Marilyn Manson - Heaven Upside Down [Review]

“I am not someone who is loved,” Jared Leto’s rendition of The Joker muses in the extended version of the 2016 DC film Suicide Squad. “I’m an idea, state of mind.” This is an outlook on one’s identity that is probably not too far removed from how Marilyn Manson (born Brian Hugh Warner) views himself (or at least how others view him), which seems to be evidenced on his latest album, Heaven Upside Down. The album was originally titled SAY10 and was slated for a Valentine's Day 2017 release, but due to mostly undisclosed reasons, the album was delayed to later in the year. (Manson has since said that he is grateful for the delay because the delay gave birth to songs that we previously would not have heard.) Heaven Upside Down is undeniably Manson's heaviest and most aggressive album in years (possibly even since 2003’s The Golden Age of Grotesque), and if it accomplishes anything wholeheartedly, it is that it serves as a stark and brutal (although probably pleasant to many fans) reminder that the self-proclaimed “God of Fuck” is still alive and well and doesn’t plan on going anywhere anytime soon. Highlights on Heaven Upside Down include "Tattooed in Reverse," the first single "WE KNOW WHERE YOU FUCKING LIVE," "KILL4ME," and "Blood Honey."

As I have seen other Marilyn Manson fans point out, there are several tracks on the album which seem to call back to earlier Manson albums, and I agree. The opening track, for example (titled "Revelation #12"), sounds almost like an outtake from the debut album, Portrait of an American Family. The song is one of the heaviest songs on the album, and while it is actually one of my least favorite songs on the album (primarily due to its stale repetition), it does invite listeners to share nostalgic memories of '90s Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie. The second track on Heaven Upside Down is titled "Tattooed in Reverse" and is definitely, as previously mentioned, a highlight on the album. One reason why I love it so much is that it is sonically similar to sounds heard on Eat Me, Drink Me, my favorite Manson album to date. The track features a thumping and playful beat, reminding me strikingly of the Eat Me, Drink Me track "The Red Carpet Grave." What I also love about the song is that it features clever wordplay (something that he employed frequently on his last album, The Pale Emperor, another one of my favorites), such as when he asserts that he is "unstable" and "not a show horse."

The album's third track is its lead single, "WE KNOW WHERE YOU FUCKING LIVE." This song is sure to remind fans of older Manson albums such as Antichrist Superstar and/or Holy Wood (in the Shadow of the Valley of Death). The track abandons the playful cabaret sound of "Tattooed in Reverse," instead opting for a raw and straightforward heavy metal track. The song's music video depicts Manson portraying the leader of a cult of murderous nuns, and this idea of blindly following someone or something and consequently surrendering your sense of individuality is one that is prevalent on the album. "WE KNOW WHERE YOU FUCKING LIVE" definitely (at least in my humble opinion) features a political slant (to which Manson is no stranger), as it could easily be interpreted as being from the perspective of (a) government official(s) who is/are proudly exercising his/their power to tap into citizens' personal and private lives. (Big Brother, anyone?) Even if the song is not intended to be interpreted so literally, however, the theme of power (be it political, social, etc.) being abused by the song's speaker is there regardless.

"SAY10," as previously mentioned, was originally intended to be the title track, and it is actually the first song that was previewed. Nearly a year ago, Manson uploaded a music video that only previewed a snippet of the song; the gory video depicted Manson destroying a Christian Bible as a decapitated man resembling Donald Trump lie in a pool of blood on the floor. The full music video, which was released about a month ago, abandons that concept but still doesn't hold back on the gore, as Manson is seen gushing blood out of his throat during the video as a character played by Johnny Depp (longtime friend of Manson's) is seen alongside Manson and getting it on with young and attractive women. The song is heavy and reminds me of the Golden Age era, and it lyrically calls attention to the idea that one person's villain is another person's hero, which could be meant to clarify his stance on Satanism; while he believes in neither God nor Satan, Satan, like Manson himself, is often misunderstood as a figure of pure evil when the reality is that he was merely a rebel, unwilling to obey God's rules. (The song's title is an obvious play on Satan and is also probably meant to exemplify the fact that Heaven Upside Down is Manson's tenth studio album.)

While I don't intend to keep comparing the album's songs to older Marilyn Manson songs, "KILL4ME" is strikingly similar to "Third Day of a Seven Day Binge" from The Pale Emperor, even opening with a very similar bluesy rock beat. I can't help but associate this song with the character Kai Anderson on American Horror Story: Cult. Kai is basically a modern day Charles Manson (from whom Manson gets half of his stage name), a cult leader who manipulates people into brutally murdering people for political reasons. (The "WE KNOW WHERE YOU FUCKING LIVE" music video would have been a good concept for this song, as well.) The song is also probably intended to be a satirical commentary on all of the heat that Manson has taken over the years for supposedly being a negative influence on people, especially youth, and encouraging them to commit acts of violence. Manson's career, in fact, nearly came to a screeching halt when conservative fearmongers like Bill O'Reilly pointed blame at Manson for the Columbine massacre that occurred in 1999. Mainly because of its similarity to "Third Day of a Seven Day Binge" (which, in my opinion, is one of Manson's best songs in his entire catalogue) and because of its catchy hook, "KILL4ME" is my favorite song from Heaven Upside Down.

"Saturnalia" is honestly a low point on the album. It runs (probably unnecessarily, I might add) at eight minutes long and is one of the more subdued songs on the album, not really featuring a memorable hook like songs like "WE KNOW WHERE YOU FUCKING LIVE" and "KILL4ME" do. Although attempting to analyze this song's lyrics can be a challenge (as is often the case with Manson), lyrics like "I was invited to eat the young" and "I don't want to be another bullet hole in the exit sign on your road" seem to suggest that Manson might be pointing at a theme similar to that of "KILL4ME" - the unnerving fact that Manson has so often over the past two decades been used as a scapegoat by people who don't actually understand him. I have an older relative, for example, who once successfully convinced my mother when I was much younger to try to avoid allowing me to listen to Manson, citing reasons such as how Manson encourages listeners to murder their parents. It was immediately clear to me that he was acting on ignorance, as people who oppose Manson often do, as there is, to the best of my knowledge (and I am a pretty passionate fan), no Marilyn Manson song that encourages such a thing.

"JE$US CRI$I$" is a fun and upbeat song that pulls no punches. It violently introduces us to its hook, during which Manson declares that he "write[s] songs to fight and to fuck to. If you want to fight, then I'll fight you. If you want to fuck, I will fuck you." Manson could definitely be demonstrating a strong sense of self-awareness here, but is he? One reason why Marilyn Manson's songs tend to be somewhat difficult to interpret (aside from the fact, of course, that he often extensively employs esoteric knowledge of the Christian Bible, which, as his autobiography The Long Hard Road Out of Hell explains, is primarily because he attended Christian Bible school as a child) is that it's rarely clear whether or not Manson wants his words to be taken satirically or seriously. He has, for example, said in the past that he doesn't really understand why people are drawn to him sexually because he doesn't want to be attractive and even intentionally attempts to make himself look like a corpse. This shines an interesting light on these lyrics. My interpretation of the song is that Christianity is a manipulative (and maybe even financially driven, as the title of the song seems to suggest) power that is the root of many of our crises.

"Blood Honey" is another highlight on the album, serving as one of my favorites. Although undoubtedly still a hard rock song, "Blood Honey" is a slower song on the album, almost having a waltzy rhythm to it, and it may actually be one of Manson's most personally reflective songs to date. "I fuck every broken-crazy girl instead of hanging from the ceiling," he laments. As previously mentioned, I have read Manson's autobiography, so I know that he is no stranger to trauma, having been raped as a child by the very same person who also murdered his beloved dog. "I got some feelings, but I try to hide when I'm healing... so I keep my life a lie." This idea of keeping "my life a lie" is indicative of why, as previously mentioned, we are probably not intended to take everything that Manson says via his music at face value. How do we know, after all, that Brian Hugh Warner and Marilyn Manson are the exact same person? How much of Marilyn Manson is a persona? Celebrities are so often seen as archetypes or as characters rather than as human beings, and I think that Manson is well aware that this tends to be the case for him, which is why I made the comparison to The Joker calling himself a "state of mind."

The penultimate song on Heaven Upside Down is the album's title track, another song, like "KILL4ME," that has somewhat of a bluesy rock sound that sounds like it could belong on The Pale Emperor. Like many of the songs on the album, the song refers to realities being reversed and "upside down." Songs like "Tattooed in Reverse" and "Blood Honey" (which even features the lyric that "you only say that you want me when I'm upside down") feature this theme, and I even came to the realization that the unconventional way that the CD is packaged might have been a creative choice done to help promote one of the album's themes. Many people nowadays (if they buy it at all) buy music digitally, and the age of CDs seems to sadly be dying. (Be still, my poor CD player junkie heart.) I did, however, buy the CD and was almost immediately taken aback by how it was packaged. The front cover is very thin, featuring only two sides, and the booklet, which is made out of a thin, newspaper-like material, is underneath the disc. I have never before seen an album packaged in such a way and can't help but wonder if, as I said, it's meant to accentuate the album's theme of reality being "upside down."

The album's final track is titled "Threats of Romance." The introduction of the song features a slamming and heavily accentuated beat similar to that of "Tattooed in Reverse." It is, in fact, yet another one that reminds me of Eat Me, Drink Me. "Threats of Romance" is another song that could potentially be personal for Manson. It's no secret that Manson has been unlucky in love, moving from relationship to relationship, none of them lasting very long. "Things that are pretty are always kept behind glass," he sings in an almost mournful tone, "and someone like me... can't make it last." Manson, or at least the speaker of this song, seems to be blaming himself for failed relationships, reasoning that his need for chaos and disarray is what leads to his relationships ending. On his song "WOW," found on his 2009 album The High End of Low, Manson sings, "Did you stop and take a look at who you fell in love with?" which seems to parallel his feelings on "Threats of Romance." He continues, "My seed would have made good fruit, and you could have been a tree." Could it be that Manson regrets never having fathered any children? Manson's own father passed away this year, something that hit him very hard, so it could very well be that this is on his mind.

I am overall relatively pleased with Heaven Upside Down. It is most definitely not my favorite Marilyn Manson album to date (that, as previously mentioned, would be Eat Me, Drink Me, and it's going to take a lot for a future album to take that album's place), but it is also far from being my least favorite. (While it is difficult to pinpoint my least favorite Marilyn Manson album, Portrait of an American Family, The High End of Low, and Born Villain all come to mind as possible candidates.) The album features some low points such as "Revelation #12" but also features brilliant highlights such as "KILL4ME" and "Blood Honey." It is interesting how, via this album, Manson manages to continue implementing his modus operandi of using clever wordplay and biblical imagery while still capturing a somehow introspective and personal photograph of himself as a human being. This duality, this question of identity regarding where Brian Hugh Warner ends and where Marilyn Manson begins, if anywhere, perhaps at least partially begins to deconstruct the idea that Marilyn Manson is nothing more than an archetypal character, a "state of mind," that he is actually a human being who tends to be looked at "upside down."