THE HIGH END OF LOW (2009)
SYNOPSIS
The High End of Low marked the reuniting of blood brothers Twiggy Ramirez and Marilyn Manson and promised an album that friend Rudy Cody alikened to Antichrist Superstar part 2.
With listenable influences from Twiggy's time in Goon Moon and featuring the production of Sean Beaven et al, THEOL is a personal album from Manson.
From it's beginning it is influenced by another relationship break down - this time with his 'Lolita' Evan Rachel Wood. From there it is an onslaught of anthemic marhces - We're From EAmerica, to ballads that seem to be part two's to some of the songs from EMDM - Running to the Edge of the World, reminding some of the Coma Black (HW) to MA's Coma White etcetera.
ALBUM CREDITS
Sean Beavan Producer, Engineer, Mixing
Delaney Bishop: Photography
Tony Ciulla: Management
Ginger Fish: Piano
Justin Hergett: Assistant
Ted Jensen: Mastering
Martin Kierszenbaum: A&R
Marilyn Manson: Producer, Art Direction, Design, Photography
Wesley Michener: Assistant
Twiggy Ramirez: Producer
Mikey Riley: Photography, Assistant
Jeremy Underwood: Assistant
Chris Vrenna: Programming, Producer, Engineer
Liam Ward: Art Direction, Design
Jeff Witters: Cover Layout
TRACKLISTING
1 Devour 3:45
2 Pretty as a ($) 2:45
3 Leave a Scar 3:54
4 Four Rusted Horses 5:00
5 Arma-Godd**n-Motherf**kin-Geddon 3:39
6 Blank and White 4:27
7 Running to the Edge of the World 6:25
8 I Want to Kill You Like They Do in the Movies 9:01
9 Wow 4:55
10 Wight Spider 5:32
11 Unkillable Monster 3:43
12 We're from America 5:04
13 I Have to Look Up Just to See Hell 4:11
14 Into the Fire 5:14
15 15 4:20
Bonus Disc:
1 "Arma-goddamn-motherfuckin-geddon" (Teddy Bears Remix) – 3:30
2 "Leave a Scar" (Alternate Version) – 4:02
3 "Running to the Edge of the World" (Alternate Version) – 6:08
4 "Wight Spider" (Alternate Version) – 5:28
5 "Four Rusted Horses" (Opening Titles Version) – 5:02
6 "I Have to Look Up Just to See Hell" (Alternate Version) – 4:08
7 "Into the Fire" (Alternate Version) – 4:34
8 "Fifteen" – 4:17
9 "Pretty as a Swastika" (Alternate Version) – 2:25
10 "Arma-goddamn-motherfuckin-geddon" (Alternate Version) – 3:39
REVIEWS
All Music by Phil Freeman
Remember when everybody was afraid of Marilyn Manson and Eminem? Then it turned out Detroit's white king of rap was a celebrity-obsessed one-liner machine with a pathetic array of mommy issues, and Florida's homegrown Satan went through a bad breakup and released 2007's weepy (relatively speaking) Eat Me, Drink Me. Now, on The High End of Low, Manson is trying to regain his dark throne once more, and frankly, it's unlikely to work. The track titles read like Manson-by-numbers: "Pretty as a Swastika," "Arma-Goddamn-Motherfuckin-Geddon," "I Want to Kill You Like They Do in the Movies," "I Have to Look Up Just to See Hell," and perhaps the most unwittingly revelatory, "We're from America." This album marks the return of former bassist Twiggy Ramirez to the band, but as ever the Manson personality/persona towers over everything else, and his two or three musical ideas are repeated throughout the disc, with only a few exceptions. It doesn't help that he's never even tried to become a technically proficient vocalist; his desultory croon and hoarse shriek are the same as they've been since the early '90s. There are a few catchy riffs here, and a nice tone on "Blank and White," but lyrics like "If you touch me I'll be smeared/You'll be stained for the rest of your life" (from "Leave a Scar") and "Everyone will come to my funeral to make sure that I stay dead" (from "Four Rusted Horses") feel like he's trying to convince himself as much as the audience. The album's middle stretch is a hard slog, with the six-and-a-half minute "Running to the Edge of the World" followed by the nine-minute "I Want to Kill You..." The former is a Bowie-esque ballad/epic (acoustic guitar, strings) that could have been great if it had only been two minutes shorter, while the latter is a one-riff trudge that never builds up any momentum. The aggressive "We're from America" has bursts of lyrical wit, but when your opening line, "We're from America where we eat our young," is cribbed from Funkadelic circa 1972, you're pretty much advertising that you're out of ideas.