11/9/2001. The world faced an unexpected but carefully planned tragedy that would culminate in the threat of a new war. The rest is history. 11/9/2020. As America continues to remember the victims of the Twin Towers, we rebels at heart are pleasantly surprised with the new We Are Chaos album from His Majesty of Darkness, Marilyn Manson.
Alluding to the kabbalistic number 11 coincidentally is the eleventh studio album. With a difference of almost three years from Heaven Upside Down, produced by the famous film composer, Tyler Bates now comes from the hand of Shooter Jennings, whose roots rely on Country,son of Waylon Jennings, contemporary of Johnny Cash. Manson's first collaboration with Jennings was on the David Bowie cover of Cat People, part of a compilation entitled Countach (for Giorgio). Around the middle of 2019 he was able to complete said album but it did not see the light until this year for more than obvious reasons. Releasing an album in the midst of a pandemic represents a new challenge for any type of production, not necessarily musical. But what does this long-awaited and commented material offer us?
As in the past as Antichrist Superstar, Holywood the intro "Red, Black and Blue" is threatening and allegories to the political situation. They are themes that are still relevant and that the viewer could take as a kind of anthem. It is not convenient to compare it with previous productions although at times there are influences from Bowie (it is not surprising from Manson on albums like Mechanical Animals) a touch of country, blues, glam, gothic and electronic. All sounds quite nice and well balanced. In fact the songs seem much more mature and the vocal parts are spectacular.
Dissecting the album to the degree of expressing which would be the best song would be a bit risky. In fact we can clearly notice that it only has ten tracks unlike their previous works (Holywood has 19 tracks in its entirety!). It is like returning to the experience of playing a vinyl record, a format that has gained enormous strength in recent years due to its nostalgic factor and characteristic sound that cannot be reached by an MP3. In a changing industry that suffered a major setback with the emergence of the digital age we live a lot on singles and EPs. A solid album that is enjoyable from beginning to end I want to think that it is rare. Heaven Upside Down was a record that you want to put in the car and listen to it at full volume without the slightest guilt. This is the same case but We Are Chaos is something more than that: it is melodic, romantic, vulnerable and atmospheric. The title song for the album reads:
"We are chaos, we can't be cured ..."
It is not related to the issue of the 2020 pandemic; it is a happy coincidence. And of the good, little. What if We Are Chaos is conceptual like previous albums like Antichrist Superstar and its sequels?
There are hidden themes out there like the comparison to the effect of a fragrance. A good perfume has several notes; the highs could be the vocal part and the inclusion of other instruments such as the piano and the guitar would be the lows but they are the ones that give almost each track a more organic quality. While Heaven Upside Down had a more synthetic sound with hints of hip hop, this new production sounds more intimate and emotional. And that's a good thing. It is a plethora of emotions that are easily related to the listener.
This quality goes hand in hand with the series of paintings that accompany the variants of the disc in different formats as if we had been offered many nuances of the same element. Bold approaches time to digest but over time it becomes an important part of your daily life. It is better to have a pleasant company in this uncertain times that are the closest to an end of humanity.
