Album Review: The Pale Emperor by Marilyn Manson + expectations for upcoming album

Released in January of 2015, the album The Pale Emperor by alternative metal band and shock rocker Marilyn Manson is praised by fans and critics for being an excellent comeback after over a decade of not-so-great albums after Holy Wood in 2000. The Pale Emperor contains bluesy guitar riffs and haunting vocals as well as some spacey sounds similar to my favorite Marilyn Manson album, Mechanical Animals. While Marilyn Manson has moved away from their controversial, political and heavier music, their sound has matured gracefully, incorporating new genres and combining styles from throughout their career.

When listening to The Pale Emperor, you can almost feel the music surround you and build up as the drums, guitar and vocals play off one another. This album has more subtle feel to it than his heavy-metal influenced records and is definitely darker in its nature. When I listen to an album that I love and have listened to many many times, the music begins to feel like a room that I can enter simply by listening to that music. The Pale Emperor seems to also have this feel to it even after only listening a couple of times. Many have said that Marilyn Manson is leaving behind its industrial rock roots but I believe that this particular influence on their music has only evolved. The Pale Emperor takes a softer approach on this style but it can still be heard through the fast, rhythmic drumming and some interesting guitar licks that are in nearly every song. The acoustic songs at the end of The Pale Emperor Deluxe Version are extraordinary. Fated, Faithful, Fatal is one of my favorite tracks, along with Deep Six and Killing Strangers.

In June 2016, Marilyn Manson revealed a new album being released on February 14th 2017. Cleverly titled, SAY10 (sounds like Satan when said aloud), he says "It did bring back memories of creating Antichrist Superstar...". I think that the album will resemble The Pale Emperor as well as some of their older albums. The Pale Emperor was a success after a long string of negatively reviewed albums, so they will likely model SAY10 off of it and incorporate some of their original heavy metal style. Manson also stated that SAY10 will be "pretty violent" so there is no doubt they are drawing from those previous albums that made them so famous.