You know, I was skeptical as to whether Manson was going to be able to pull off a decent disc after spending the better part of a year replacing almost everyone in his band, but after hearing The Golden Age Of Grotesque, it's obvious that any changes he made were completely beneficial, and only served to produce one of the best hard rock discs I've heard in a long time.
I'm convinced that the addition of Tim Skold on bass (who did time in SHOTGUN MESSIAH and KMFDM) was instrumental in the energy unleashed in The Golden Age of Grotesque. Skold's influence is obvious on songs like "mOBSCENE" (The first single off Grotesque), "This Is the New Shit", and "Use Your Fist and Not Your Mouth". Strong writing, superb production, and a lot of anger go into making this one of MARILYN MANSON's best efforts to date.
Sometimes you have to judge a song by how much you want to kick someone's teeth down their throat after you hear it... OK, let me rephrase that. Sometimes *I* have to judge a song by how much *I* want to kick someone's teeth down their throat *I* have heard it. Six songs into The Golden Age Of The Grotesque, I wanted to run outside with a bat and start knocking some fillings loose. Not mine of course; shit, that would hurt.
On occasion, Manson relies on the old reliable "Beautiful People" stomp formula, as he does with "Doll Dagga Buzz-Buzz Ziggety Zag", but it's far more developed on this disc.
The production on Grotesque is also much punchier, thanks to the combined talents of Tim Skold and Ben Grosse, who co-produced all of the tracks on the disc.
The disc slows down a few times with "The Golden Age Of Grotesque" and "Para-noir", but the other fourteen tracks on the disc more than make up for a few slow moments.
I can' t say enough good things about this disc, especially since I've never been a huge Manson fan to begin with. While I doubt I'm going to be showing up at one of his shows in black stockings and goth makeup (we save that for special occasions), I'm definitely going to keep this in the CD player for a while.
