Just in case you haven't felt that he's been in your face enough, Marilyn Manson is trying for new levels of shock value. His next album, "The Golden Age of Grotesque" looks to attain new highs (or is it lows?) in the gross, bizarre, and macabre.
"I need to come back and remind people that I have a gigantic brick tied to my shoe and I am going to kick you in the balls really hard," the singer said. "And then I am going to kiss you and look really good while I do it."
As scandalous as that would look, music's reigning shock rocker has different plans for the song's video, which he plans to direct next week.
"It will be everything that people have always liked about me and then some," Manson said. "I've got girls singing with me, Rockettes kicking. I've got elephants painted black. I've got giant Victrolas. I've got all of the things that you need."
Images will play a large part in the May 13 release of Manson's The Golden Age of Grotesque, which he describes as not just an album, but a movement. To emphasize this, the singer has grand plans for taking his music on the road, first on a 10-date headlining tour and later on Ozzfest (see "Ozzy, Korn, Marilyn Manson Tapped For Ozzfest").
"This is an image of innocence and an image of childish nightmares," Manson explained. "This is, to me, growing up in America, what I saw in entertainment and the contrasting extremes of beauty and ugliness.
"People will try and treat what we do as degenerate art, much like things were treated in the '30s, but we will not be censored," he continued. "If they say that you can't put it in the store, then we put it in your front yard. ... We are trying to make people feel something. And sometimes it's bad and sometimes it's good, but you will always remember it. That is the most important thing."
Along with the paintings, Manson's live show will feature other oddities, ranging from Siamese twins to child wrestlers. "[There will be] a lot of nudity, but this time I'm going to keep my clothes on because I got in too much trouble last time," he added. "Everyone else is going to be naked, including the audience."
Manson and Skold co-produced the album, a first for the singer. "Usually they don't like to let people like me be in charge of anything, ... but that's why I think this record is the most accessible one that we've ever done, because we didn't try. I mean, conventionally it's not accessible because it's so [in your face] at every moment in every different way. It's really about relationships. There's no politics. There is no religion, because I realized finally that art and music, that is my politics, my religion. That is what I stand for. This album is me."
Hmmm... trying to make me feel something, huh? I'm not sure if that's really what I want to feel, but at least it has black elephants and giant Victrolas, so it must be entertaining.
What do you think? Is it all just elaborate, if not bizarre, marketing? Or maybe he just likes to shock and offend, and its hard to keep raising his own bar? Or is he truely artistic genius?