On Marilyn Manson’s New Album, His Abuse Allegations, A Partial Palm Reading, And More (CONTENT WARNING)
We live in a society of victimization, where people are much more comfortable being victimized than actually standing up for themselves.
― Marilyn Manson
The above screenshot is from a recent interview with Marilyn Manson. In particular, it is near the end of the interview where Manson is asked, again, about the meaning or background behind his song Broken Needle. The final song on the new album (We Are Chaos, released on September 11th) has lyrics like I’m a needle/dig in your groove/scratch you up/then I’ll put you away… I’ll never ever play you again.
The reason that the 51 year old “shock rocker”’s hands are up like that is because he seems to be trying to gracefully end the line of questioning, once he‘d been asked if the song is “about someone”. Manson’s response was a bit of a rehash of the first wave of answers that he’d given earlier in the interview; Something about it being a personal desire to avoid repeating past mistakes. This could be understandable. David Bowie expressed something similar in his second-to-last full-length, The Next Day, which was very much angled towards the desire to start fresh, and to avoid being compared to previously successful albums.
Inversely, Manson would have very good reason to put certain albums of his to bed forever. In particular, the album that he did following 2003’s Golden Age of Grotesque, and after being forced into a greatest hits album that surely made him suicidal. What came in 2007’s Eat Me, Drink Me, was largely about his divorce with Dita Von Teese, as well as his new flame at the time, then 19 year-old actor Evan Rachel Wood. Following a vampire vibe to a tee, finally, and signifying a new direction with Tim Skold (KMFDM, Shotgun Messiah), the album was hopeful in some areas, but a bit rough around the edges, to say the least. Its first single, Heart-Shaped Glasses invoked a Lolita theme for the obvious age disparity between Manson and Wood, and the chorus boasted: “Don’t Break My Heart, and I Won’t Break Your Heart-Shaped Glasses”.
Then there’s Manson’s 2009 “break up album” which came after Wood left him. The High End Of Low is rife with obvious threats: “I Want To Kill You Like They Do In The Movies”, or there’s closing track 15, invoking Robert Deniro’s role in the 1991 version of Cape Fear — “Not Letting You Live Won’t Satisfy Me/I’ll Teach You About Loss”... Just for starters. Not to mention the video for Running To The Edge Of The World that ended with our main character beating a woman to death in a bathtub — a woman who has more than a little resemblance to Evan Rachel Wood.
Throughout the eleven full-length albums so far, too many more recent lyrics could be construed as “shock value”. There are plenty of references to BDSM, and also a chorus from The Pale Emperor which, according to an interview, was said to be a death threat to a girlfriend, sent in the form of a text message. The new LP is no exception: “The Smell of Your Blood/Is Like A Carnival Or A State Fair/Skin Like Cotton Candy/So Easy to Melt”. I interpreted the song Half Way And One Step Forward, as well as the chorus about “Champagne Problems” (“first world problems” in my view) to be a song undermining the nature of abuse, and I didn’t even know about the recent abuse allegations until a couple of days after I’d received the cassette edition in the mail. It arrived right on time for the release date, which was September 11th.
It’s one of the easiest assumptions to make that Marilyn Manson is “kinky”. Even before he was famous, he’d been doing performances with his band, “The Spooky Kids” that involved caged women on leashes. He’s never minced words on the few occasions where he mentions his soundproof “bad girl room” that he locks his lovers in, where they cannot escape. Early on, he’d talked of performing BDSM with his fans, and even recorded some of it for his Smells Like Children EP (before that version was recalled), as well as his live VHS, Dead To The World, wherein there is an excerpt from short film titled “Groupie”.
The film is said to portray a woman being coaxed into drinking urine, having a gun pointed at her, and allegedly being tied up for more “disturbing” things. The film could have been premeditated, acted out in the name of art, but some of us are coming to conclude that it is probably not. There’s reasonable evidence to suggest that it’s not, and that the consent is not part of the artist’s main priorities. Reportedly Manson’s lawyers hold the remaining copies of the film, because they say it would ruin his career forever. [Edit: Actor and model Pola Weiss did an interview and clarified that the film was entirely consensual, although in the allegations, the accuser(s) have said that the film was implied to be true at high volume].
Evan Rachel Wood has not come forward with specific names, but one could easily deduce that her life-shattering trauma came from Marilyn Manson. She and another former Manson lover, Esmé Bianco, testified about being flat-out tortured and raped — Sleep-deprivation, starvation, verbal abuse, mutilation, and threats to have them killed were among what was detailed. She describes an abuser chasing her around the house with an axe, smashing holes into the walls. With that have come other testimonies online, of women who claim to have been coerced to levels beyond the realm of consent, or flagrantly abused.
“My experience with domestic violence was this: Toxic mental, physical, and sexual abuse, which started slow, but escalated over time, including threats against my life, severe gaslighting and brainwashing, waking up to the man that claimed to love me raping what he believed to be my unconscious body, and the worst part, sick rituals of binding me up by my hands and feet to be mentally and physically tortured until my abuser felt I had “proven my love for them.”
-Evan Rachel Wood
Ex-wife Dita Von Teese insinuated in an interview that he’d smash all of the windows of the house when he became angry. It seems to me that, while Manson has always been somewhat abusive, things really accelerated when he married Von Teese. She said she’d been madly in love, right up until the marriage, at which point the cocaine use accelerated, and I assume that the mental illness did also. She described their marriage as “the nail in the coffin”.
Manson’s current girlfriend/partner [Edit: Married in October 2021], photographer Lindsay Usich, who has apparently been on-and-off with him since at least 2012, may be dealing with similar afflictions. According to the recent Apple Music interview, Manson said they’d been together for four years. There are photos floating around that include black eyes and scarification, and also people claiming that he has been very abusive to her while on tour. There could be “self-inflicted” wounds (which led to hospitalization during the relationship) and matters of consent, but black eyes, unless this is a bizarrely misleading photoshop photo, are usually not the reflection of a consensual BSDM relationship. Hopefully, if this is happening, the people who care about Usich will reach out to her and take some steps to make sure that she is safe.
I’m seeing a lot of fans preferring to look the other way, and are maybe in denial about the matter, or at least not willing to face up to it honestly. Some simply don’t care what a person’s moral code is, as long as they provide the service that is being paid for. I admit I have been guilty of that, to varying degrees. Many of us have, with plenty of famous artists. John Lennon was abusive and somewhat of a deadbeat dad. David Bowie was said to have choked his then wife Angie Bowie. Basically every popular male artist had sex with underage women prior to 1980, it seems. Allegedly Steven Tyler even made himself legal guardian in order to keep his thing going on with a minor… The list could go on.
What takes it over the top for me is the suspension of disbelief that permeates these fans’ denial. It’s easy to do so, I confess. In interviews, Manson is usually articulate and charming. Even when he is drunkenly bragging about abusive behavior, he makes it look like he is just being silly, or that he is exaggerating for the sake of having fun. When I read that he said he wanted to crush his ex’s skull with a sledgehammer, I honestly thought he was just being childish and dramatic.
He’s threatened former band member Tyler Bates with a box cutter, and (allegedly) set one of his first drummer’s drum kits on fire while they were playing it, supposedly as a way to get him to leave the band. Some accounts say that the drummer was also set on fire. There are other instances of him kicking his band members in the face during live performances. When I read that Manson fans broke into former bandmate Stephen Bier’s house and killed two of his cats, I still thought it might be a coincidence. Silly me.
I want to say I feel very sorry for Kenny and John 5, and every past member of the band for Brian’s physical abuse that would get exponentially worse after I left. — Sara Lee Lucas, Marilyn Manson’s original drummer
Fans of Marilyn Manson have been considered responsible for a number of things that he may not recommend — It’s been said that they’re to blame for more school shootings than those of any other artist in history, including the 15 year old who went up to a teacher demanding them to say “Hail Marilyn Manson” and shot at them, then killed himself (the boy didn’t die instantly, but did die from the self-inflicted wounds later).
When I read that Manson put a gun to some blogger’s head (I can’t find a link for that right now, but here are the threats on myspace) for saying that their meeting was disappointing, or had his body guards rough up a magazine editor, I still couldn’t help but chuckle. [EDIT: To be clear, Manson said in an interview years later that he put a gun to the Spin editor’s head, although that was not mentioned in the court statement]. I conveniently forgot about some unsavory pieces from Manson’s autobiography, which detail coercion more than kink. Now I imagine that happening to a woman who is being locked up in a room and tortured for days, and it’s not so funny anymore.
I’ve been a fan since 1995, when someone in art class gave me a dubbed cassette tape with Portrait of An American Family on it. At that time, it was a like a steamroller of creativity to me, and a vehicle for expressing witty, but poetic teenage angst. The rebellion was more in the audacity than in the anger, although the anger was palpable as well. The dark themes juxtaposed with children’s histrionics represented a truth that had been hidden for too long, and shedding light on it was a positive thing, even if the initial subject matter was not necessarily glimmering with hope.
Antichrist Superstar (1996) was darker and more complex, but still had a raw, creative, triumphant energy to it. These records, to me, were punk records made by extremely intelligent people, because punk was one-dimensional by comparison, especially at that time. Then, the interviews to promote these records spoke of belief in art as a way to transform suffering, and I bought into it hook, line, and sinker. Seeing The Mechanical Animals tour in 1998, is still one of the most powerful performances I’ve attended, in the context of the time.
The date was on October 30th, when MM was receiving a full hour long interviews on MTV, and speaking eloquently on the importance of individuality against all adversity. Then later again on April 20th, 1999, I saw he and his band on the day that the notorious Columbine shooting happened, and the day that Manson, out of respect for the victims’ families, cancelled every tour date afterwards.
If you ask me, The Triptych is the greatest set of concept albums imaginable. I have not come across anything that could even come close. Those records feel like they were created independent of humans, and are wildly inspired stories on the rise and fall of an artist after their microcosm became a macrocosm, bestowed upon us by some alien god (I’ve written a bit about that here). Without being too much of a fanboy here, Marilyn Manson is sort of like that surrogate, crazy uncle that I’ve never met. His music has been the thing to go to after a bad day for many, many years.
Musically, that inspiration continued after those three pivotal records, but not quite with the same impact. The Golden Age of Grotesque, conceptually, was buttressed by a lot of stimulating ideas about the relationship between present moment and the dawn of Dadaism and Expressionism in the 20s and 30s. That tour came with banners that resembled Nazi propaganda, but instead had Manson with a Mickey Mouse hat, plus there was the added bonus that there were women in 30s style pin up dresses berating the crowd at the merch booth. The aesthetics were incredible to watch happen in a rock context, especially for a 22 year old. The music did have some swing jazz stylings at times, but I felt like it sort of fizzled with trying to keep up with the death knell of nu-metal, and even a bit of rap stylings here and there. It was number one on the Billboard charts at first, but quickly disappeared after that.
Incidentally, The Golden Age of Grotesque was somewhat inspired by Manson’s then-wife Dita Von Teese, who is a vintage designer, model, make-up artist, and burlesque dancer. During its recording process, a band member parted ways, and maybe the chemistry of what was left didn’t mesh.
It could also be that Manson’s cocaine addiction was taking hold, because as soon as they were married, Von Teese said that she went from being madly in love, to being “very dark”. This combined with Manson admitting in interviews to being diagnosed as “Co-Morbid”, and “borderline schizophrenic with multiple personalities”, as well as maybe having the hereditary swing of his late mother’s schizophrenia growing to dominate his subconscious.
It’s only speculation, but while the music did continue to have its moments where the spark was not gone, it has been largely a transition from poetry to limericks, puns, and a bit of satire. This is to varying degrees, purely my subjective opinion. Some of it has struck a chord emotionally, some of it has been driving, and maybe intelligent in the sense that it was referential to something obscure or clever.
After The Golden Age of Grotesque, there was a big build up about the next album. There was an animated website with hidden codes and sister sites that mysteriously hyped the coming of the Celebritarian Corporation. Instead, Manson was devastated, and created an album of largely vampire motifs, with self-referential complaints about divorce and imitation. A portion of latter Marilyn Manson material has had its own world to it that was nice to escape into, or try to create oneself. It’s not all bad, by any stretch, but the new album is his best work in twenty years, without question.
Although I would have to preface it with the caveat that an album titled We Are Chaos, at my age, is a little loaded with the connotation of teenage naiveté, I still have to say that this new record is crammed with the epic fire that I’d crave from arena rock. These songs would be exhilarating with a packed audience, even if the drums echoed across the lawns and concrete floors with much more reverb than I’ll ever need. I say this as a person who listens to 90% obscure, old, or experimental music. Marilyn Manson has been one of my rare mainstream concessions for all this time, and I’ve never missed listening to each new album as it came out with a significant degree of fevered anticipation.
When I read that the record was going to be a collaboration with Shooter Jennings (the son of legendary country singer Waylon Jennings), and therefore, to my weary mind, might be an ill-prepared Modern Country-Rock album — the only genre that I hate more than Indie Rock, I didn’t have high hopes. It turns out that all 44 minutes here represent a carefully studied incline with respect to Marilyn Manson’s body of work, while also being outstanding in its own right.
It’s been said that some heavy influences during the songwriting process were Marc Bolan and David Bowie — definitely some favorites of mine — I’d also say that it seems to have a degree of Justin Timberlake in it, and ironically, I don’t mean that in a bad way, somehow. The depth of the mix is really fascinating to me, I’ve never heard a pop/rock album with such depth within the whole stereo spectrum. There are little choir sounds, effected guitar embellishments, strange rustling sounds, mechanical noises, and just general thoroughness permeating each darling little cupcake of glam-infused hard rock.
While Manson’s lyrics are still leaving me wanting a bit more depth — the archetypal clichés and what I can only describe as lyrical -non-sequiturs (sometimes I think he is mixing together lyrics for different songs), it all seems to make sense, and is carried by what is probably the most melodically driving full-length of his to date. If we were to overlook the vaguely sadistic lyrics that occasionally pop up, Manson’s kid-like, triumphant energy is prevalent as much as ever.
This leaves me seriously pondering why I like it so much, especially considering these new abuse allegations, and the fact that they’re causing me to think critically of my appreciation for this artist throughout my life. I really have to ponder my own personal motivations (or where they come from), as well as the lyricist’s. It’s hard to describe my disbelief about how ecstatic I find this record to be, and I want to know exactly why.
I am not particularly bothered by listening to controversial or abusive artists, per se, in terms of their output or subject matter. This info, to some degree, informs my desire to listen to someone who isn’t bullshitting. It gives things a different context. For instance, I don’t think Woody Allen’s work is genius, and maybe I never would have, but considering his sexual abuse allegations, I find his work to be a yawn-fest.
I find myself thinking that there is no point in watching a film by Roman Polanski, because any modicum of enjoyment I’d get from it would be feigned, since the director surely feigned sincerity in trying to relate to the human condition in any way. Little details like this designate the difference between a typist and a pianist to me.
I certainly am not troubled by music that has shock-value-oriented or inconsiderate lyrics, to be honest. I typically don’t support abusive people financially, in particular when it comes to people like GG Allin, who have not only been dead for a long time, but were obviously stuck in terms of evolution to begin with, and even self-congratulatory about it. I also think that it might be better to portray the evils of a particular cultural ailment than to use an artistic platform to speak out against it in a literal form, as with propaganda.
What I am actually more concerned about is if someone is a true artist or not, as strange as that may seem. Every artist has a degree of narcissism, but not every narcissist has an artistic bone in their bodies. Some of them are just exceedingly good capitalists, I think. And so what if they are? Well, it’s an energy exchange to me.
If an artist is taking much more than they’re giving, I don’t want to be part of it. I’m tired of people who don’t have their own ideas. Deciding which is which is obviously a subjective, highly daunting, and potentially fruitless task, but it’s a worthwhile journey. Is it possible for a person who tortures people to be a true artist at the same time? Is that degree of self-destructive narcissism able to co-exist within the soul of a person who has a personal vision to share with the world?
Prince, The Cure, Depeche Mode, and so forth, I find that these artists, when they’re on top of their game, epitomize what pop music is essentially about — It’s not just about doing things to get attention from girls, it is about portraying an emotional situation, and especially a dark situation, in a way that allows others to not only attach their emotions to the music and experience some release, but also for them to feel somewhat triumphant about it in the end.
It’s as if a pop song can tell you that this is alright, keep rolling the dice, keep getting up after you’ve been knocked down, keep going. Not a lot of musicians get to that point, or even try to. If it’s not changing people, it’s just entertainment. These artists that magically give people permission to feel bad in a nurturing way, in a way that they feel part of something, in order for them to inevitably feel good — those are true artists to me.
Making people feel bad in and of itself is not a vehicle for transformation. It is not an art, it is just more of the dark propaganda that we have shoved down our throats every time we engage in bad news, political commentary, fear-based commercials about meds that cause nausea, followed by lawyers to help you with your lawsuit after you get the side effects from the aforementioned meds. We have enough scams in our lives, and we don’t need to be tricked by even more inglorious rock stars or celebrities who smugly carry along a perpetually dimming torch into the throes of nowhere special.
Of course, it’s not cut and dry, but I try not to support this fleet of bullshitters that permeate music history. With that, I have to say that I find myself at a serious crux with Marilyn Manson. He’s clearly a sneaky, attention-starved, and mean son of a bitch. I will try to use my modest experience as a palm reader and, to some extent, a psychic, to come to more of a conclusion, and I’ll explain a bit what I mean as best I can.
In the spiritual realm, which sort of overlaps with the astral realm, there is what are called “Glamours”: Negative entities that pretend to be full of healing light and benevolent energy (the hyperlink does not reflect a whole lot that I’m in agreement with, but it does elucidate the concept of a glamour). In reality, anything that they bestow on others may be exhilarating at first, but ultimately results in rot, decay, and diffusion of personal essence. Narcissists are very much known for this aspect of their character, otherwise a tendency to be referred to as “psychic vampires”.
In my experience, entities can attach themselves to people, both externally and internally, and engage in degrees of possession. The paranormal movie The Conjuring, based on a true story, is a somewhat accurate example of this. I’m not exceedingly good at it, I have to admit. The readings I do are more like aura readings, and I get a sort of archetypal dream that seems to explain what’s going on with a person. Sometimes I can interact with entities and passed loved ones, but not often, and I never really try to do it.
That said, I did a reading for someone online once, and with permission, I shared to a group of other psychics who were teaching me and giving me critiques of my readings. The reading was of a young person with musical talent and exuded a positive attitude. I perceived bright light and absolute bliss when reading her. It’s all garbage to a skeptic, and that’s fine. I was once a skeptic too, but this experience had a pretty big impact for me.
She had been one of most radiant and positive people I’d ever read by that point, which was several years ago now. I was blown away by my experience. Another psychic who was helping me told me privately that I should not accept healing energy from her, and that she is influenced (possessed) by a deeply negative entity who is using a glamour. I decided to have some further discussion with this unfortunate person, and while she had been praying to angels, and consciously tried to exude an air of positivity, she did eventually admit the deeply troubling nature of her position.
She said, more or less, that she felt her soul was not her own anymore, and that she was plagued by the feeling that she was being controlled, something like a marionette. She said that she started experiencing this particular and distinct feeling, coupled with a feeling of unrelentingly pervasive negativity, after a sexual assault. This overall feeling had been needling her, and feeding on her, and slowly replacing her personality with that of an empty, void-like craving for what we might as well just call “drama” at best, or at worst complete decimation of a person’s heart.
I had the audacity to give that girl a reading again, and even with a cognitive bias, I was alarmed by what I’d seen. I asked to see past the glamour, and what I saw was a huge moth-like creature. It was the energy of a personality type we’ve all known before — Someone who would take affection and love, and render it in their minds as something like mealworms and heartless commerce. It was a sadistic perversion of everything, and reduced her to an empty cocoon.
I felt her deep sadness after all of what had occurred. These experiences had obviously led to layer upon layer of not only insecurity, depression, and just plain bad luck, but they also left a permanent imprint on her psyche. I stayed friendly with her periodically, and advised her to find a way to do extraction. As far as I know, she went on to be particularly active in the realm of trying to contact angels, but I don’t know for sure if she ever freed herself from the entity.
It’s not exactly pure science, but I believe it to be true. Everyone has their different takes and particular lines they draw on the subject of ghosts, psychics, demons, or magic. I won’t try to tackle the daunting task of irrefutably proving too much here, but let’s consider the possibility that it’s true — that there is an overwhelming amount of anecdotal accounts on the subject of possession, and some of them may be true.
In particular, let me direct you to my interview with psychic/occultist/noise artist Sarah Wreck, who wrote a short book on her experience recovering from possession. Wreck is a humorous and humble person, but it’s also safe to say she’s something of an occult scholar. Let’s also just throw in an obligatory account of medieval demonic nuns, who were the only purportedly non-fiction topic that Aldous Huxley chose to write a book on in his life. There are plenty of other accounts, some more convincing than others. There are degrees of possession, I think, and different variants of internal versus external influences from various entities.
I don’t try to read peoples’ faces without their permission, and I’m not terribly well-versed in seeing entity attachment, but feel free to take a gander at this recent photo and see what you think, what feelings come to mind, without being sarcastic. I don’t see a person that is 100% free from external negative influence, and I think it’s feeding on him. It is probably internal as well. In the meantime, I’ll tell you what I can see, as promised, about that partial palm reading I’d mentioned earlier. Without going into too much detail, I can’t do a full reading, because a lot of the necessary lines are not fully visible with the only workable photo I have available.
That said, there are some obvious things that I’ve found to be true. There is a deep insecurity which stems from a lack of loving or honest communication during childhood, at the very least. More likely it is abuse, if the case is as severe as it looks here. No surprises here. There is the common tendency to feel misunderstood, and to also feel that no matter how clear a person can be, they’ll never quite get their point across. Overcompensation is natural, but it is accelerated to a much larger degree than I usually see in these cases. This is common in artists, but not intrinsic of artists.
It is a desire to show off one’s wares, whether it be gardening, fashion, throwing parties, or in this case, being a rock star. This does not make or break a person in terms of whether or not they are a true artist. Fortunately, I can see a line there that is very distinct, and would indicate that while Mr. M. is definitely insecure and desperately starved for attention and validation, he would also seem to be a true artist. In addition to this, there is a finger here that is terribly bent, and that would tell me that he sees himself in a way that is deeply warped. The person’s view of himself is marred and inaccurate. Frankly, this is one of the most insecure and damaged people I’ve ever done a palm reading for, short of disfigurement, and I’ve probably done more than a thousand at this point.
I can’t see the usual indicators of intellect or emotional range right now. I can see that he’s very much inclined towards abstract thought, and always has been. I think it’s safe to say that our subject here is very intelligent, but my only indication from the palms here shows in the representation of air elements and fire elements that are sort of in combat with each other. It’s actually pretty incredible that this person has as much of a foundation as he does, since earth elements or water elements are not very well represented at all.
I’m pretty sure, from what I can see, that this person has a short threshold for frustration, and is very likely impatient. It seems to me that what makes him a true artist is also a deep scar on a studious person who would otherwise have a close connection to family. I don’t see a particularly violent streak. Controlling maybe, but not necessarily violent. Again, I’d be able to do a much better reading if I could see enough to read the minor lines on the palms.
I’m still operating on the hypothesis that there are some outside influences happening here, if not internal. I don’t think that Manson was an angel prior to their undertaking, but there has been a marked difference in character for Manson, as well as a significant downslide of unfortunate events, since at least his divorce with Dita Von Teese, not to mention the regular blame he’s received for school shootings since 1999. It could be that some high magic blew up in his face, or it could be just a coincidence.
Manson was said to be exceptionally gifted, even when he was a child. Allegedly, his father had ties to the CIA, and they’d considered scouting a young Brian Warner (later known as Marilyn Manson) due to his “predisposition for psychopathic behavior, IQ, and ability to decipher language”. Comparing an interview from 2003 to an interview from any time after, there is a generally a noticeable change in clarity, sober or not. He’s still somewhat eloquent, even when he’s drunk, but to me, there seems to be a lower energy, and a lack of general clarity going on — a person who is a fraction of himself. It’s been said that after traumatic events, negative entities are most likely to infiltrate. Marilyn Manson, as a name, has always been about a balance between opposites, but things are clearly out of balance now, if they ever were in balance by any perceivable stretch of the word.
I’m sure I’ll encounter people who don’t agree with the idea that summoning Lucifer might be a bad idea, and that’s fine. It’s not just a passing dalliance with Manson. He’s been getting numerous occult-related tattoos since his first one around 1991, including two tattoos of a Lovecraftian character known for “nihilism and a contempt for all things”, a baphomet, a fly personified as Beelzebub, a totenkopf [EDIT: This is actually said to be a “Skull of Golgotha”, not a totenkopf], and a couple of different discreet variations on the swastika schematic (in the occult context).
It’s important to note that while Manson was an admirer of Anton LaVey, and eventually became ordained as a minister for The Church of Satan, LaVeyan Satanism (although some may disagree) is ostensibly not about other deities in the real world.
For all intents and purposes, it presents itself as atheism mixed with objectivism, but including occult trappings for “psychodramatic” effect. While Manson is intentionally vague about his specific beliefs, and has labored to be clear that his “priesthood” in the Church of Satan was merely meant as a compliment from Anton LaVey, with no other merit, it’s quite clear that The Kabbala, Freemasonry, Hermeticism, Luciferianism, and Alchemy are among those interests, practices, and beliefs. Manson clearly believes in magic. There’s an interview where he said he believed he was responsible for making it rain on command in Arizona. He details in his autobiography being responsible for the effects of a curse that he threw on a woman who was stalking him.
There are plenty of examples, some more subtle than others. These are clearly not casual interests. The Manson autobiography as well as LaVey’s Satanic Bible encouraged a much younger me to throw curses at every bully, and what resulted was five more bullies for every one that was vanquished. I’m not sure how someone could continue with such a line of thinking for long.
“No, I won’t be taking acid again. I have enough demons already. I don’t need any more.” — Marilyn Manson.
Infinite Darkness is the name of the cover painting for the new album, and it comes with a foldout poster for a painting titled Never-Ending Astral Vampire. The lyrics to the song, Infinite Darkness, are clearly complimentary to this imagery. Could it be that Manson is claiming to be an “astral vampire” or that he is plagued by them? Well, I’ve gone too far down the rabbit hole myself, and to go further would just be too much more trenching through Hollywood gossip — something I don’t want to be consumed by, like so many others.
I will say, though, that part of what the aforementioned Triptych was very likely about, was the idea that a person sought to become a rock star, and to start a revolution, but it turned out that the revolution became the very commodity that has been co-opted by corporations and media. Maybe it’s something that Manson has come to embrace. Maybe he knew that he’d be consumed by it. Another symbolic element within this trio of concept albums is the tendency for people to be remembered more when they die in the spotlight, or if murder was the reason they were in the spotlight in the first place.
I won’t go looking anymore, I have spent several hours looking for reference material to serve my memory already, but I do remember him saying in an interview that he has “become the product”, in those very words.
The lyrics throughout We Are Chaos can be hard to pin down, as some songs are about “not being special… just broken” and “not okay”, while others are almost a mockery between a chorus that is calling on Satan yet again —
“So you wear your damage on your sleeve
But don’t worry
It’s all just tongue and cheek, yeah
Not a victim of fashion
More fascist than vogue
’Cause victim is chic
You’re as famous as your pain”
For a person to be so confusing with lyrical direction, being both emotionally vulnerable and also a tad confessional about “scratching you up” or getting off on how your “skin is…. so easy to melt”, plus in the same tune saying “I need a raincoat for tomorrow” or “all of these lies are not worth fighting for”… it’s obviously difficult to get at whether someone has true artistic intentions, a propensity for mental masturbation, or just more cerebral shock tactics, to keep customers suckling from the decaying teet of a dead bride, and more importantly, giving up their attention to either a psychic vampire, or someone that is possessed by one.
It’s not something for me to authoritatively announce, but I do think that these strains of negative energy can be transmitted through music, movies, and any other media, to some extent. It’s important for people who are going through any sort of rough time to take necessary precautions. It might be good to put some sea salt in the corners of rooms, do banishing rituals, or just give in to the fact that the USA is said to be ruled by Astaroth. I’m not sure if it’s better to listen to Macklemore. Maybe some precautions can be taken there, too.
I find it incredible that there are still atheistic Satanists calling on The Infernal Names willy nilly. Learning the Rule of Three is not just for Wiccans, in my experience, but again, I’m not a scholar. Maybe some people think they have a good reason to try to escape bad vibes that they’ve brought onto themselves. “If You Conjure The Devil, You Better Make Sure Ya Got A Bed For Him To Sleep In”… To quote Manson himself: Am I Superman, or Am I Superstitious? The guy has sold over 48 million records — if he is still asking questions like those, he may be in some trouble.
To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure if I’ll be buying any more records by Marilyn Manson, at least not brand new, nor is it likely that I’ll be buying tickets to any more of his concerts. Like I said, he’s basically part of the family to me at this point, but within the last month, he’s gone from being a definite lower level asshole with a good heart, at least for his craft, to an absolutely vapid, needling parasite, decimating these little silver-lined clouds I’d created around him. I’ve been friends with people who have endured absurd amounts of abuse, and it hasn’t exactly been a picnic for me either, so this is not some distant complaint anymore — it hits close to home.
All I can do from here on now is raise questions. Have I been duped by another evil capitalist charade? How far can a true artist go before they need to turn in their uniform? Would Picasso be less of an asshole in these current times, and therefore less of an artist? Is there something about the human psyche that wants a celebrity or a rock star to live beyond the law? How much is the world’s appreciation for Van Gogh about the fact that he cut off part of his ear for a prostitute? How much Care Bear can you push on someone? Is an artist more authentic when they’re deranged? Would a true crime rock star be cool to the media?
Marilyn Manson’s charming, yet devious behavior, which sort of created a veil for the absolutely abhorrent nature of this ongoing [alleged] abuse — it could be an exorcism waiting to happen, but it is interesting to think about how compliant the host may be. As unsavory as it is, I still wonder about the idea of Manson being some new form of Zodiac Killer (someone at least willful enough not to get caught) instead of someone who [allegedly] preys on the little ones, would the call to boycott his work be as stringent? Or would it be further romanticized, like the violence that Manson points out in a lot of his work?
Last edited on February 26th, 2021