By: Chris Stead

It was so strange to see and hear the debate about Marilyn Manson for so many years. Is he goth? Is he not? Is he a poseur? There were the Mansonites of the 90’s and that fad faded with time. You hardly hear the term any more. More often than not Marilyn Manson has gotten too outlandish in his makeup to mimic. Not so easy as a couple of lines to recreate the Brandon Lee “Crow.” All of that aside, if there was a debate before, the new Manson album might have been just the thing to settle the debate.

At age 38 and with a total of 11 full releases to date, it has taken this long to finally find something that is guaranteed to be sincere from Manson. So, what brought this on? Most likely divorce and alleged alcoholism. It has been stated that for the last year Manson has been “boozing it up” but it would reason to say that there are deeper demons that Manson was undoubtedly battling.

So where does this leave the argument regarding the authenticity of Manson’s gothiness? In this final release, and especially considering Manson’s split with Dita Von Teese, we are seeing a more introspective side of Manson. His newest album is adorned with hearts and every song seems to be written to demonstrate heartache and heartbreak. Yes, folks, I think that Marilyn Manson, at the age of 38 has finally found his right of passage into the Gothic community. Rather than his typical anger and spite mixed with political posturing, Manson has graced us with just under an hour of dark, emotional and introspective music, of the likes we have never seen from him before.

Welcome, Marilyn, to the darkness.

With regard to Eat Me, Drink Me, this is hardly a typical Marilyn Manson album. With heavy blues riffing, almost no synthesizer to be heard and several blues influenced guitar solos peppering the album, this has strayed from the previous sounds of earlier albums in extreme. Marilyn Manson started playing with the Spooky Kids and playing guitar for Nine Inch Nails and now after many years simply as a front-man, Manson has come full circle, playing guitar throughout the album, the entire album being performed by himself and Tim Skold. If you are expecting typical Manson, best skip this one and listen to Holy Wood, Antichrist Superstar or Golden Age of the Grotesque. If you want something that is deep and heartfelt, take a listen.