Line #146 Music/HolyWoodInTheShadowOfTheValleyOfDeath


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/marilyn_manson_-_holy_wood_5446.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''"I'm not a slave to a god that doesn't exist!"'']]
3
4	->''"And I'm a black rainbow, and I'm an ape of god\
5	I've got a face that's made for violence upon\
6	And I'm a teen distortion, survived abortion\
7	A rebel from the waist down."''
8	-->-- '''"Disposable Teens"'''
9
10	''Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death)'' is the fourth studio album by Music/MarilynManson, released in 2000. It is the last in a trilogy/"triptych" with albums ''Music/AntichristSuperstar'' (1996) and ''Music/MechanicalAnimals'' (1998) as their predecessors; since the triptych's story is told in reverse order, ''Holy Wood'' therefore begins the narrative.
11
12	Much like the other parts of the triptych, ''Holy Wood'' is a RockOpera[=/=]ConceptAlbum. Its concept follows a protagonist named Adam Kadmon (his name derived from the Kabbalah, meaning "original man") who travels from Death Valley (a land populated by social outcasts) to Holy Wood (a city-sized amusement park with main attractions of death and violence). He tries staging a revolution but finds stiff opposition in Holy Wood's perpetually violent culture, its "guns, God, government" ideology, and its religion of "celebritarianism" where [[DeadArtistsAreBetter dead celebrities are worshipped]] and UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy is revered like a modern UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}}.
13
14	The album came out during a time when the band was under fire for supposedly inspiring the [[UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} 1999 Columbine high school shooting]] because the teens who committed the murders were fans of them. It later turned out that this rumor was false, but this didn't diminish the public outcry about the band, and particularly its namesake lead singer, whom many MoralGuardians saw as a "corruptor of youth." Manson felt demonized by the media and refused all interviews, even to defend himself, because he didn't want to contribute to the media frenzy.
15
16	Instead, he channeled his emotions into the story and themes of ''Holy Wood'', its songs criticizing journalists, politicians and religious groups for [[IfItBleedsItLeads capitalizing on the tragic shootings]] while at the same time sensationalizing violence like the assassinations of UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy, Music/JohnLennon and the Columbine murders. He also argued that glorifying bloodshed was nothing new, because Christians had made Jesus' crucifixion an icon for centuries.
17
18	At the time, ''Holy Wood'' didn't sell as well as his other albums. However, over two decades later, it has been VindicatedByHistory so much that it is now the best-selling album in Marilyn Manson's catalogue.
19
20	Manson had additional plans to tell the backstory of the album through companion pieces in different media. He began negotiations with Creator/NewLineCinema to produce and distribute a ''Holy Wood'' film, even meeting with Creator/AlejandroJodorowsky to discuss it, but the deal fell through less than a year later after Manson had doubts that he'd be able to make the film without having his artistic vision compromised. He then scrapped the film and announced two books -- a novelized adaptation of the film's script, and a separate coffee table book of pictures. Neither book has been fully released, reportedly due to publishing disputes; to date, only the cover art and the 10th chapter of the novel have been shared online.
21
22	The album produced the hit singles "Disposable Teens," "The Fight Song" and "The Nobodies."
23	----
24	!!Tracklist:
25	# "[=GodEatGod=]" – 2:34
26	# "The Love Song" – 3:16
27	# "The Fight Song" – 2:55
28	# "Disposable Teens" – 3:01
29	# "Target Audience (Narcissus Narcosis)" – (4:18)
30	# "President Dead" – (3:13)
31	# "In the Shadow of the Valley of Death" – (4:09)
32	# "Cruci-Fiction in Space" – (4:56)
33	# "A Place in the Dirt" – (3:37)
34	# "The Nobodies" – (3:35)
35	# "The Death Song" – (3:29)
36	# "Lamb of God" – (4:39)
37	# "Born Again" – (3:20)
38	# "Burning Flag" – (3:21)
39	# "Coma Black" – (5:58)
40	# "Valentine's Day" – (3:31)
41	# "The Fall of Adam" – (2:34)
42	# "King Kill 33°" – (2:18)
43	# "Count to Six and Die" – (3:24)
44	----
45	!!Holy Tropes:
46	[[folder:The album as a whole]]
47	* AntiHero: Protagonist Adam Kadmon.
48	* BiblicalMotifs: All over the place, almost every song contains biblical motifs. Examples:
49	** "[=GodEatGod=]": Makes references to the crucifiction.
50	** "In the Shadow of the Valley of Death" uses tree symbolism
51	--->''She put the seeds in me - Plant this dying tree''
52	** "Coma Black" makes references to the garden of Eden
53	* BSODSong: The album concludes the trilogy about the antichrist superstar. Albeit Manson said [[AnachronicOrder this one is the beginning]], thus the StartOfDarkness.
54	* ConceptAlbum: The album deals with people and media's obsession with death and murder through the ill-fated rise and fall of Adam Kadmon.
55	* CrucifiedHeroShot: The album cover. However the cross is invisible.
56	* FaceOnTheCover: Marilyn Manson hanging on a cross.
57	* NightmareFace: Manson on the album cover. His missing chin presents lots of BodyHorror.
58	* RealLifeWritesThePlot: Manson had been in the center of controversy for quite some years at this point, with the UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} shootings of 1999 as the high point of criticism of all kinds or morality activists. The album was his way of reacting to all the finger pointing and NeverMyFault accusations.
59	* RockOpera: Just like the other two albums of the triptych (Antichrist Superstar and Mechanical Animals).
60	* ShortTitleLongElaborateSubtitle: Both the album itself, and its final track "Count to Six and Die (The Vacuum of Infinite Space Encompassing)."
61	[[/folder]]
62
63	[[folder:Individual Songs]]
64	* AdamAndOrEve: The album makes many allusions to Adam and Eve. The song list is divided in four circles that speel the word A-D-A-M, Adam Kadmon is the main protagonist symbolizing the first man and some songs make references to the Garden of Eden, most notably "Coma Black".
65	* AlbumTitleDrop: There is no complete TitleTrack, but the words "In the Shadow of the Valley of Death" do appear in the song of the same name.
66	-->''I am a revolution\
67	Pull my knuckles down if I could\
68	I am a revelation\
69	And I'm nailed to the '''Holy Wood'''''
70	* AlliterativeTitle: "'''G'''od Eat '''G'''od", "'''K'''ing '''K'''ill 33°"
71	* AsTheGoodBookSays: From the cover alone this album takes a lot of inspiration from the Bible:
72	** "Cruci-Fiction In Space"
73	--->''This is your creation\
74	The atom of Eden was a bomb\
75	If Jack was the baptist, we'd drink wine from the head''
76	* BeliefMakesYouStupid and BlasphemousBoast:
77	** "The Fight Song":
78	--->''I'm not a slave / for a God that doesn't exist!''
79	** "Burning Flag"
80	--->''If God was alive, he would hate you anyway''
81	** "The Death Song"
82	--->''We write our prayers on a little bomb\
83	Kiss it on the face and send it to God''
84	* BookEnds: The first and last sounds are of a metal key rattling on a lock, giving the idea of the album being "unlocked" and subsequently closed.
85	* CallBack: The track "Coma Black" is a callback to "Coma White" from ''Music/MechanicalAnimals''.
86	* CrapsackWorld:
87	** "The Fight Song":
88	--->''But I'm not a slave to a world that doesn't give a shit''
89	** "The Death Song":
90	--->''We sing the death song, kids\
91	Because we've got no future''
92	* DeadArtistsAreBetter: A theme on the album, where murdered celebrities like UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy and Music/JohnLennon are worshipped as saints.
93	* DeathSong: "Count to Six and Die" is about playing RussianRoulette, implying impeding death.
94	* DownerEnding: The album ends with Adam's revolution being corrupted into exactly what it was fighting against, and the final track "Count to Six and Die" insinuates that Adam kills himself.
95	* TheElevatorFromIpanema: PlayedForDrama in "Count to Six and Die", elevator music as a sing for impending death:
96	-->''She's got her Christian prescriptures\
97	And death has crawled in her ear\
98	Like elevator music of songs\
99	That she shouldn't hear''
100	* EvolutionaryLevels: "Disposable Teens" makes many references to evolution, the video also shows Manson next to a monkey.
101	-->''You said you wanted evolution\
102	The ape was a great, big hit\
103	You say you want a revolution, man\
104	And I say that you're full of shit''
105	* GardenOfEden: "Coma Black" makes so many explicit and implicit allusions to the Garden of Eden, it could just as well be the setting of the song. Main character Adam (Kadmon) is the first/primal man, he "burned all the good things in the Eden eye" (a direct reference), "she" (a woman in any way related to Eve?) "was the only thing" he was able to "love in this dying world," where also the "angel" (like the one in biblical story) has gone. "I'd kill myself to make everybody pay" would then consitute a RealityBreakingParadox, where Adam dies before he can be fruitful and fill the earth.
106	-->''Burned all the good things in the Eden eye\
107	We were too dumb to run, too dead to die\
108	This was never my world, you took the angel away\
109	I'd kill myself to make everybody pay.''
110	* HurricaneOfPuns:
111	** "Burning Flag"
112	--->''Multiply your death, divide by sex\
113	(...) We are all just stars and we're waiting\
114	We are all just scarred and we're hating\
115	(...) They gyrate and G-rate on Election Day''
116	** "Cruci-Fiction In Space"
117	--->''The atom of Eden'' [[note]]A pun on Adam and Eve, who lived in the Garden of Eden[[/note]]\
118	''I am a revolution, pull my knuckles down, if I could\
119	I am a revelation and I'm nailed to the Holy Wood''
120	* IfItBleedsItLeads[=/=]JesusWasWayCool: Manson sees UsefulNotes/JesusChrist as "the first rockstar", killed for his revolutionary ideals. He draws comparisons to UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy and Music/JohnLennon, who were also assassinated icons whose deaths were turned into spectacles.
121	** "Lamb Of God":
122	--->''If you die there's no watching\
123	And your ratings drop and you're forgotten\
124	If they kill you on their TV, you're a martyr and a lamb of God\
125	Nothing's going to change, nothing's going to change the world''
126	** "A Place In The Dirt"
127	--->''Put me in the motorcade\
128	Put me in the death parade\
129	Dress me up and take me\
130	Dress me up and make me your dying god''
131	** "The Nobodies"
132	--->''Some children died the other day\
133	We fed machines and then we prayed\
134	Puked up and down in morbid faith\
135	You should have seen the ratings that day''
136	* ListSong: "In the Shadow of the Valley of Death" presents a long list about what death might be.
137	-->''Death is a policeman\
138	Death is the priest\
139	Death is the stereo\
140	Death is TV\
141	Death is the Tarot\
142	Death is an angel\
143	Death is our god, killing us all''
144	* LoserProtagonist:
145	** "Disposable Teens" is about throwaway youth ("disposable" being the keyword here):
146	--->''I'm a teen distortion, survived abortion\
147	A rebel from the waist down [...]\
148	We're disposable teens''
149	** "The Nobodies" is also about teenage losers who want to become cherished more:
150	--->''Today I'm dirty, I want to be pretty\
151	Tomorrow, I know I'm just dirt.\
152	We're the nobodies, wanna be somebodies\
153	We're dead, they'll know just who we are''
154	* MechanicalEvolution: "Cruci-Fiction In Space":
155	-->''This is evolution: the monkey, the man, then the gun.''
156	* AMillionIsAStatistic: A literal line in "The Fight Song."
157	* MyCountryTisOfTheeThatISting: "Burning Flag".
158	-->''Multiply your death, divide by sex\
159	Add up the violence and what do you get?\
160	We are all just stars and we're waiting\
161	We are all just scarred and we're hating\
162	We are all just stars on your burning flag''
163	* PunBasedTitle: "Holy Wood" instead of Hollywood, "[=GodEatGod=]" instead of "dog eat dog" and "Cruci-Fiction In Space" is a pun on "fiction" and "crucifixion".
164	* ReligionRantSong: Most songs qualify.
165	** "Fight Song", giving a BlasphemousBoast:
166	--->''But I'm not a slave to a god that doesn't exist\
167	And I'm not a slave to a world that doesn't give a shit''
168	** "Target Audience", criticizing religious bigotry.
169	--->''And your crucifiction commercials failed." [...]\
170	And I see all the young believers, your target audience."
171	** Also "Disposable Teens", with a more gentle tone:
172	--->''I never really hated the one true God\
173	But the God of the people I hated''
174	* RussianRoulette: As alluded by the title "Count to Six and Die," the album closes on one, as we hear five times a revolver going through chambers followed by the hammer hitting the empty space, and then it gets to the sixth chamber that would have the bullet (while, in true BookEnds case, the footstep noises from the opening of "[=GodEatGod=]" appear again).
175	* ShoutOut: The album was directly inspired by ''Music/TheWhiteAlbum'' by Music/TheBeatles, because of its role in the UsefulNotes/CharlesManson murders and the parallels Marilyn saw between that crime and the 1999 Columbine High School murders. "Disposable Teens" even borrows a line from "Revolution 1" [[note]]"You say you want a revolution"[[/note]]. Another inspiration was ''Music/LetItBleed'' by Music/{{The Rolling Stones\|Band}}.
176	** "Lamb Of God" references the assassination of UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy broadcast by the UsefulNotes/ZapruderFilm, "Happiness Is A Warm Gun" from ''Music/TheWhiteAlbum'' and the murderer of Music/JohnLennon, Mark David Chapman. The refrain "nothing's going to change the world" is very similar to Lennon's song "Across The Universe" from ''Music/LetItBe''.
177	--->''There was Lennon and a happy gun\
178	There were words on the pavement\
179	We were looking for the lamb of god\
180	we were looking for Mark David''
181	** "Target Audience" references the fact that [[Literature/BraveNewWorld Aldous Huxley]] died the same day John F. Kennedy was shot. It also references JFK's murderer Lee Harvey Oswald, as well as John Wilkes Booth, who shot Abraham Lincoln.
182	--->''Am I sorry you killed the Kennedy's and Huxley too?\
183	(...)Am I sorry for Booth and Oswald, pinks and cocaine too?''
184	** "God Eat God" references Humpty Dumpty:
185	--->''Dear John and all the King's men\
186	Can't put your head together again''
187	** "The Love Song" references "De Imitatione Christi," a book by Thomas A. Kempis.
188	--->''She tells me I'm a pretty bullet, an imitation Christ''
189	* ShoutOutToShakespeare: "Target Audience (Narcissus Narcosis)"
190	-->''But I'm sorry Shakespeare was your scapegoat''
191	* TheSomethingSong: "The Love Song," "The Fight Song" and "The Death Song".
192	* TakeThat: "Burning Flag".
193	-->''You can point your gun at me\
194	And hope it will go away\
195	But if God was alive\
196	He would hate you anyway''
197	* TitleTrack: "In The Shadow Of The Valley Of Death," but the title itself doesn't appear in the lyrics. It does in "Valentine's Day"
198	-->''Although Holy Wood was sad\
199	They'd remember this as Valentine's Day\
200	Flies are waiting in the shadow of the Valley of Death''
201	** In "Cruci-Fiction In Space" part of the title is namedropped:
202	--->''I am a revelation and I'm nailed to the Holy Wood''
203	** In "Target Audience" too
204	--->''The valley of death, we are free\
205	Your father's your prison, you see''
206	* UncertainDoom: In "Count to Six and Die," everything is set up for the last shot being fatal (we hear five clicks from a revolver used for Russian roulette), but before we hear the gun going off the song (and thus the album) ends.
207	[[/folder]]
208
209	[[folder:Music Videos]]
210	* UnnecessaryRoughness: The video to "Fight Song" depicts an American Football game, that gets out of control and results in fouls. violence and fighting, having vibes of RugbyIsSlaughter.
211	[[/folder]]

Context Music / HolyWoodInTheShadowOfTheValleyOfDeath