Marilyn Manson has returned with a new lineup, an upcoming album, and a music video for the lead single, “Arma-Goddamn-Motherfuckin-Geddon” for High End of Low, to be released on May 26, 2009. The video looks like an alternative version of “The Beautiful People” but darker, with women in painted faces and mouse ears smashing his body with picket signs, as the singer preaches to the TV masses of a life-feeds-on-life world.
The video, directed by Delaney Bishop, is beautifully shot; the camera perspective is tight on Manson, which portends to indicate that the God of Fuck means business. The intensity of the imagery is similar to what we’ve seen in past videos. The most similar would be “The Beautiful People”. The color scheme is similar to Nazi imagery, including a red and black color scheme throughout the video in the way Nazis used to embolden their message.
As a known collector of Nazi memorabilia (if one could call it that), it isn’t a stretch to see Manson’s fascination with Hitler’s commanding speeches, and it isn’t a stretch that Manson also sees himself as a pseudo preacher, igniting his audience aflame with his brutally honest perceptions of the world. The problem is that the world can no longer be shocked by his means of expression, which gives the video a somewhat antiquated feeling as if he’s somewhat disconnected with his own personal image.
The most noticeable difference, and probably the most inane, is the lack of makeup we’re used to seeing on Mr. Manson’s face. The illusion is the singer’s stark nudity in the absence of a masquerade, perhaps a signal of a balls-out, honest album since he can no longer shock the world with middle fingers and razor-blade slices across his arms and chest.
To elaborate on the band’s latest track, the song is traditional Manson: glam chorus, shock imagery, and “fuck you” lyrics. Twiggy Ramirez has returned, giving the band its old school bass-slamming sound that has been missing since 2002 and guitarist, Wes Borland of Limp Bizkit notoriety, gifts Marilyn Manson a unique metal thrashing that gave his previous band legitimacy. It seems Marilyn Manson would take these two significant additions to a much higher musical plane, but as far as can be heard, it doesn’t. It’s Antichrist Superstar for the 21st Century.
[myspacetv 57392210]
