enjoyable from sequence to sequence. It experiments while still having a cohesive and consistent sound packed down, and the moments of change allow for the album to blossom throughout. Manson's complete artistic control makes this one of his most unapologetic projects, and it's something that defines the band in their entirety while creating something that blends every single one of their eras into one.