Heaven Upside Down

Marilyn Manson's 10th studio album sounds pretty much like most of his previous ones. And that is good, because his evolved brand of music keeps hard classic rock alive for me. And "hard" is a good word for it - the loud crunching guitars, the screaming vocals, the nihilistic lyrics, the (anti)religious references, the graphic language. My world would be more dull without it. Manson's gift for wordplay, especially biblical wordplay, is again utilized. In "Tattooed In Reverse" I find this line: "Your confession means nothing/So f*** your attrition/There ain't nothing in my hourglass/Just sand from a Dead Sea". In the same song, he pairs "bible" with "Babel". In "Say10" ( an obvious alias for the devil), he declares, "I'm all in the d*mn god-less/Fearless of the flood/or the blood of the coming Spring." Later on, he informs us that "a crown of thorns is hard to swallow", and he mentions the original brothers, "Cocaine and Abel". If you want some apocalyptic verse, how about this, from the title song: "I can hear the scream of trumpets, smell the ash and sulfur. Talons of battalions scratch at the sky, like black feathers and scorpion eyes." That song also contains this line, a rather unsettling fact of life that I never really thought about until now: "I don't attract what I want. I attract what I am." While I doubt these lyrics will win him the Nobel Prize for literature, they are not bad for a latter-day rock star Savonarola. And then there's the music. As with most good albums, the tracks that stand out are the ones that diverge from the tried-and-true formula, even if only slightly. On this album, the most noticeably creative track is also the longest, "Saturnalia" (7:59). It develops organically as it goes. It has a speedy foundation beat, and along the way it introduces and incorporates quietly ominous effects and sounds of distortion, which sometimes blend with, or alternate with, standard classic rock guitar. The vocal is for the most part more melodic than the average Manson vocal, subtly dark and frequently at low volume. Quite a trip. "Heaven Upside Down" is another track with a more melodic vocal, and in general it has a lighter touch for a Manson track, especially the first half. A couple of tracks are on the bluesy side: "Kill4me" and ""Threats Of Romance". And there are a couple that are distinguished by beats that diverge from the classic rock mold. "We Know Where You F****** Live" opens with a pulsing beat on both the bass and the bass drum. The other one, "Tattooed In Reverse", is modulated by a beat which is slightly funkified. The remaining tracks are all fine examples of Manson's usual loud, guitar-driven rock. While the album is not earth-shaking, I find it to be another good Marilyn Manson hard rock album. And that is good enough.

At first I didn't really see the greatness of this album compared to The Pale Emperor, which is my favorite Marilyn Manson album, but I actually think this one is a very worthy follow up to The Pale Emperor on further listening. Kill4Me is one of the catchiest songs Marilyn has ever made, with its earworm refrain and surprisingly electronic pop-influenced musical accompaniment. SAY10 is just the essence of what Marilyn Manson is. If you could condense Marilyn into one track, it would be SAY10. Threats of Romance is my favorite track on the album and it is a surprise that comes at the end. It has a great syncopated piano part in it that really sets it apart from all of the other songs. Probably the weakest song is Blood Honey. It's the only one that I kind of dislike, but all of the others are really fun, even Saturnalia, which took me a while to get used to but now I think it's really catchy. Great album. If Marilyn keeps up this streak this could be an even better era for his music than the 90s.

I ordered this bc I’m getting my license soon and the car I’m going to be primarily driving has a cd player and this cd is so cool. I haven’t played it yet but I was SO excited to find out that the from cover of the cd is a book with the lyrics. I LOVE THISSS

🖤🖤🖤I LOVE MM ... I'd give him 10☆'s if there were any ...

MM has still got it solid album start to finish. As with every collection of new music, there are stand out cuts as well as good cuts. One thing is for sure NO ONE will mistake this for a CD by any artists work other than MM. He is making a statement as he has with every album he has put his name on. If you like MM and his music get this one. Stand out tracks for me are TIR, KIll for me, Say 10. He has damaged his voice over the years of singing all out full blast resulting in a loss of range from his early work I say this as a concern from a loyal fan not being cridical it is still Manson and I love it.

Manson must be feeling his oats nowadays. I remember when I heard The Pale Emperor after his string of not-so-good stuff. It was a breath of fresh air and to this day is my favorite Manson album. Instead of his usual shocking, industrial type rock, TPE was bluesy, more subtle, a little sexier. There are no skippable tracks on TPE. Heaven Upside Down is a continuation of TPE in a sense, as it's still a little bluesy, but there's some older Manson mixed in at the beginning. It's rock and it feels just as introspective as the last album, if not more so. It's a great work overall and it exceeded my expectations. However, I have found that I don't love every track on here. A lot of them are fantastic, don't get me wrong, but the last 3 are a little...lackluster almost compared to the beginning of the album. Many people love Blood Honey, but I personally do not really like that song. In fact, it might be my least favorite on the album. I still love this album. But after 3 listens, The Pale Emperor rules my car once again. If you are a huge fan of his recent stuff you would be able to appreciate Heaven Upside Down and find your own favorite songs. They're all well put together and there are some definite gems in here. SAY10 is my favorite song on this album, for instance, and will definitely find its way into my regular rotation of songs. This is a Manson that will appeal to both old and new fans, slightly more for the old. If you have hesitations, listen to it on Spotify first!

One of my more fav MM record, Heaven Upside Down really honed in on what Manson has been doing musically and perfected it

I think with anything NEW it takes some getting used to. People criticize new things for a while. I think the guitar riffs are awesome, after spending some time watching the lyrics video on Youtube the album is awesome. My favorites are Blood Honey (Spooky), Threats Of Romance, Heaven Upside Down, Tattooed In Reverse, Revelation #12, KILL4ME, and Say10. I think the album has a good blend of mellow and hardcore. I personally hope Manson releases an acoustic album. What's face it, there is no one else like Manson. P.S. I did cut some off the begin of some songs like Threats Of Romance, I started it at 21 seconds. I guess I'm haste to hear Brian sing. *****