Mechanical Animals
Encyclopedia
Mechanical Animals is the third full-length studio album
by American rock band
Marilyn Manson
. It was released on September 14, 1998, in Australia and on September 15, 1998, in the US, Germany and France through Nothing
and Interscope Records
and marked the beginning of the band's brief foray into glam rock
, a sharp contrast to the harsh and abrasive Industrial rock and metal
sound of their earlier and succeeding efforts.
It is a rock opera
concept album
and the second instalment in a trilogy that includes Antichrist Superstar
and Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death)
. After the release of Holy Wood, Manson revealed that the over-arching story within the trilogy is divulged in reverse chronological order. Holy Wood, therefore, begins the story, followed by Mechanical Animals, and concluding with Antichrist Superstar.
It debuted at № 1 in its first week of sale, making it the first Marilyn Manson album to do so. It spawned four singles ("The Dope Show
", "Rock Is Dead
", "I Don't Like the Drugs (But the Drugs Like Me)
" and "Coma White
").
's "Year In Rock" special on December 12. Early on, there were also reports that the new album would be produced by the Los Angeles-based production team, the Dust Brothers
. According to MTV News
, "[They] have completed work on a few tracks on the next effort from Marilyn Manson..." However, nothing came of this reported collaboration and none of the reported completed tracks have surfaced.
Manson's friend, The Smashing Pumpkins
frontman Billy Corgan
, also served as an unofficial music consultant to the band during these early development stages. After playing a few of the early songs for Corgan, he advised the band that "This is definitely the right direction, but if you're gonna do this, go all the way with it. Don't just hint at it."
as principal producer, co-producing the record with Marilyn Manson
. Sean Beavan
was also brought in to supply additional production work. By May of that year, having just completed his obligations for Hole
's then-new album, Celebrity Skin
, Beinhorn's camp confirmed that the nascent Manson project was halfway complete and on course for a late summer or early fall release. Manson, for his part, spent the early part of the year on break from the studio to promote his autobiography, The Long Hard Road Out Of Hell
.
During his February 24, 1998 interview on National Public Radio's Fresh Air
radio talk show to promote the book he divulged that, having exhausted the topic of organized religion in the previous album, the upcoming release will see a major shift in thematic focus: "After going through what I just did in the past two years, it's almost like Edward Scissorhands
or E.T.
—someone who feels like they're in a place where they're not accepted or don't belong [...] It's more from that perspective. It's much more vulnerable music that I'm making on this new album. Both sonically and lyrically it's about the depression of alienation, rather than the aggressiveness of it. It's about the emptiness." Guitarist Zim Zum
divulged that in one instance the band recorded a song a day for two weeks straight during a particular spree of creativity.
Final mixing and post-production took place in a studio in Burbank, California. In July 1998, after having contributed guitar work to 12 of the album's 14 tracks, Zim Zum left the band under amicable terms to pursue his own solo project. He was replaced by the former guitarist of English industrial metal band 2wo
, John Lowery (rechristened by the band as John 5).
takes on two roles, being a substance addicted glam rocker and a gender ambiguous Alien called Omēga who, much like David Bowie
's Ziggy Stardust, falls down to earth, is captured, placed with a band called The Mechanical Animals and turned into a rock star product. He has become numb to the world, either lost or high in outer space
or the Hollywood Hills
, through excessive drug use as a coping mechanism with his life as a product of his corporate masters. Manson's other role is that of Alpha who is based on himself and his experiences around the conclusion of the Antichrist Superstar tour/era. Acting as Omēga's foil, Alpha's emotions have only begun seeping back. Vulnerable and trying to relearn how to use them properly, he despairs about how little emotion other people feel, observing them to be "mechanical animals". Both are looking to come back into the world - looking among the mechanical animals for the thing they need to make themselves whole. They call it Coma White
, unsure if she is real or simply a drug induced hallucination. Subsequently, seven of the fourteen songs are from the perspective, lyrically and musically, of Omēga and his fictional band The Mechanical Animals, while the other seven are by Alpha (Marilyn Manson). The Omēga songs are typically those most nihilistic and superficial lyrically, such as "The Dope Show
", "User Friendly" and "New Model No. 15". The album artwork features a dual liner note book, in which one half has lyrics for the Omēga songs, and when flipped over, has those for the Alpha songs.
Marilyn Manson later noted in an interview with Rolling Stone
magazine that "Mechanical Animals was to represent the point where the revolution got sold out, a hollow shell of what the essence of Marilyn Manson was. It was a satire, and a lot of people interpreted it as 'This is what he really is.' I was making a mockery of what I was, taking a shot at myself."
After the release of Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death)
, Marilyn Manson
revealed that his concept album trilogy is an autobiographical story told in a reverse timeline (chronologically reverse from their actual release dates). That means Holy Wood opens the storyline followed by Mechanical Animals and concluded with Antichrist Superstar. Furthermore, though Antichrist Superstar and Mechanical Animals made sense as individual concept albums on their own, there was a hidden over-arching story running through the three releases.
, Mechanical Animals is, on an aesthetic level, far less dark. In both image and music, Mechanical Animals is inspired by 1970s style, Bowie-esque glam rock (Manson has often cited David Bowie
as his biggest influence). Most songs contain lighter melodies, however, this 'lightness' does not necessarily extend to the lyrics. The music is also far more complicated than most of his work.
The song "Great Big White World" raised concerns, among some groups, of possibly being a racially-motivated reference until Manson himself cleared up the rumors by stating that it was about cocaine
.
Rolling Stone described Manson's crooning on the title track, "Mechanical Animals", as evocative of "the sultry vibe of T. Rex
's Marc Bolan
".
"I Don't Like the Drugs (But the Drugs Like Me)
" features guitar work by Dave Navarro
.
. The "Ziggy-in-Vegas" performance saw Manson strut into the stage in a blue vinyl coat with a faux-fur collar before stripping down, mid-way into the song, to a blue skin-tight costume with cut-outs that revealed the prosthetic breasts and androgynous genitalia of his Omēga character. The performance also included a trio of "besequined" back-up singers that harmonized with the frontman as he sang along. Rolling Stone remarked that "[i]ncontrovertibly, Marilyn Manson stole the show."
, the first singles from both Beinhorn-produced albums were leaked three weeks before their intended release dates and played "nearly a dozen times" on New York radio station WXRK (92.3 FM) and its Los Angeles-based sister station, KROQ-FM
(106.7 FM), on the weekend of July 31 to August 2, 1998. Interscope neither confirmed nor denied that the leak originated from them but joined Hole's label, DGC Records
, in issuing a cease and desist order to WXRK on August 3.
In spite of this the Manson single, "The Dope Show", was subsequently recorded and converted by a fan into a near CD-quality MP3 and made available on an unofficial fan site for download soon after. The following weekend, San Francisco radio station Live 105
(105.3 FM) played both singles again.
", which fared extremely well on both video and single charts in the United States and abroad. "The Dope Show" was written by Manson (lyrics) and Twiggy Ramirez
(music). It continues to reign as the band's most commercially successful song. The music video debuted the band's controversial new, androgynous glam rock
sound and image to the world. It is inspired by Alejandro Jodorowsky
's controversial art film The Holy Mountain as well as the David Bowie
film, The Man Who Fell to Earth
. Again, Bowie's influence has been enormous on this album, with both influences noted publicly by Manson himself.
The third single, "Rock is Dead
", was featured in The Matrix: Music from the Motion Picture
, soundtrack album for the film The Matrix
—the song is played during the end credits.
has won critical acclaim and numerous awards. The infamous photo depicts Manson as an androgynous naked figure with breasts, six fingers and airbrushed genitalia. It is the brainchild of New York City-based long-time Manson photographer Joseph Cultice
. Designer Paul Brown has said of the cover, "I'm extremely proud of it. I said more in one of his covers than any novel could. It made people think and cringe." Contrary to popular internet rumors, the band leader, Manson, did not undergo any plastic surgery for this androgynous, alien look. The breasts are prosthetic, manufactured specially by George Lucas
' Industrial Light and Magic
. Manson is in reality, naked, and covered head to toe in latex paint, provided by the same movie make-up company. His genitalia are covered by a thin cup of plastic to create the androgynous appearance of the alien figure he calls Omēga, which the singer explained, represent "sexlessness and vulnerability," in addition to his own "affection for prosthetic limbs." Manson has stated in interviews that his friend, actor Johnny Depp
, is the current owner of these prosthetic breasts which Manson traded for Depp's strawberry-blonde wig worn in the film Blow
. In 2003 VH1
, declared that Mechanical Animals had the twenty-ninth greatest album cover of all time. It is also featured in Grant Scott's book "The Greatest Album Covers of All Time."
The cover art text is an anagram
which, when rearranged, reads 'Marilyn Manson Is An Alchemical Man'. The album also features an alternate, less "obscene" cover which is contained on the reverse side of the album liner notes. It is incidentally the cover for an album of the same name by Omēga and the Mechanical Animals, a fictitious band composed of characters played by the members of Marilyn Manson. The photo featured on this alternative cover art includes more of the symbolism surrounding the numeral 15.
The liner notes contain hidden messages in yellow text, which are viewable through the blue CD packaging or the transparent blue LP; these messages (now green) include: "www.comawhite.com" (website no longer available), "I no longer knew if Coma White was real or just a side effect, [sic
]" "Now children it's time for recess, please roll up your sleeves," "A sun with no planets, burning in circles", "Even machines can see that we are dead", and "In the end I became them and I led them/ After all none of us really qualified as humans/ We were hardworn, atomatic and as hollow as the 'o' in God/ I reattatched my emotions cellular and narcotic/ From the top of Holywood it looked like space/ Millions of capsules and Mechanical Animals/ A city filled with dead stars and a girl I called Comawhite/ This is my Omēga." The reader of the liner notes is shown how to read these messages in the booklet: there is a diagram showing a CD case over the booklet, and a message which reads: "Yellow and blue = green."
A limited tour edition of Mechanical Animals was released in the UK (including other locations like Australia
and Mexico
, where only 100 copies of this edition arrived) with an illustrated hardcover sleeve by Marcus Wild. Though limited edition, the album is easily attainable in certain regions. The packaging is identical to the original version except for the bonus eight-page comic book by Wild, illustrating scenes from the "I Don't Like the Drugs (But the Drugs Like Me)
" music video.
and the Target Corporation
—refused to stock the album citing the obscene cover and the expectation that it will carry a Parental Advisory sticker
for violating their policy of not selling material with explicit lyrics or content. In an attempt to appease some of the retailers Nothing and Interscope discussed plans to cover the "breasts" with a sticker and enclose the entire package in blue cellophane—similar to the brown paper bag tactic employed exactly 30 years before by distributors on the explicitly nude cover of John Lennon
and Yoko Ono
's Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins
. Wal-Mart still refused to sell the album, and consequently pulled all previous albums by Manson in light of the Columbine High School massacre
on April 20, 1999. To this day, Wal-Mart's corporate website states that Manson's work, among the work of other artists, will not be sold in their stores, but 2003 saw the mass sale of Manson's fifth LP, The Golden Age of Grotesque
in nearly all Wal-Marts; representatives claimed they chose to sell the album because it was "commercially viable" and was "on the Top Ten charts."
commented, "Mechanical Animals celebrates sexy celebrity in a typically Mansonian bacchanalia of contradictions. He's said all along that dirty media dominance is the cleanest and closest thing to divinity in a world that crucified the god in itself and replaced it with blind faith. Now he understands first-hand that stardom sucks, yet while he lifts a platform boot against its phony fat ass he still can't help reveling in the excess. Antichrist Superstar
critiqued fame in order to make him famous. Having been there/done that, Manson wants more because more is the American way he's hell-bent on subverting—even as he's soaking in it." Of the record's musical direction Walters noted "Flexing far more range than rage, Manson's feminization shifts his vocal power center from a diseased gut to a broken heart. You'd think the puppet couldn't dance without Daddy NIN
pulling the strings, yet Mechanical Animals is melodic, catchy, even soulful in a flagrantly soulless way [...] Guitars roar and whine, bass booms, drums race, and synths twitter with a tweeness that's gonna turn Durannie grannie Nick Rhodes
's gray roots green." USAToday praised that "Manson and producer Michael Beinhorn
have rediscovered the adrenalin in '70s glam-rock, sprinkling Gary Glitter
and Ziggy Stardust
over Gothic theatrics." Jon Wiederhorn of Amazon
observed that "Mechanical Animals is a brash, decadent, and glittery display of self-indulgent hooks and melodramatic vocals that sounds like Aladdin Sane
-era David Bowie
and T. Rex
at their most boisterous crossed with the more modern sounds of today's industrial nation
." Ann Powers of Rolling Stone
commented "Mechanical Animals gets its cavelike spaciousness from [goth] influences and tweaks them with an industrial crunch [...] He and his band approach its terrain the way a 1960s rocker like Eric Clapton
approaches the blues, with respect and a sense of entitlement." Annalee Newitz of Salon
commented "With 'Mechanical Animals' Manson is softening up, turning away from his dour preoccupation with religious fascism and toward space-age genderfuck
chic. The creamy synth sound and drugged-out lyrics that dominate Manson's latest CD prove that two antithetical '80s musical genres—heavy metal and new wave—can indeed be fruitfully combined [...] 'Mechanical Animals' is a far better album than the recent 'Antichrist Superstar,' taking Manson in new directions without turning the volume down on his magnetic weirdness." David Browne of Entertainment Weekly
commented "Looking back in mascara'd anger, Manson and [producer Michael] Beinhorn have fashioned music steeped in glam rock and concept-album bombast but updated with a crunching intensity [...] He layers the songs with cooing backup singers, electronica burbles, skulking guitars, and synths at their most decadently new wavy. The effect is often spectacular."
Lorraine Ali of Los Angeles Times
commented "songs swagger with lipstick-wearing attitude, have fun with sleazy subject matter and actually convey some (gasp) human emotion [...] This album is the first time we actually experience Manson as a band, not a phenomenon filtered through Reznor's mixing board wizardry or a freak show accompanied by a soundtrack. An album that's powerful from start to finish is far more surprising than any controversial Manson high jinks [...] this record ensures his further infiltration of teenage America and earns him a new spot in the annals of great, big, pompous pop albums." According to New Musical Express "[...] Mechanical Animals, MM album number four, marks a total shift in Manson's assault. Where the Antichrist Superstar game plan was about gaining notoriety through outrage, rather than winning souls over on musical grounds, Mechanical Animals aims straight for the singalong heart of stadium-land. And rips it out, and holds it aloft in triumph [...] Of the 14 tracks here, ten could be singles. On this evidence alone, 'Mechanical Animals' is an unashamedly crass bid for total world domination [...] they already have the goth kids. Now, their sights have turned on everyone else."
Not everyone gave the album a glowing review. Music critic Robert Christgau
commented "If only the absurd aura of artistic respectability surrounding this arrant self-promoter would teach us that not every icon deserves a think piece, that it's no big deal to have a higher IQ than Ozzy Osbourne
, that the Road of Excess leads to the Palace Theater [...] Its strategy is to camouflage the feebleness of La Manson's vocal affect by pretending it's deliberate—one more depersonalizing production device with which to flatten willing cerebella whilst confronting humankind's alienation, amorality, and failure to have a good time on Saturday night." Spin magazine commented "Manson may appeal to mopey eighth graders, but he's essentially mining the same agitprop territory and 'premillenial' confusion that hipster, highbrow heroes such as Alec Empire
and Tricky
take for granted. Manson shares with Empire a preference for destroying the master's house with the master's tools. Like Tricky, Manson uses gender confusion as a coping mechanism, less identity politics
than identity evasion." Joshua Klein of The A.V. Club
commented "Really, who is supposed to buy this sudden transformation from self-proclaimed "Antichrist Superstar" into Ziggy Stardust? Surely not his fans [...] Surprisingly, those most likely to appreciate Manson's change in spirit may be honest-to-goodness rock 'n' roll fans. Mechanical Animals is first and foremost more musical than anything Manson has done [...] His music packs both industrial muscle and anthemic conviction, even as it playfully steals from the Bowie songbook. What it lacks, sadly, is any sense of wit, as songs doggedly hammer at safe taboos like drugs, sex, drugs, stardom, drugs, and death. And drugs [...] But even Manson must realize that with this release, people actually have a reason to line up in the first place." Stephen Thomas Erlewine
of allmusic commented "With pal Billy Corgan
as an unofficial consultant and Soundgarden
producer Michael Beinhorn manning the boards, Manson turns Mechanical Animals into a big, clean rock record [...] It can make for a welcome change of pace, since his glammed-up goth is more tuneful than his clattering industrial cacophony, but it lacks the cartoonish menace that distinguished his prior music. And without that, Marilyn Manson seems a little ordinary [...] Manson should have remembered—demons are never that scary in the light." Despite this, Greg Burk of LA Weekly
would go on to call Mechanical Animals "one of the greatest albums of its decade."
for the № 1 position on the Billboard 200
. By the second week, sales had dropped to 98,200 units and the album slid to the № 5 spot.
Although critically acclaimed, Mechanical Animals was initially not too well received by long time fans who complained about the willfully radio-friendly sound of the album and surmised that Marilyn Manson had "sold out
". The album was the lowest-selling № 1 album of 1998. Regardless, the album would go on to attain platinum certification. Worldwide, the album went on to sell over 8 million copies.
Despite its later success, the album was marred by controversy. It was virtually blacklisted when Manson became the main scapegoat for the Columbine shootings
of 1999 (despite the lack of evidence that the shooters were fans of the band or even that music causes violence), with unit sales halting very close behind the figure for its predecessor, Antichrist Superstar
.
ranked Mechanical Animals the 7th Best Album in their 1998 End Of Year List. Online music magazine Addicted to Noise
ranked Mechanical Animals 25th in their 1998 list of Albums of the Year. The Village Voice
ranked Mechanical Animals 40th in their 1998 list of Albums of the Year. Kerrang!
ranks Mechanical Animals 2nd in their 1998 list of Albums of the Year. Q Magazine
listed Mechanical Animals among their picks for their 1998 Recordings Of The Year. Dutch magazine Muziekkrant OOR
ranked Mechanical Animals 18th in their 1998 Albums of the Year list. The record ranked 2nd in the Critics Top 50 and 10th in the Popular Poll of German magazine Musik Express/Sounds in their 1998 Albums of the Year. In 1999, American music journalist Ned Raggett
listed Mechanical Animals 78th in his The Top 136 Albums of the Nineties. Also in 1999, Australian magazine JUICE ranked Mechanical Animals 84th in their 100 Greatest Albums of the '90s. In 2006, sister British magazines Classic Rock
& Metal Hammer
included Mechanical Animals in The 200 Greatest Albums of the 90s. Also in 2006, Dutch public radio broadcaster VPRO
included Mechanical Animals in their 299 Nominations of the Best Album of All Time. The French edition of the British magazine Rock Sound
ranked Mechanical Animals 56th in their Top 150 Albums of Our Lifetime (1992-2006) and 2nd in their 1998 Albums of the Year.
A concert film was recorded depicting both tours, titled God Is in the TV
. It was released on November 2, 1999 in VHS
format by Interscope Records and features live concert footage of 13 songs culled from various concerts across the world as well as backstage and behind-the-scenes clips.
summer music festival (along with numerous other bands) in early 1998 due to delays in Mechanical Animals' release, the band launched the first of their own headlining tours in support of the album. It was originally intended to start on June 25, 1998, with a series of 6 festival dates in Europe lasting until July 12, 1998. However the planned summer European leg was scrapped and the tour's launch date was rescheduled to October 25, 1998 after drummer Ginger Fish became ill with mononucleosis
.
Beginning on October 25, 1998 and lasting until January 31, 1999, the Mechanical Animals Tour included two legs spanning a Fall to Winter World Tour in Europe, Japan, and North America and a 6 show headlining stint at the Big Day Out
tour in Australia. In total, the band completed 46 shows out of the 52 originally planned.
The tour is particularly notable for a number of incidences that plagued its progress. Following the conclusion of the Mechanical Animals Tour in January 1999, the band was once again offered a headlining slot by the organizers of the Lollapalooza festival for the 1999 summer season (as part of an attempt to resurrect the by-then-defunct festival) which they declined. Instead, the band struck a deal with Hole
to co-headline the latter's Beautiful Monsters Tour
. Immediately, the joint venture began experiencing problems due to dispute between both group's leaders. After only 9 shows (spanning a total of two weeks) the tour imploded, resulting in Hole's departure on March 14, 1999 and the tour being renamed Rock Is Dead. Monster Magnet
, who were already opening for Manson, assumed Hole's place on the tour's playbill. A minor dispute erupted surrounding the tour's revised nomenclature as Korn
and Rob Zombie
were already in the middle of another tour with the same name.
The first two performances of the Rock Is Dead Tour were canceled after Manson suffered a hairline fracture on one of his ankles during the final show with Hole at The Forum in Los Angeles. The tour was resumed on March 17, 1999. The tour, however, would stagger yet again following the Columbine High School massacre
on April 20, 1999. In the ensuing aftermath, the band was pointed out as a cause of the tragedy in Littleton, prompting the group to cancel their remaining North American engagements out of respect for the victims, explaining, "It's not a great atmosphere to be out playing rock 'n' roll shows, for us or the fans."
Production and personnel
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by American rock band
Rock Band
Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...
Marilyn Manson
Marilyn Manson (band)
Marilyn Manson is an American metal band from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Formed in 1989 by Brian Warner and Scott Putesky, the group was originally named Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids with their uniquely theatrical performances gathering a local cult following in the early '90s. This attention...
. It was released on September 14, 1998, in Australia and on September 15, 1998, in the US, Germany and France through Nothing
Nothing Records
Nothing Records was an American record label, specializing in industrial rock and electronic music, founded by John Malm Jr. and Trent Reznor in 1992...
and Interscope Records
Interscope Records
Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that currently operates as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.-History:...
and marked the beginning of the band's brief foray into glam rock
Glam rock
Glam rock is a style of rock and pop music that developed in the UK in the early 1970s, which was performed by singers and musicians who wore outrageous clothes, makeup and hairstyles, particularly platform-soled boots and glitter...
, a sharp contrast to the harsh and abrasive Industrial rock and metal
Industrial music
Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...
sound of their earlier and succeeding efforts.
It is a rock opera
Rock opera
A rock opera is a work of rock music that presents a storyline told over multiple parts, songs or sections in the manner of opera. A rock opera differs from a conventional rock album, which usually includes songs that are not unified by a common theme or narrative. More recent developments include...
concept album
Concept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
and the second instalment in a trilogy that includes Antichrist Superstar
Antichrist Superstar
Antichrist Superstar is the second full-length studio album by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released on October 8, 1996 in the US through Nothing and Interscope Records. The record's success in mainstream charts propelled the band into a household name and turned its frontman overnight...
and Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death)
Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death)
Holy Wood is the fourth studio album by American rock band Marilyn Manson, released in November 2000 through Nothing and Interscope Records. The album marked a return to the industrial and alternative metal style of the band's earlier efforts, after the modernized glam rock sound of Mechanical...
. After the release of Holy Wood, Manson revealed that the over-arching story within the trilogy is divulged in reverse chronological order. Holy Wood, therefore, begins the story, followed by Mechanical Animals, and concluding with Antichrist Superstar.
It debuted at № 1 in its first week of sale, making it the first Marilyn Manson album to do so. It spawned four singles ("The Dope Show
The Dope Show
"The Dope Show" is a song from Marilyn Manson's 1998 album Mechanical Animals, released in September of that year as the album's lead single...
", "Rock Is Dead
Rock Is Dead
"Rock Is Dead" is a single from Marilyn Manson's third studio album, Mechanical Animals. It is also featured on The Matrix Soundtrack and Midnight Club 3.-Concept:...
", "I Don't Like the Drugs (But the Drugs Like Me)
I Don't Like the Drugs (But the Drugs Like Me)
"I Don't Like The Drugs " is the second single taken from Marilyn Manson's album Mechanical Animals. It features a guitar solo by Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro....
" and "Coma White
Coma White
"Coma White" is a song by the band Marilyn Manson. It is the last track from the album Mechanical Animals. Despite only being released as a promo single, a video was shot in the wake of the Columbine tragedy controversy surrounding the band, and it also provided a preview of the Holy Wood project...
").
Aborted sessions with the Dust Brothers
Following the conclusion of their year-long Dead to the World Tour in September 1997, the band relocated from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Hollywood, California. Work on Mechanical Animals initiated soon after. By early December of that year, the singer began opening up on the then new and unnamed record's development, sitting down with MTVMTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
's "Year In Rock" special on December 12. Early on, there were also reports that the new album would be produced by the Los Angeles-based production team, the Dust Brothers
Dust Brothers
The Dust Brothers are the Los Angeles, California based, Grammy Award winning producers, E.Z. Mike and King Gizmo , famous for their sample-based music in the 1980s and 1990s, and specifically for their work on the albums Paul's Boutique by the Beastie Boys, Odelay by Beck, and the soundtrack to...
. According to MTV News
MTV News
MTV News is the news division of MTV, one of the first and most popular music television network in the U.S., as well as some of MTV's related channels around the world. MTV News began in the late 1980s with the program The Week In Rock, hosted by Kurt Loder, the first official MTV News correspondent...
, "[They] have completed work on a few tracks on the next effort from Marilyn Manson..." However, nothing came of this reported collaboration and none of the reported completed tracks have surfaced.
Manson's friend, The Smashing Pumpkins
The Smashing Pumpkins
The Smashing Pumpkins are an American alternative rock band that formed in Chicago, Illinois in 1988. Formed by Billy Corgan frontman and James Iha , the band has included Jimmy Chamberlin , D'arcy Wretzky , and currently includes Jeff Schroeder Mike Byrne , and Nicole Fiorentino The Smashing...
frontman Billy Corgan
Billy Corgan
William Patrick "Billy" Corgan, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional poet best known as the frontman and sole permanent member of The Smashing Pumpkins. Formed by Corgan and guitarist James Iha in Chicago, Illinois in 1987, the band quickly gained steam with the...
, also served as an unofficial music consultant to the band during these early development stages. After playing a few of the early songs for Corgan, he advised the band that "This is definitely the right direction, but if you're gonna do this, go all the way with it. Don't just hint at it."
Sessions with Michael Beinhorn and Sean Beavan
The band subsequently employed Michael BeinhornMichael Beinhorn
Michael Beinhorn is an American musician and record producer.Beinhorn started his professional career as a musician, playing keyboards in Bill Laswell's Material during the 1980s...
as principal producer, co-producing the record with Marilyn Manson
Marilyn Manson
Marilyn Manson may refer to:* Marilyn Manson , an American rock musician* Marilyn Manson , the American rock band led by the singer of the same name...
. Sean Beavan
Sean Beavan
Sean Beavan is a musician, record producer, and audio engineer best known for his work with Guns N Roses, Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails, God Lives Underwater, and Slayer...
was also brought in to supply additional production work. By May of that year, having just completed his obligations for Hole
Hole (band)
Hole is an American alternative rock band that originally formed in Los Angeles in 1989. The band is fronted by vocalist/songwriter and rhythm guitarist Courtney Love, who co-founded Hole with former songwriter/lead guitarist Eric Erlandson...
's then-new album, Celebrity Skin
Celebrity Skin
Celebrity Skin is the third studio album by American alternative rock band Hole, released worldwide by Geffen Records on September 7, 1998 and one day later in the United States...
, Beinhorn's camp confirmed that the nascent Manson project was halfway complete and on course for a late summer or early fall release. Manson, for his part, spent the early part of the year on break from the studio to promote his autobiography, The Long Hard Road Out Of Hell
The Long Hard Road Out of Hell
The Long Hard Road Out of Hell is the autobiography of Marilyn Manson, leader of the American rock band Marilyn Manson. The book was released on February 14, 1998 and written with the help of Neil Strauss as a ghost writer....
.
During his February 24, 1998 interview on National Public Radio's Fresh Air
Fresh Air
Fresh Air is an American radio talk show broadcast on National Public Radio stations across the United States. The show is produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its longtime host is Terry Gross. , the show was syndicated to 450 stations and claimed 4.5 million listeners. The show...
radio talk show to promote the book he divulged that, having exhausted the topic of organized religion in the previous album, the upcoming release will see a major shift in thematic focus: "After going through what I just did in the past two years, it's almost like Edward Scissorhands
Edward Scissorhands
Edward Scissorhands is a 1990 romantic fantasy film directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp. The film shows the story of an artificial man named Edward, an unfinished creation, who has scissors for hands. Edward is taken in by a suburban family and falls in love with their teenage daughter...
or E.T.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is a 1982 American science fiction film co-produced and directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Melissa Mathison and starring Henry Thomas, Dee Wallace, Robert MacNaughton, Drew Barrymore, and Peter Coyote...
—someone who feels like they're in a place where they're not accepted or don't belong [...] It's more from that perspective. It's much more vulnerable music that I'm making on this new album. Both sonically and lyrically it's about the depression of alienation, rather than the aggressiveness of it. It's about the emptiness." Guitarist Zim Zum
Zim Zum
Timothy Michael Linton more commonly known as Zim Zum, is an American rock musician/songwriter and former guitarist for Life, Sex & Death and Marilyn Manson...
divulged that in one instance the band recorded a song a day for two weeks straight during a particular spree of creativity.
Final mixing and post-production took place in a studio in Burbank, California. In July 1998, after having contributed guitar work to 12 of the album's 14 tracks, Zim Zum left the band under amicable terms to pursue his own solo project. He was replaced by the former guitarist of English industrial metal band 2wo
2wo
2wo was an English industrial metal band, formed by former Judas Priest lead singer Rob Halford as a side project, after the break-up of his first solo project, Fight.-Band history:...
, John Lowery (rechristened by the band as John 5).
Concept
In the album, MansonMarilyn Manson
Marilyn Manson may refer to:* Marilyn Manson , an American rock musician* Marilyn Manson , the American rock band led by the singer of the same name...
takes on two roles, being a substance addicted glam rocker and a gender ambiguous Alien called Omēga who, much like David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
's Ziggy Stardust, falls down to earth, is captured, placed with a band called The Mechanical Animals and turned into a rock star product. He has become numb to the world, either lost or high in outer space
Outer space
Outer space is the void that exists between celestial bodies, including the Earth. It is not completely empty, but consists of a hard vacuum containing a low density of particles: predominantly a plasma of hydrogen and helium, as well as electromagnetic radiation, magnetic fields, and neutrinos....
or the Hollywood Hills
Hollywood Hills
The Hollywood Hills is an affluent and exclusive neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, in the southeastern Santa Monica Mountains. It is bound by Laurel Canyon Boulevard to the west, Vermont Avenue to the east, Mulholland Drive to the north, and Sunset Boulevard to the south.-Hollywood Hills...
, through excessive drug use as a coping mechanism with his life as a product of his corporate masters. Manson's other role is that of Alpha who is based on himself and his experiences around the conclusion of the Antichrist Superstar tour/era. Acting as Omēga's foil, Alpha's emotions have only begun seeping back. Vulnerable and trying to relearn how to use them properly, he despairs about how little emotion other people feel, observing them to be "mechanical animals". Both are looking to come back into the world - looking among the mechanical animals for the thing they need to make themselves whole. They call it Coma White
Coma White
"Coma White" is a song by the band Marilyn Manson. It is the last track from the album Mechanical Animals. Despite only being released as a promo single, a video was shot in the wake of the Columbine tragedy controversy surrounding the band, and it also provided a preview of the Holy Wood project...
, unsure if she is real or simply a drug induced hallucination. Subsequently, seven of the fourteen songs are from the perspective, lyrically and musically, of Omēga and his fictional band The Mechanical Animals, while the other seven are by Alpha (Marilyn Manson). The Omēga songs are typically those most nihilistic and superficial lyrically, such as "The Dope Show
The Dope Show
"The Dope Show" is a song from Marilyn Manson's 1998 album Mechanical Animals, released in September of that year as the album's lead single...
", "User Friendly" and "New Model No. 15". The album artwork features a dual liner note book, in which one half has lyrics for the Omēga songs, and when flipped over, has those for the Alpha songs.
Marilyn Manson later noted in an interview with Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine that "Mechanical Animals was to represent the point where the revolution got sold out, a hollow shell of what the essence of Marilyn Manson was. It was a satire, and a lot of people interpreted it as 'This is what he really is.' I was making a mockery of what I was, taking a shot at myself."
After the release of Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death)
Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death)
Holy Wood is the fourth studio album by American rock band Marilyn Manson, released in November 2000 through Nothing and Interscope Records. The album marked a return to the industrial and alternative metal style of the band's earlier efforts, after the modernized glam rock sound of Mechanical...
, Marilyn Manson
Marilyn Manson
Marilyn Manson may refer to:* Marilyn Manson , an American rock musician* Marilyn Manson , the American rock band led by the singer of the same name...
revealed that his concept album trilogy is an autobiographical story told in a reverse timeline (chronologically reverse from their actual release dates). That means Holy Wood opens the storyline followed by Mechanical Animals and concluded with Antichrist Superstar. Furthermore, though Antichrist Superstar and Mechanical Animals made sense as individual concept albums on their own, there was a hidden over-arching story running through the three releases.
Composition
Unlike Marilyn Manson's previous work, Antichrist SuperstarAntichrist Superstar
Antichrist Superstar is the second full-length studio album by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released on October 8, 1996 in the US through Nothing and Interscope Records. The record's success in mainstream charts propelled the band into a household name and turned its frontman overnight...
, Mechanical Animals is, on an aesthetic level, far less dark. In both image and music, Mechanical Animals is inspired by 1970s style, Bowie-esque glam rock (Manson has often cited David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
as his biggest influence). Most songs contain lighter melodies, however, this 'lightness' does not necessarily extend to the lyrics. The music is also far more complicated than most of his work.
The song "Great Big White World" raised concerns, among some groups, of possibly being a racially-motivated reference until Manson himself cleared up the rumors by stating that it was about cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
.
Rolling Stone described Manson's crooning on the title track, "Mechanical Animals", as evocative of "the sultry vibe of T. Rex
T. Rex (band)
T. Rex were a British rock band, formed in 1967 by singer/songwriter and guitarist Marc Bolan. The band formed as Tyrannosaurus Rex, releasing four folk albums under the name...
's Marc Bolan
Marc Bolan
Marc Bolan was an English singer-songwriter, guitarist and poet. He is best known as the founder, frontman, lead singer & guitarist for T. Rex, but also a successful solo artist...
".
"I Don't Like the Drugs (But the Drugs Like Me)
I Don't Like the Drugs (But the Drugs Like Me)
"I Don't Like The Drugs " is the second single taken from Marilyn Manson's album Mechanical Animals. It features a guitar solo by Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro....
" features guitar work by Dave Navarro
Dave Navarro
David Michael "Dave" Navarro is an American guitarist who plays in the alternative rock band Jane's Addiction and cover band Camp Freddy. He has also played with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Panic Channel, and many others.- Early life :...
.
Promotion
Five days before the album's release, the band performed "The Dope Show" at the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards1998 MTV Video Music Awards
The 1998 MTV Video Music Awards aired live on September 10, 1998, honoring the best music videos from the previous year. The show was hosted by Ben Stiller at Gibson Amphitheatre in Los Angeles....
. The "Ziggy-in-Vegas" performance saw Manson strut into the stage in a blue vinyl coat with a faux-fur collar before stripping down, mid-way into the song, to a blue skin-tight costume with cut-outs that revealed the prosthetic breasts and androgynous genitalia of his Omēga character. The performance also included a trio of "besequined" back-up singers that harmonized with the frontman as he sang along. Rolling Stone remarked that "[i]ncontrovertibly, Marilyn Manson stole the show."
Release
At a time before the ubiquity of peer-to-peer file sharingPeer-to-peer file sharing
P2P or Peer-to-peer file sharing allows users to download files such as music, movies, and games using a P2P software client that searches for other connected computers. The "peers" are computer systems connected to each other through internet. Thus, the only requirements for a computer to join...
, the first singles from both Beinhorn-produced albums were leaked three weeks before their intended release dates and played "nearly a dozen times" on New York radio station WXRK (92.3 FM) and its Los Angeles-based sister station, KROQ-FM
KROQ-FM
KROQ-FM — branded 106.7 KROQ — is a commercial modern rock radio station licensed to Pasadena, California serving the Greater Los Angeles. The call sign is pronounced "kay rock." It is the flagship station of Loveline hosted by Dr...
(106.7 FM), on the weekend of July 31 to August 2, 1998. Interscope neither confirmed nor denied that the leak originated from them but joined Hole's label, DGC Records
DGC Records
DGC Records is an American record label, owned by Universal Music Group, and currently operates as an auxiliary label of Interscope Records.-Company history:...
, in issuing a cease and desist order to WXRK on August 3.
In spite of this the Manson single, "The Dope Show", was subsequently recorded and converted by a fan into a near CD-quality MP3 and made available on an unofficial fan site for download soon after. The following weekend, San Francisco radio station Live 105
KITS
KITS is a San Francisco, California, USA-based radio station broadcasting at 105.3 MHz. The station is owned by CBS Radio and programs a modern rock format. The station also broadcasts on HD channel L2, locally on Comcast cable channel 986, and is streaming online.-Hot Hits:The station's...
(105.3 FM) played both singles again.
Singles
Arguably, this album's most successful song is "The Dope ShowThe Dope Show
"The Dope Show" is a song from Marilyn Manson's 1998 album Mechanical Animals, released in September of that year as the album's lead single...
", which fared extremely well on both video and single charts in the United States and abroad. "The Dope Show" was written by Manson (lyrics) and Twiggy Ramirez
Jeordie White
Jeordie Osbourne White , better known by his pseudonym Twiggy Ramirez , is an American musician, who is best known for being the bassist and guitarist for Marilyn Manson. He was also the bassist for A Perfect Circle, and Nine Inch Nails...
(music). It continues to reign as the band's most commercially successful song. The music video debuted the band's controversial new, androgynous glam rock
Glam rock
Glam rock is a style of rock and pop music that developed in the UK in the early 1970s, which was performed by singers and musicians who wore outrageous clothes, makeup and hairstyles, particularly platform-soled boots and glitter...
sound and image to the world. It is inspired by Alejandro Jodorowsky
Alejandro Jodorowsky
Alejandro Jodorowsky Prullansky, known as Alejandro Jodorowsky, is a Chilean filmmaker, playwright, actor, author, comic book writer and spiritual guru...
's controversial art film The Holy Mountain as well as the David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
film, The Man Who Fell to Earth
The Man Who Fell to Earth (film)
The Man Who Fell to Earth is a 1976 British science fiction film directed by Nicolas Roeg.The film is based on the 1963 novel of the same name by Walter Tevis, about an extraterrestrial who crash lands on Earth seeking a way to ship water to his planet, which is suffering from a severe drought...
. Again, Bowie's influence has been enormous on this album, with both influences noted publicly by Manson himself.
The third single, "Rock is Dead
Rock Is Dead
"Rock Is Dead" is a single from Marilyn Manson's third studio album, Mechanical Animals. It is also featured on The Matrix Soundtrack and Midnight Club 3.-Concept:...
", was featured in The Matrix: Music from the Motion Picture
The Matrix: Music from the Motion Picture
The Matrix: Music from the Motion Picture is one of the two 1999 soundtrack albums from the blockbuster film, The Matrix ....
, soundtrack album for the film The Matrix
The Matrix
The Matrix is a 1999 science fiction-action film written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, and Hugo Weaving...
—the song is played during the end credits.
Cover and packaging
The controversial cover artCover art
Cover art is the illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product such as a book , magazine, comic book, video game , DVD, CD, videotape, or music album. The art has a primarily commercial function, i.e...
has won critical acclaim and numerous awards. The infamous photo depicts Manson as an androgynous naked figure with breasts, six fingers and airbrushed genitalia. It is the brainchild of New York City-based long-time Manson photographer Joseph Cultice
Joseph Cultice
Joseph Cultice began his photography career in Phoenix, Arizona, where he was inspired by his love of rock'n roll and pop icons like KISS and David Bowie. He moved to New York City in 1990....
. Designer Paul Brown has said of the cover, "I'm extremely proud of it. I said more in one of his covers than any novel could. It made people think and cringe." Contrary to popular internet rumors, the band leader, Manson, did not undergo any plastic surgery for this androgynous, alien look. The breasts are prosthetic, manufactured specially by George Lucas
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
' Industrial Light and Magic
Industrial Light and Magic
Industrial Light & Magic is an Academy Award-winning motion picture visual effects company that was founded in May 1975 by George Lucas and is owned by Lucasfilm. Lucas created the company when he discovered that the special effects department at 20th Century Fox was shut down after he was given...
. Manson is in reality, naked, and covered head to toe in latex paint, provided by the same movie make-up company. His genitalia are covered by a thin cup of plastic to create the androgynous appearance of the alien figure he calls Omēga, which the singer explained, represent "sexlessness and vulnerability," in addition to his own "affection for prosthetic limbs." Manson has stated in interviews that his friend, actor Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp
John Christopher "Johnny" Depp II is an American actor, producer and musician. He has won the Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor. Depp rose to prominence on the 1980s television series 21 Jump Street, becoming a teen idol...
, is the current owner of these prosthetic breasts which Manson traded for Depp's strawberry-blonde wig worn in the film Blow
Blow (film)
Blow is a 2001 biopic about the American cocaine smuggler George Jung, directed by Ted Demme. David McKenna and Nick Cassavetes adapted Bruce Porter's 1993 book Blow: How a Small Town Boy Made $100 Million with the Medellín Cocaine Cartel and Lost It All for the screenplay. It is based on the real...
. In 2003 VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
, declared that Mechanical Animals had the twenty-ninth greatest album cover of all time. It is also featured in Grant Scott's book "The Greatest Album Covers of All Time."
The cover art text is an anagram
Anagram
An anagram is a type of word play, the result of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce a new word or phrase, using all the original letters exactly once; e.g., orchestra = carthorse, A decimal point = I'm a dot in place, Tom Marvolo Riddle = I am Lord Voldemort. Someone who...
which, when rearranged, reads 'Marilyn Manson Is An Alchemical Man'. The album also features an alternate, less "obscene" cover which is contained on the reverse side of the album liner notes. It is incidentally the cover for an album of the same name by Omēga and the Mechanical Animals, a fictitious band composed of characters played by the members of Marilyn Manson. The photo featured on this alternative cover art includes more of the symbolism surrounding the numeral 15.
The liner notes contain hidden messages in yellow text, which are viewable through the blue CD packaging or the transparent blue LP; these messages (now green) include: "www.comawhite.com" (website no longer available), "I no longer knew if Coma White was real or just a side effect, [sic
Sic
Sic—generally inside square brackets, [sic], and occasionally parentheses, —when added just after a quote or reprinted text, indicates the passage appears exactly as in the original source...
]" "Now children it's time for recess, please roll up your sleeves," "A sun with no planets, burning in circles", "Even machines can see that we are dead", and "In the end I became them and I led them/ After all none of us really qualified as humans/ We were hardworn, atomatic and as hollow as the 'o' in God/ I reattatched my emotions cellular and narcotic/ From the top of Holywood it looked like space/ Millions of capsules and Mechanical Animals/ A city filled with dead stars and a girl I called Comawhite/ This is my Omēga." The reader of the liner notes is shown how to read these messages in the booklet: there is a diagram showing a CD case over the booklet, and a message which reads: "Yellow and blue = green."
A limited tour edition of Mechanical Animals was released in the UK (including other locations like Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, where only 100 copies of this edition arrived) with an illustrated hardcover sleeve by Marcus Wild. Though limited edition, the album is easily attainable in certain regions. The packaging is identical to the original version except for the bonus eight-page comic book by Wild, illustrating scenes from the "I Don't Like the Drugs (But the Drugs Like Me)
I Don't Like the Drugs (But the Drugs Like Me)
"I Don't Like The Drugs " is the second single taken from Marilyn Manson's album Mechanical Animals. It features a guitar solo by Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro....
" music video.
Controversy
As early as August 14, 1998, a month before the release, the three largest retailers in the United States—K-Mart, Wal-MartWal-Mart
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000...
and the Target Corporation
Target Corporation
Target Corporation, doing business as Target, is an American retailing company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart. The company is ranked at number 33 on the Fortune 500 and is a component of the Standard & Poor's...
—refused to stock the album citing the obscene cover and the expectation that it will carry a Parental Advisory sticker
Parental Advisory
Parental Advisory is a message affixed by the Recording Industry Association of America to audio and recordings in the United States containing excessive use of profane language and/or sexual references. Albums began to be labeled for "explicit lyrics" in 1985, after pressure from the Parents...
for violating their policy of not selling material with explicit lyrics or content. In an attempt to appease some of the retailers Nothing and Interscope discussed plans to cover the "breasts" with a sticker and enclose the entire package in blue cellophane—similar to the brown paper bag tactic employed exactly 30 years before by distributors on the explicitly nude cover of John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
and Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono
is a Japanese artist, musician, author and peace activist, known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking as well as her marriage to John Lennon...
's Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins
Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins
Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins is an album released by John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1968. The result of an all-night session of musical experimentation in Lennon's home studio at Kenwood, John and Yoko's debut album is known not only for its avant garde content, but also for its cover...
. Wal-Mart still refused to sell the album, and consequently pulled all previous albums by Manson in light of the Columbine High School massacre
Columbine High School massacre
The Columbine High School massacre occurred on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, an unincorporated area of Jefferson County, Colorado, United States, near Denver and Littleton. Two senior students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, embarked on a massacre, killing 12...
on April 20, 1999. To this day, Wal-Mart's corporate website states that Manson's work, among the work of other artists, will not be sold in their stores, but 2003 saw the mass sale of Manson's fifth LP, The Golden Age of Grotesque
The Golden Age of Grotesque
Initial critical response to The Golden Age of Grotesque was mixed. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 60, indicating mixed or average reviews, based on 12 publications...
in nearly all Wal-Marts; representatives claimed they chose to sell the album because it was "commercially viable" and was "on the Top Ten charts."
Critical reception
The album received general acclaim. Analyzing the album's intentions, Barry Walters of The Village VoiceThe Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
commented, "Mechanical Animals celebrates sexy celebrity in a typically Mansonian bacchanalia of contradictions. He's said all along that dirty media dominance is the cleanest and closest thing to divinity in a world that crucified the god in itself and replaced it with blind faith. Now he understands first-hand that stardom sucks, yet while he lifts a platform boot against its phony fat ass he still can't help reveling in the excess. Antichrist Superstar
Antichrist Superstar
Antichrist Superstar is the second full-length studio album by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released on October 8, 1996 in the US through Nothing and Interscope Records. The record's success in mainstream charts propelled the band into a household name and turned its frontman overnight...
critiqued fame in order to make him famous. Having been there/done that, Manson wants more because more is the American way he's hell-bent on subverting—even as he's soaking in it." Of the record's musical direction Walters noted "Flexing far more range than rage, Manson's feminization shifts his vocal power center from a diseased gut to a broken heart. You'd think the puppet couldn't dance without Daddy NIN
Nin
Nin may refer to:* Nine Inch Nails, an American industrial rock band* NIN , a Serbian political magazine* NIN , the Sumerian sign for lady* NIN , a human gene* Nion or Nin, a letter in the Ogham alphabet...
pulling the strings, yet Mechanical Animals is melodic, catchy, even soulful in a flagrantly soulless way [...] Guitars roar and whine, bass booms, drums race, and synths twitter with a tweeness that's gonna turn Durannie grannie Nick Rhodes
Nick Rhodes
Nick Rhodes is an English musician, is best known as the keyboardist of the pop rock band Duran Duran...
's gray roots green." USAToday praised that "Manson and producer Michael Beinhorn
Michael Beinhorn
Michael Beinhorn is an American musician and record producer.Beinhorn started his professional career as a musician, playing keyboards in Bill Laswell's Material during the 1980s...
have rediscovered the adrenalin in '70s glam-rock, sprinkling Gary Glitter
Gary Glitter
Gary Glitter is an English former glam rock singer-songwriter and musician.Glitter first came to prominence in the glam rock era of the early 1970s...
and Ziggy Stardust
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars is a 1972 concept album by English musician David Bowie, which is loosely based on a story of a rock star named Ziggy Stardust. It peaked at number five in the United Kingdom and number 75 in the United States on the Billboard Music...
over Gothic theatrics." Jon Wiederhorn of Amazon
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
observed that "Mechanical Animals is a brash, decadent, and glittery display of self-indulgent hooks and melodramatic vocals that sounds like Aladdin Sane
Aladdin Sane
Aladdin Sane is the sixth album by David Bowie, released by RCA Records in 1973 . The follow-up to his breakthrough The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, it was the first album Bowie wrote and released as a bona fide rock star...
-era David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
and T. Rex
T. Rex (band)
T. Rex were a British rock band, formed in 1967 by singer/songwriter and guitarist Marc Bolan. The band formed as Tyrannosaurus Rex, releasing four folk albums under the name...
at their most boisterous crossed with the more modern sounds of today's industrial nation
Industrial music
Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...
." Ann Powers of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
commented "Mechanical Animals gets its cavelike spaciousness from [goth] influences and tweaks them with an industrial crunch [...] He and his band approach its terrain the way a 1960s rocker like Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
approaches the blues, with respect and a sense of entitlement." Annalee Newitz of Salon
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
commented "With 'Mechanical Animals' Manson is softening up, turning away from his dour preoccupation with religious fascism and toward space-age genderfuck
Genderfuck
Genderfuck refers to the conscious effort to mock or "fuck with" traditional notions of gender identity, gender roles, and gender presentation. It falls under the umbrella of the transgender spectrum.-Genderfucking:...
chic. The creamy synth sound and drugged-out lyrics that dominate Manson's latest CD prove that two antithetical '80s musical genres—heavy metal and new wave—can indeed be fruitfully combined [...] 'Mechanical Animals' is a far better album than the recent 'Antichrist Superstar,' taking Manson in new directions without turning the volume down on his magnetic weirdness." David Browne of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
commented "Looking back in mascara'd anger, Manson and [producer Michael] Beinhorn have fashioned music steeped in glam rock and concept-album bombast but updated with a crunching intensity [...] He layers the songs with cooing backup singers, electronica burbles, skulking guitars, and synths at their most decadently new wavy. The effect is often spectacular."
Lorraine Ali of Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
commented "songs swagger with lipstick-wearing attitude, have fun with sleazy subject matter and actually convey some (gasp) human emotion [...] This album is the first time we actually experience Manson as a band, not a phenomenon filtered through Reznor's mixing board wizardry or a freak show accompanied by a soundtrack. An album that's powerful from start to finish is far more surprising than any controversial Manson high jinks [...] this record ensures his further infiltration of teenage America and earns him a new spot in the annals of great, big, pompous pop albums." According to New Musical Express "[...] Mechanical Animals, MM album number four, marks a total shift in Manson's assault. Where the Antichrist Superstar game plan was about gaining notoriety through outrage, rather than winning souls over on musical grounds, Mechanical Animals aims straight for the singalong heart of stadium-land. And rips it out, and holds it aloft in triumph [...] Of the 14 tracks here, ten could be singles. On this evidence alone, 'Mechanical Animals' is an unashamedly crass bid for total world domination [...] they already have the goth kids. Now, their sights have turned on everyone else."
Not everyone gave the album a glowing review. Music critic Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
commented "If only the absurd aura of artistic respectability surrounding this arrant self-promoter would teach us that not every icon deserves a think piece, that it's no big deal to have a higher IQ than Ozzy Osbourne
Ozzy Osbourne
John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne is an English vocalist, whose musical career has spanned over 40 years. Osbourne rose to prominence as lead singer of the pioneering English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, whose radically different, intentionally dark, harder sound helped spawn the heavy metal...
, that the Road of Excess leads to the Palace Theater [...] Its strategy is to camouflage the feebleness of La Manson's vocal affect by pretending it's deliberate—one more depersonalizing production device with which to flatten willing cerebella whilst confronting humankind's alienation, amorality, and failure to have a good time on Saturday night." Spin magazine commented "Manson may appeal to mopey eighth graders, but he's essentially mining the same agitprop territory and 'premillenial' confusion that hipster, highbrow heroes such as Alec Empire
Alec Empire
Alec Empire is a German musician who is best known as a founding member of the band Atari Teenage Riot. Also a prolific and distinguished solo artist, producer and DJ, he has released well over a hundred albums, EPs and singles and remixed over seventy tracks for various artists including Björk...
and Tricky
Tricky
Tricky is an English musician and actor. As a producer and a musician, he is noted for a dark, rich and layered sound and a whispering sprechgesang lyrical style. Culturally, Tricky encourages an intertwining of societies, particularly in his musical fusion of rock and hip hop, high art and pop...
take for granted. Manson shares with Empire a preference for destroying the master's house with the master's tools. Like Tricky, Manson uses gender confusion as a coping mechanism, less identity politics
Identity politics
Identity politics are political arguments that focus upon the self interest and perspectives of self-identified social interest groups and ways in which people's politics may be shaped by aspects of their identity through race, class, religion, sexual orientation or traditional dominance...
than identity evasion." Joshua Klein of The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
commented "Really, who is supposed to buy this sudden transformation from self-proclaimed "Antichrist Superstar" into Ziggy Stardust? Surely not his fans [...] Surprisingly, those most likely to appreciate Manson's change in spirit may be honest-to-goodness rock 'n' roll fans. Mechanical Animals is first and foremost more musical than anything Manson has done [...] His music packs both industrial muscle and anthemic conviction, even as it playfully steals from the Bowie songbook. What it lacks, sadly, is any sense of wit, as songs doggedly hammer at safe taboos like drugs, sex, drugs, stardom, drugs, and death. And drugs [...] But even Manson must realize that with this release, people actually have a reason to line up in the first place." Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine is a senior editor for Allmusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for Allmusic, as well as a freelance writer, occasionally contributing liner notes. He is also frontman and guitarist for the Ann Arbor-based band Who Dat?Erlewine is the nephew...
of allmusic commented "With pal Billy Corgan
Billy Corgan
William Patrick "Billy" Corgan, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional poet best known as the frontman and sole permanent member of The Smashing Pumpkins. Formed by Corgan and guitarist James Iha in Chicago, Illinois in 1987, the band quickly gained steam with the...
as an unofficial consultant and Soundgarden
Soundgarden
Soundgarden is an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington in 1984 by singer Chris Cornell, lead guitarist Kim Thayil, and bassist Hiro Yamamoto...
producer Michael Beinhorn manning the boards, Manson turns Mechanical Animals into a big, clean rock record [...] It can make for a welcome change of pace, since his glammed-up goth is more tuneful than his clattering industrial cacophony, but it lacks the cartoonish menace that distinguished his prior music. And without that, Marilyn Manson seems a little ordinary [...] Manson should have remembered—demons are never that scary in the light." Despite this, Greg Burk of LA Weekly
LA Weekly
LA Weekly is a free weekly tabloid-sized "alternative weekly" in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Editor/Publisher Jay Levin and a board of directors that included actor-producer Michael Douglas...
would go on to call Mechanical Animals "one of the greatest albums of its decade."
Commercial performance
In the United States, Mechanical Animals debuted with a Soundscan-confirmed first week sales of 223,000 units. Propelled by both the first single's heavy rotation on the radio and on MTV as well as the band's attention-grabbing main show performance at the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards, the record briefly displaced The Miseducation of Lauryn HillThe Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill is the debut solo album by American musician Lauryn Hill, released August 25, 1998, on Columbia Records. Recording sessions for the album took place from late 1997 to June 1998, and were held primarily at Tuff Gong Studios in Jamaica...
for the № 1 position on the Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
. By the second week, sales had dropped to 98,200 units and the album slid to the № 5 spot.
Although critically acclaimed, Mechanical Animals was initially not too well received by long time fans who complained about the willfully radio-friendly sound of the album and surmised that Marilyn Manson had "sold out
Sell Out
The first release by Boston hard rock band Halfcocked. It came out in 1998 on Curve of the Earth Records.-Track listing:#"Crash" – 3:24 #"Holly Wood" – #"Return of the Living Dead" – #"Superstar" –...
". The album was the lowest-selling № 1 album of 1998. Regardless, the album would go on to attain platinum certification. Worldwide, the album went on to sell over 8 million copies.
Despite its later success, the album was marred by controversy. It was virtually blacklisted when Manson became the main scapegoat for the Columbine shootings
Columbine High School massacre
The Columbine High School massacre occurred on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, an unincorporated area of Jefferson County, Colorado, United States, near Denver and Littleton. Two senior students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, embarked on a massacre, killing 12...
of 1999 (despite the lack of evidence that the shooters were fans of the band or even that music causes violence), with unit sales halting very close behind the figure for its predecessor, Antichrist Superstar
Antichrist Superstar
Antichrist Superstar is the second full-length studio album by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released on October 8, 1996 in the US through Nothing and Interscope Records. The record's success in mainstream charts propelled the band into a household name and turned its frontman overnight...
.
Accolades
According to Acclaimedmusic.net Mechanical Animals is the 44th best album of 1998, the 426th greatest record released during the 1990s and the 2209th greatest of all-time. SPIN MagazineSpin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
ranked Mechanical Animals the 7th Best Album in their 1998 End Of Year List. Online music magazine Addicted to Noise
Addicted to Noise
Addicted to Noise was an online music magazine in the early days of the World Wide Web. Founded by ex-Rolling Stone editor and writer Michael Goldberg and online music pioneer Jon Luini, it published its first issue in January 1995 and was the first online magazine to include audio samples along...
ranked Mechanical Animals 25th in their 1998 list of Albums of the Year. The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
ranked Mechanical Animals 40th in their 1998 list of Albums of the Year. Kerrang!
Kerrang!
Kerrang! is a UK-based magazine devoted to rock music published by Bauer Media Group. It was first published on June 6, 1981 as a one-off supplement in the Sounds newspaper...
ranks Mechanical Animals 2nd in their 1998 list of Albums of the Year. Q Magazine
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
listed Mechanical Animals among their picks for their 1998 Recordings Of The Year. Dutch magazine Muziekkrant OOR
Muziekkrant OOR
Muziekkrant OOR is the oldest currently published music magazine in the Netherlands. The name "OOR" is the Dutch word for ear.-History:The magazine was first published on 1 April 1971, being founded by Barend Toet . Of the first issue 20,000 copies were printed and paid for by Berry Visser, one of...
ranked Mechanical Animals 18th in their 1998 Albums of the Year list. The record ranked 2nd in the Critics Top 50 and 10th in the Popular Poll of German magazine Musik Express/Sounds in their 1998 Albums of the Year. In 1999, American music journalist Ned Raggett
Ned Raggett
Ned Raggett is a library assistant, freelance writer and music journalist. His work has been published in Allmusic, the OC Weekly, Plan B, Metal Edge and The Quietus, while pieces have also appeared in Dream, Arthur, as well as Stylus, The Broken Face, Fake Jazz, Freaky Trigger, Careless Talk...
listed Mechanical Animals 78th in his The Top 136 Albums of the Nineties. Also in 1999, Australian magazine JUICE ranked Mechanical Animals 84th in their 100 Greatest Albums of the '90s. In 2006, sister British magazines Classic Rock
Classic Rock (magazine)
Classic Rock is a British magazine dedicated to the radio format of classic rock, published by Future Publishing, who are also responsible for its "sister" publication Metal Hammer. Although firmly focusing on key bands from the 1960s through early 1990s, it also includes articles and reviews of...
& Metal Hammer
Metal Hammer
Metal Hammer is a monthly heavy metal music magazine published in the United Kingdom by Future Publishing, and in several other countries by different publishers. Metal Hammer articles feature both mainstream bands and more unusual acts from the whole spectrum of heavy metal music...
included Mechanical Animals in The 200 Greatest Albums of the 90s. Also in 2006, Dutch public radio broadcaster VPRO
VPRO
The VPRO was established in the Netherlands in 1926 as a religious broadcasting organization. Falling under the Protestant pillar, it represented the Liberal Protestant current...
included Mechanical Animals in their 299 Nominations of the Best Album of All Time. The French edition of the British magazine Rock Sound
Rock Sound
Rock Sound is a British magazine which champions rock music. The magazine aims at being more "underground" and less commercial, whilst also giving coverage to more well known acts.-History:...
ranked Mechanical Animals 56th in their Top 150 Albums of Our Lifetime (1992-2006) and 2nd in their 1998 Albums of the Year.
Mechanical Animals and Rock Is Dead Tour
Following the release of Mechanical Animals, Marilyn Manson staged two worldwide stadium tours, titled the Mechanical Animals Tour and Rock Is Dead Tour.A concert film was recorded depicting both tours, titled God Is in the TV
God Is in the TV
God Is in the T.V. is a VHS release by Marilyn Manson. It compiles all of the band's music videos up until 1999. Also featured is exclusive footage cut from "The Dope Show" video and an hour of live and backstage footage from the Rock is Dead tour....
. It was released on November 2, 1999 in VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
format by Interscope Records and features live concert footage of 13 songs culled from various concerts across the world as well as backstage and behind-the-scenes clips.
Mechanical Animals Tour
After declining a headlining slot at the failing LollapaloozaLollapalooza
Lollapalooza is an annual music festival featuring popular alternative rock, heavy metal, punk rock and hip hop bands, dance and comedy performances, and craft booths. It has also provided a platform for non-profit and political groups. The music festival hosts more than 160,000 people over a...
summer music festival (along with numerous other bands) in early 1998 due to delays in Mechanical Animals
Infectious mononucleosis
Infectious mononucleosis is an infectious, widespread viral...
.
Beginning on October 25, 1998 and lasting until January 31, 1999, the Mechanical Animals Tour included two legs spanning a Fall to Winter World Tour in Europe, Japan, and North America and a 6 show headlining stint at the Big Day Out
Big Day Out
The Big Day Out is an annual music festival held in several cities in Australia and New Zealand in late January. It started in Sydney in 1992, spread to Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth by 1993, with the Gold Coast and Auckland joining in 1994...
tour in Australia. In total, the band completed 46 shows out of the 52 originally planned.
Beautiful Monsters/Rock Is Dead Tour
Beginning on February 28, 1999 and lasting until August 8, 1999, the tour included three legs spanning Europe, Japan and North America with a total of 9 completed shows for the Beautiful Monsters Tour and 43 completed shows (out of 46 planned) for the Rock Is Dead Tour.The tour is particularly notable for a number of incidences that plagued its progress. Following the conclusion of the Mechanical Animals Tour in January 1999, the band was once again offered a headlining slot by the organizers of the Lollapalooza festival for the 1999 summer season (as part of an attempt to resurrect the by-then-defunct festival) which they declined. Instead, the band struck a deal with Hole
Hole (band)
Hole is an American alternative rock band that originally formed in Los Angeles in 1989. The band is fronted by vocalist/songwriter and rhythm guitarist Courtney Love, who co-founded Hole with former songwriter/lead guitarist Eric Erlandson...
to co-headline the latter's Beautiful Monsters Tour
Beautiful Monsters Tour
Beautiful Monsters was the ill-fated North American arena tour co-headlined by American modern rock legends and cultural icons Hole and Marilyn Manson in 1999...
. Immediately, the joint venture began experiencing problems due to dispute between both group's leaders. After only 9 shows (spanning a total of two weeks) the tour imploded, resulting in Hole's departure on March 14, 1999 and the tour being renamed Rock Is Dead. Monster Magnet
Monster Magnet
Monster Magnet is an American stoner rock band. Hailing from Red Bank, New Jersey, the group was founded by Dave Wyndorf , John McBain and Tim Cronin...
, who were already opening for Manson, assumed Hole's place on the tour's playbill. A minor dispute erupted surrounding the tour's revised nomenclature as Korn
Korn
Korn is an American nu metal band from Bakersfield, California, formed in 1993. The current band line up includes four members: Jonathan Davis, James "Munky" Shaffer, Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu, and Ray Luzier. The band was formed as an expansion of L.A.P.D.The band released their first demo album,...
and Rob Zombie
Rob Zombie
Rob Zombie is an American musician, film director, screenwriter and film producer. He founded the heavy metal band White Zombie and has been nominated three times as a solo artist for the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance.Zombie has also established a career as a film director, creating the...
were already in the middle of another tour with the same name.
The first two performances of the Rock Is Dead Tour were canceled after Manson suffered a hairline fracture on one of his ankles during the final show with Hole at The Forum in Los Angeles. The tour was resumed on March 17, 1999. The tour, however, would stagger yet again following the Columbine High School massacre
Columbine High School massacre
The Columbine High School massacre occurred on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, an unincorporated area of Jefferson County, Colorado, United States, near Denver and Littleton. Two senior students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, embarked on a massacre, killing 12...
on April 20, 1999. In the ensuing aftermath, the band was pointed out as a cause of the tragedy in Littleton, prompting the group to cancel their remaining North American engagements out of respect for the victims, explaining, "It's not a great atmosphere to be out playing rock 'n' roll shows, for us or the fans."
CD version
notes- Australian and Korean releases of the album come with an additional DVDDVDA DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
that contains the music videoMusic videoA music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
s for "The Beautiful People", "The Dope Show" and "Sweet Dreams". - This album features a hidden, fifteenth track, playable only on a computer; it is untitled and experimental, further playing on the album's theme of the character Omēga and conformity. Upon entering the album into a computer, an autorunAutorunAutoRun and the companion feature AutoPlay are components of the Microsoft Windows operating system that dictate what actions the system takes when a drive is mounted....
file starts a program that displays two of Manson's paintings while the song plays in the background. It is thought to be an experiment in synesthesiaSynesthesiaSynesthesia , from the ancient Greek , "together," and , "sensation," is a neurologically based condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway...
.
Vinyl version
When released on vinyl, the record was split into two separately sleeved albums; the first credited to the character of Alpha (portrayed by Marilyn Manson himself), pressed on opaque white vinyl, and the latter to Omēga and the Mechanical Animals on transparent blue vinyl. The Manson album dealt with songs of love and alienation, while the Mechanical Animals disc contained anthems of sex and drug use.B-sides
- "Astonishing Panorama of the EndtimesAstonishing Panorama of the Endtimes"Astonishing Panorama of the Endtimes" is a song by Marilyn Manson. It was the only single on the Celebrity Deathmatch soundtrack. It was nominated for the Best Metal Performance Grammy in 2001, but lost to "Elite" by Deftones.-Track listing:...
" - "Get My Rocks Off" (Dr. Hook Cover)
- "A Rose and a Baby Ruth" (George Hamilton IVGeorge Hamilton IVGeorge Hege Hamilton IV is an American country musician. He began performing in the late 1950s as a teen idol, later switching to country music in the early 1960s.-Biography:Hamilton was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina...
cover) - "Coma White" (acoustic version)
Album
| Charts (1998) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australia ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... (ARIA Australian Recording Industry Association The Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956... ) |
1 |
| Austria Austria Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the... (Ö3 Ö3 Austria Top 40 Ö3 Austria Top 40 is the name of the official Austrian singles chart, as well as the radio show which presents it, aired Fridays on Hitradio Ö3. The show presents the Austrian singles, ringtones and downloads chart. It premiered on 26 November 1968 as Disc Parade and was presented by Ernst Grissemann... ) |
6 |
| Belgium (Flanders) Flanders Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp... (Ultratop 50 Ultratop 50 Ultratop 50 singles, often just Ultratop 50, is the weekly chart of fifty best-selling singles in Flanders, Belgium, and is produced and published by the Ultratop organization. The chart has existed since March 31, 1995... ) |
22 |
| Belgium (Wallonia) (Ultratop Ultratop Ultratop is an organization which generates and publishes the official record charts in Belgium, and it is also the name of most of those charts... ) |
45 |
| Canada Canada Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean... (CANOE Canadian Online Explorer Canadian Online Explorer is a bilingual online news and information site from Canada.A subsidiary of Quebecor Media, Canoe.ca is a leading local and national interactive media provider of news, entertainment and services, helping to inform and connect Canadians... ) |
1 |
| Finland Finland Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside... (Mitä Hitti Mitä hittiä The Official Finnish Charts is a national record chart in Finland composed by Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland.The singles chart was started in January 1991 as Radiomafian lista and was broadcast on the radio station Radiomafia of the Finnish Broadcasting Company, YLE. This chart is based on a... ) |
6 |
| France France The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France... (SNEP Syndicat National de l'Edition Phonographique The Syndicat national de l'édition phonographique is the inter-professional organization which protects the interests of the French record industry... ) |
14 |
| Germany Germany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate... (Media Control Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie... ) |
7 |
| Netherlands Netherlands The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders... (MegaCharts MegaCharts MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top... ) |
42 |
| Norway Norway Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million... (VG-Lista VG-lista VG-listen is a Norwegian record chart. It is weekly presented in the newspaper VG and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation program Topp 20. It is considered the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from countries and continent around the world. The data is collected by... ) |
3 |
| New Zealand New Zealand New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga... (RIANZ Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... ) |
3 |
| Sweden Sweden Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund.... (Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association .... ) |
6 |
| Switzerland Switzerland Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition.... (Hitparade Swiss Music Charts The Swiss Music Charts are Switzerland's main music sales charts. The charts are a record of the highest-selling singles and albums in various genres in Switzerland.The Swiss Charts include:* Singles Top 75... ) |
44 |
| United Kingdom United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages... (OCC) |
8 |
| United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... (Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... ) |
1 |
Certifications
| Region | Provider | Certification | Shipment | Actual Sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | ARIA Australian Recording Industry Association The Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956... |
Gold | 15,000+ | — |
| Canada | CRIA Canadian Recording Industry Association Music Canada is a Toronto-based, non-profit trade organization that was founded 9 April 1963 to represent the interests of companies that record, artists, manufacture, production, promotion and distribution of music in Canada... |
Platinum | 100,000+ | — |
| New Zealand | RIANZ Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... |
Platinum | 35,000+ | — |
| United States | RIAA Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States... |
Platinum | 1,000,000+ | — |
Chart precession and succession
Singles
| Single | Chart (1998) | Peak position |
|---|---|---|
| "The Dope Show" | Australia ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... (ARIA Australian Recording Industry Association The Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956... ) |
20 |
| Mainstream Rock Tracks Mainstream Rock Tracks Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks is a ranking in Billboard magazine of the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations, a category that includes stations that play primarily rock music. Modern rock tracks are counted in the Alternative Songs chart.This chart began with the March 21, 1981, issue... |
12 | |
| Modern Rock Tracks Modern Rock Tracks Alternative Songs is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in Billboard magazine since September 10, 1988. It lists the 40 most-played songs on modern rock radio stations, most of which are alternative rock songs... |
15 | |
| Netherlands Netherlands The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders... (MegaCharts MegaCharts MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top... ) |
63 | |
| New Zealand New Zealand New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga... (RIANZ Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... ) |
28 | |
| Sweden Sweden Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund.... (Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association .... ) |
53 | |
| United Kingdom United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages... (OCC) |
12 |
| Single | Chart (1998–1999) | Peak position |
|---|---|---|
| "I Don't Like the Drugs (But the Drugs Like Me)" | Australia ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... (ARIA Australian Recording Industry Association The Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956... ) |
45 |
| Netherlands Netherlands The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders... (MegaCharts MegaCharts MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top... ) |
83 | |
| New Zealand New Zealand New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga... (RIANZ Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... ) |
35 | |
| Mainstream Rock Tracks Mainstream Rock Tracks Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks is a ranking in Billboard magazine of the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations, a category that includes stations that play primarily rock music. Modern rock tracks are counted in the Alternative Songs chart.This chart began with the March 21, 1981, issue... |
25 | |
| Modern Rock Tracks Modern Rock Tracks Alternative Songs is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in Billboard magazine since September 10, 1988. It lists the 40 most-played songs on modern rock radio stations, most of which are alternative rock songs... |
36 |
| Single | Chart (1999) | Peak position |
|---|---|---|
| "Rock is Dead" | Mainstream Rock Tracks Mainstream Rock Tracks Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks is a ranking in Billboard magazine of the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations, a category that includes stations that play primarily rock music. Modern rock tracks are counted in the Alternative Songs chart.This chart began with the March 21, 1981, issue... |
28 |
| Modern Rock Tracks Modern Rock Tracks Alternative Songs is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in Billboard magazine since September 10, 1988. It lists the 40 most-played songs on modern rock radio stations, most of which are alternative rock songs... |
30 | |
| United Kingdom United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages... (OCC) |
23 |
Credits and personnel
Marilyn Manson- Marilyn MansonMarilyn MansonMarilyn Manson may refer to:* Marilyn Manson , an American rock musician* Marilyn Manson , the American rock band led by the singer of the same name...
– vocals, producer, vocoderVocoderA vocoder is an analysis/synthesis system, mostly used for speech. In the encoder, the input is passed through a multiband filter, each band is passed through an envelope follower, and the control signals from the envelope followers are communicated to the decoder...
, photography, guitar on "The Last Day on Earth", electronic drums on "The Dope Show" - Twiggy Ramirez – acoustic, lead and rhythm guitars, bass, synth bass, noise
- Madonna Wayne GacyMadonna Wayne GacyStephen Gregory Bier Jr., formerly known by his stage name Madonna Wayne Gacy is the former keyboard player for Marilyn Manson, 1989-2007. His stage name came from the names of the singer Madonna and the serial killer John Wayne Gacy...
– piano, keyboards, synthesizer, electronic drums, sampling, mellotronMellotronThe Mellotron is an electro-mechanical, polyphonic tape replay keyboard originally developed and built in Birmingham, England in the early 1960s. It superseded the Chamberlin Music Master, which was the world's first sample-playback keyboard intended for music...
, shaker - Ginger FishGinger FishKenneth Robert Wilson , better known by his stage name Ginger Fish, is an American drummer primarily known for playing drums for Marilyn Manson 1995-2011...
– drums, percussion - Zim ZumZim ZumTimothy Michael Linton more commonly known as Zim Zum, is an American rock musician/songwriter and former guitarist for Life, Sex & Death and Marilyn Manson...
– lead, rhythm and acoustic guitars, keyboards, guitar synthesizer - John 5John LoweryJohn William Lowery , best known by the stage name John 5, is an American guitarist. His stage name was bestowed on him in 1998 when he left David Lee Roth and joined the industrial metal group Marilyn Manson as their guitarist, taking over from Zim Zum...
– live guitar, guitar on "Mechanical Animals"
Production and personnel
- Rose McGowanRose McGowanRose Arianna McGowan is an actress and singer. She is known for her role as Paige Matthews in The WB Television Network supernatural drama series Charmed. She played Ann-Margret alongside Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Elvis Presley in the CBS mini-series Elvis...
– background vocals on "Posthuman" - Michael BeinhornMichael BeinhornMichael Beinhorn is an American musician and record producer.Beinhorn started his professional career as a musician, playing keyboards in Bill Laswell's Material during the 1980s...
– producer - Dave NavarroDave NavarroDavid Michael "Dave" Navarro is an American guitarist who plays in the alternative rock band Jane's Addiction and cover band Camp Freddy. He has also played with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Panic Channel, and many others.- Early life :...
– guitar solo on "I Don't Like the Drugs (But the Drugs Like Me)" - Billy CorganBilly CorganWilliam Patrick "Billy" Corgan, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional poet best known as the frontman and sole permanent member of The Smashing Pumpkins. Formed by Corgan and guitarist James Iha in Chicago, Illinois in 1987, the band quickly gained steam with the...
– consultant, backing vocals on "The Speed of Pain" (uncredited, however name was mentioned in the thank you section of the album booklet) - Tom Lord-AlgeTom Lord-AlgeTom Lord-Alge is a four-time Grammy Award–winning record producer and mixer. He is the youngest of Vivian Lord's five children, Mark Lord-Alge, Lisa Lord-Alge, Chris Lord-Alge, Jeff Lord-Alge and Tom Lord-Alge...
– mixing - Sean BeavanSean BeavanSean Beavan is a musician, record producer, and audio engineer best known for his work with Guns N Roses, Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails, God Lives Underwater, and Slayer...
– programming, producer, engineer, editing - Barry Goldberg – engineer
- Rob Brill – assistant engineer
- Ted JensenTed JensenTed Jensen is an American recording engineer. Jensen is the chief mastering engineer at Sterling Sound. He started his career as a mastering engineer in 1976 and is currently the most active Mastering Engineer in the industry...
– mastering - Danny SaberDanny SaberDanny Saber is a Los Angeles, California musician, audio engineer, record producer, and remixer. A former member of Black Grape and Agent Provocateur, Saber plays guitar, bass, organ, and keyboards, and is also a prominent Los Angeles DJ....
– keyboards - John West – vocals (bckgr)
- Alexandra Brown – vocals (bckgr)
- Lynn DavisLynn Davis (singer)Lynn Davis, is an American singer/vocalist who has toured and/or recorded with many artists such as George Duke, Marvin Gaye, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Tracie Spencer, Mooney Suzuki, Mariah Carey, Marilyn Manson, Whitney Houston, Thomas Anders, Meat Loaf, and Yanni for whom she appears on the live...
– vocals (bckgr) - Nikki Harris – vocals (bckgr)
- Kobe TaiKobe TaiKobe Tai is the professional name of a pornographic actress and adult model of Taiwanese and Japanese heritage. She entered the adult film industry at the age of 24, and appeared in over 70 films between 1996 and 2003. She returned to adult movies in December 2001 when she made Jenna Loves Kobe ...
– vocals (bckgr) - Dyanna LaurenDyanna LaurenDyanna Lauren is an American erotic dancer, pornographic actress, and director. She appeared in nearly 250 movies between 1989 and 2000; in the years since, she has shifted away from acting and towards directing.Lauren was the Penthouse Pet of the Month in July 1995, and has been a contract...
– background vocals (or, as the liner notes state, "pornography") on "User Friendly" - Joseph CulticeJoseph CulticeJoseph Cultice began his photography career in Phoenix, Arizona, where he was inspired by his love of rock'n roll and pop icons like KISS and David Bowie. He moved to New York City in 1990....
– photography - Devra Kinery – makeup
- Angela Garcia – makeup
- Alex Dizon – hair stylist
External links
- Mechanical Animals at Interscope RecordsInterscope RecordsInterscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that currently operates as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.-History:...