Finally got to listening to this album. Put it off for awhile.
I actually made the thread for The Pale Emperor when it came out
http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/marilyn-manson-the-pale-emperor.2918583/
I was very encouraged by that album and still bump it every now and then. However; I saw Manson at Aftershock in 2015 and the show wasn’t a return to form like the album was. Then he came back with the stupid Trump imagery for his videos(for songs I haven’t heard until now) and I wasn’t overall listening to any new releases over the last year or so. Im the type that rummages through past decades for new to me music.
Anyway, I got on a Marilyn Manson kick over the last couple of days and decided to check out the Heaven Upside Down tracks. I didn’t listen to it in album order but I got all the songs nonetheless. I gotta say, it’s probably as good as Pale Emperor if not more accessible. I probably prefer Pale Emperor more since it has more of a vintage Manson sound throughout, where Heaven Upside Down is definetly more modern.
I started with “Tattooed in Reverse” and was first amused by how blatantly it attempted to sound like mainstream “modern rock”. It sounded like Imagine Dragons but still kept enough Manson signatures for it not to disgust me into turning it off and writing off the rest. In The end it turned out to be a decent song.
The money is with Blood Honey, SAY10, Revealation # 12, Saturnalia, and the hard as fuck Je$u$ Cri$i$. Every song is distinguishable and a good stand alone album in Manson’s discography. There’s a lot here you can’t get better from even overall superior Manson albums. That’s good because if you make a distinguishable record, you don’t have to worry about topping the best ones.
Definetly a great team Manson and Bates are. It really highlights how low Manson had fallen in the 15 years between Holy Wood and Pale Emperor.
