While touring a lot last year, both beside Rob Zombie and with his own band, Marilyn Manson didn’t hold back on announcing and teasing new projects. One of them is a comprehensive collection of the paintings he has done thus far, with two recent ones appearing on picture discs for his covers of ‘The End’ and ‘God’s Gonna Cut You Down’; the second is another book, but this time in collaboration with his photographer of 21 years that will include both classic and unreleased photos the pair have worked on together; the third is of course a new album. There was talks of it being released “before 2019 was over”, but sadly that wasn’t the case. As we sit back and try to relax, I thought I would take a moment to delve into and discuss what we’d like to see from the next Marilyn Manson album.

(Photograph: Travis Shinn)

At the start of July last year, Revolver magazine posted an interview with Marilyn Manson the artist which talked about the upcoming record and things surrounding it. At the time he was on the second Twins Of Evil tour alongside Rob Zombie, but in the interview Manson states that he was “working late in the studio last night” and that he had “finished the sixth song”, showing that the album was about half complete. At the start of his career Marilyn Manson was releasing albums that would span between 15 and 20 songs, but he has recently lessened his intensity on the high output of songs as both his most recent albums have only been 10 tracks each in duration. These albums have also both featured black and white cover images, with fans going on to compare this run of releases to his triptych of albums that spanned from 1996 to 2000.

Manson has also referred to the sound of his new album as “very Southern”, which immediately sparks off memories of the recent dark country music he released on ‘The Pale Emperor’ in 2015, and his 2017 cover of ‘God’s Gonna Cut You Down’. Considering Manson had such an aggressive and industrial metal sound for so many years, its like a breath of fresh air hearing him go for a more stripped back approach while still being able to deliver with dark imagery and low vocals. While ‘Heaven Upside Down’ may have been more of a “return to form” in terms of sound and aggression, it would be cool for the album to finish off a new triptych of sorts by sonically connecting with ‘The Pale Emperor’ and having another black and white album cover.

(Photograph: Brittany Thornton)

With the new album also comes a host of new featured musicians. Marilyn Manson as a band is forever going through line-up changes, but a couple of recent albums have only had a handful of musicians on them; the 2007 album was a direct collaboration between Manson and producer Tim Skold, and both albums from ’15 and ’17 featured a lot of input from producer Tyler Bates. In the Revolver interview however, Manson stated that his new band line-up will feature prominently on the album, which could give the sound of the album a new dynamic and feel much more like a collaborative piece with different minds and viewpoints being filtered into it.

There is also a new producer for this album too, after Tyler Bates left recently, with Shooter Jennings now at the helm of production. Manson has worked with Jennings on and off since 2016, with their first collaboration being a lengthy, loud and experimental cover of Bowie’s ‘Cat People (Putting Out Fire)’. The pair both worked together again on Manson’s cover of The Doors song ‘The End’, which is another lengthy journey, but is much more akin to the Southern sound that Manson has recently dabbled in. I have been sat wondering if their cover of ‘The End’ is a good indication as of the sound that the album will be going in, or at least, I hope it is.