The High End Of Low (2009)
The album this most reminds me of is Mechanical Animals - there's not really any "funk", but it does recall that album's more glam-rock elements, mixed with some of the lingering goth of Eat Me, Drink Me. It helps that this feels more like the work of a full band again, maybe because they're at least a trio at this point: Tim Skold is gone, but Twiggy Ramirez is back, and they're now joined by new member Chris Vrenna, best known for his work with Nine Inch Nails and for scoring video games such as American Mc Gees Alice. The more layered instrumentation definitely comes as a breath of fresh air after the cramped minimalism of Eat Me, Drink Me. However, a little bit too often it can feel just too similar to past "introspective" material to really sound fresh - you could slip things like "Blank And White" or "Wight Spider" into the middle of Holy Wood without really noticing a difference.
That said, there are some attempts to bring fresh elements to the Marilyn Manson sound - sometimes they're superficial things like spaghetti western-inspired guitar leads on the otherwise very Golden Age Of Grotesque "Arma-Godamn-Motherfuckin-Geddon" or the Antichrist Superstar-gone-punk "We're From America". Sometimes they genuinely do feel pretty new - "WOW" starts out sounding like "Closer" before gradually piling on more and more screwy, seemingly improvised synths, while "Running To The End Of The World" is probably their first successful bout with Epic Rocking: It's their most flagrant piece of Bowie-worship yet (think "Rock N Roll Suicide"), but the acoustic guitar, soaring synth strings, and a surprisingly well-done falsetto bridge make it the most genuinely pretty piece of the band's catalog (even it if it could stand to be sung by someone with more of a vocal range). Unfortunately, the song is followed up by a longer epic, the nine minute "I Want To Kill You Like They Do In The Movies", which is entirely too close to Eat Me Drink Me for comfort.
At best this is at least a more listenable version of "mature" Marilyn Manson than EMDM - it's a bit silly and melodramatic, but at least there's attempts at color and some new ideas here and there. I definitely wouldn't call it a full return to strength, but it does at least seem like a step in the right direction. A new album, Born Villain is due in February 2012, so we shall see...
Key Tracks: Running to the Edge of the World, 15, Four Rusted Horses
