Product Description

Fifth full-length studio album from Marilyn Manson and the follow-up to 'Holy Wood' which was released in 2000. 'The Golden Age Of Grotesque' is a return to the filth and gloom ofhis early work, with inspiration for the album coming from a broad range of sources such as 1930's Hollwood, Vaudevilleand the extreme height of cabaret decadence and so-called 'degenerate art' in Weimar, Berlin.

Track Listing

1. Thaeter
2. This Is The New Shit
3. mOBSCENE
4. Doll-Dagga Buzz-Buzz Ziggety-Zag
5. Use Your Fist And Not Your Mouth
6. The Golden Age Of Grotesque
7. (s)AINT
8. Ka-Boom Ka-Boom
9. Slutgarden
10. Spade
11. Para-noir
12. The Bright Young Things
13. Better Of Two Evils
14. Vodevil
15. Obsequey (The Death Of Art)
16. Tainted Love
17. Baboon Rape Party

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18352 in Music
• Released on: 2003-05-12
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics
• Running time: 64 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Marilyn Manson's The Golden Age of Grotesque was inspired, in part at least, by the seamy underside of Weimar Berlin, circa 1930. The album is constructed along the lines of Alice Cooper's 1975 gem, Welcome to My Nightmare, dipping in to the same cabaret of Cooper's "Some Folks."

Unlike Cooper, however, this is no comic nightmare. "This isn't a show / This is my fucking life / I'm not ashamed / You're entertained," Manson snarls in "Vodevil," making it abundantly clear that the singer was born in the wrong time and place and is more at home among the absinthe-drinking revellers in pre-Nazi Germany. The album possesses a dark, accessible beauty rather than the twisted industrial dissonance that pervades much of his earlier stuff. "mOBSCENE" is a thumping rocker that features a deranged cheerleading squad. "Ka-Boom Ka-Boom" is a rousing stomper that Manson penned in response to an exec's complaint that the new songs didn't rock. Its simple yet seditious chorus decries, "I like a big car, 'cause I'm a big star / I'll make a big rock & roll hit." Since 1998's Mechanical Animals, Manson's albums have become progressively more tuneful, and Grotesque continues the trend. --Jaan Uhelszki

Customer Reviews

Platnium age of Grotesque!
Despite what people say I think this is a great album, probably his most commercial yes but still great. The guitar is very origional. Tim's style is awesome and although you get bored with this quickly I still really lik the hits on it and Spade, Use Your Fist And Not Your Mouth and several others although I recommend getting his other stuff first like on Lest We Forget you get a taster of alot of his albums. It's still essential but no Manson fan should give it less than 3 stars becuase I doubt anyone could do better even me. Genrally a good album though.

hrm....
this is not one of mansons best but if you are a fan its a must have

Not one of his best...
When this album first came out back in 2003, it sounded like a thrilling return to the more playful malice of the first two albums ("Portrait Of An American Family" and "Smells Like Children") after the excellent but slightly ponderous "Holywood". The formula was starting to get a bit stale, and with the loss of Twiggy Ramirez and his replacement by Tim Skold as Manson's creative foil on this album there seemed to be a certain spontaneity here that had somehow been lost over the course of the preceding few albums.

Listening to it now, though, it all sounds a bit rushed and thrown together, with little making much of a lasting impression..."This Is The New S**t", "mOBSCENE" and the excellent title track are exceptions to the rule, but the album as a whole is a bit insubstantial. It's not terrible, but it's not brilliant either.

Certainly don't start your Marilyn Manson collection here - get "Antichrist Superstar" first, then "Mechanical Animals", then whatever takes your fancy.

Whether "The Golden Age Of Grotesque" turns out to be where it all went downhill, who can say yet...I hope not...