The High End of Low
Encyclopedia
The High End of Low is the seventh full-length studio album
by American rock band
Marilyn Manson
. Sean Beavan
, who mixed Antichrist Superstar
, Mechanical Animals
, and Eat Me, Drink Me
, is co-producer of the album along with Chris Vrenna. On January 2, 2009, Manson
finalized the album's title, and approximately a month later, on February 2, 2009 the record was revealed through Rolling Stone
's online Smoking Section to be called The High End of Low. Also in the same news piece, Manson revealed that a music video would be produced for the nine-minute "I Want to Kill You Like They Do in the Movies". Rudy Coby
confirmed via his Facebook
page that the single had been switched to "Arma-Goddamn-Motherfuckin-Geddon" at the insistence of Marilyn Manson's label, Interscope Records
.
The album was originally scheduled for release in October 2008, although due to touring commitments this date was pushed back to winter 2008, before a slating of May 2009, which turned out correct. Initially, Manson also intended to release a song from the album before the end of 2008, however these plans did not materialize. The album was released on May 25, 2009 in the United Kingdom and May 26, 2009 in the United States. The album's first radio single, "Arma-Goddamn-Motherfuckin-Geddon
", was released on May 18, 2009. Critical response to the album was mixed, with some reviews criticizing the repetitiveness of the music and lackluster ideas, while others praised a more human Manson following his divorce, and a return to the sound of the well-received Mechanical Animals
.
Many themes permeate "The High End of Low", mostly ones of violence like in the songs "Arma-Goddamn-Motherfuckin-Geddon", "Pretty as a Swastika", "Blank and White", "I Want to Kill You Like They Do in the Movies"; pain: "Leave a Scar" and "Unkillable Monster"; politics in "We're from America"; love and other destructive emotions like in the songs "Devour" and "Running to the Edge of the World"; death in "Four Rusted Horses" and "I Have to Look Up Just to See Hell"; and self-realization
/rebirth: "Into the Fire". The logo for The High End of Low appears to be based on the English logo for The Criterion Collection
edition of the 1963 Akira Kurosawa
film Tengoku to jigoku, which translates to 'Heaven and Hell', a lyrical theme in "Four Rusted Horses". The album debuted at № 4 on the Billboard 200
, falling to № 24 and № 60 in its second and third weeks. The album has sold over 142,000 copies to date in the US.
, as well as Slayer
's Kerry King
and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
' Nick Zinner
on the album; a demo
of one song was also recorded during the tour (the song did not make the album's final cut), with Manson filling notebooks ideas for other potential lyrics and tracks. Also rumoured was a collaboration with James Iha
, although this was never officially confirmed.
In December 2007 Tim Skold had departed from the band, due to the return of former bassist Twiggy Ramirez, who re-christened himself "Twiggy", dropping the serial killer surname. The reunion was announced in January 2008. Coincident with the announcement, Manson gave an exclusive interview to the now defunct fansite "The Heirophant", in which he revealed plans to record an album with Twiggy and Vrenna after the Rape of the World Tour
ended.
In a February 2008 interview with Steppin' Out, Manson described the new album as, "very ruthless, very heavy, and very violent."
On October 19, 2008, Manson and Twiggy announced at the 2008 Scream Awards
after party that the album would "sound more like Antichrist Superstar
" and that the recording sessions are "pretty much done." It was also revealed that live guitarist Wes Borland
would remain with the band while they toured in support of the record, something which did not materialize. In an interview with Spinner.com
released the following day, Manson put forth an explanation of Twiggy's experience working on the album: "This record is the record we always wanted to make and [Twiggy] is writing from a point of view that I've always written from lyrically. I don't think earlier on he had the opportunity to be damaged, and his soul to be trampled on by women as much as me. So now that his penis has been cut off metaphorically, and been smashed into fucking Sloppy Joe
's, someone shit on his heart a thousand times, we tried to put a musical face to that." A statement by Manson that the band were considering releasing a song before the end of the year implied that the album was unlikely to be released in winter 2008, contrary to Manson's announcement in May of that year.
In December 2008, Manson revealed the sonic qualities of three tracks. One was said to feature "a coven of witchy girls", the other "acoustic swampiness that harkens back to when [he] was living in New Orleans", and the song Manson plays guitar on also features him "snorting something, whatever it might have been" as a percussive instrument. On March 10, 2009, a blog entry by producer Sean Beavan confirmed two additional titles, "15" and the rumored "Four Rusted Horses".
In a March interview with Kerrang!, Manson revealed that The High End of Low contains 15 songs, "15" being its closing track. He also claimed that the fourteenth track "Into The Fire"" is a "glorious epic" which Twiggy would be most memorable for as a guitarist. Manson also explained that the songs on the album are listed by the order they were written and recorded. He also revealed the title of another song, "We're from America
", which was made available for free download through the band's website
on March 27, 2009. The same month, five rough mixes of songs from the album were leaked to the Internet. Chris Vrenna has commented on the leaks, explaining that "I hate stealing of music in any form. If a band chooses to put tracks online, that is great. [...] But, downloading unauthorized music is that same as walking into your local CD store and shoplifting the disc! I think true fans know that usually songs found online before the record's release are either rough mixes of tracks and will wait to hear the music in the way the artist intended."
On March 27, 2009, Metal Hammer released a blog describing two songs from The High End of Low, "Arma-goddamn-motherfuckin-geddon" and the previously unverified track "The Wow" (actually titled "WOW"). Later on April 7, 2009, Metal Hammer confirmed the titles of three new songs, "Blank and White", "Running to the Edge of the World" and "White Spider" (actually titled "Wight Spider"). The report also confirmed the leaked song "maybeharmfulifswallowed" has since been retitled "Leave a Scar".
On April 16, 2009, Marilynmanson.com
was updated to include the track listing for The High End of Low, thus revealing three previously unreleased song titles: "Pretty as a Swastika", "Unkillable Monster" and "I Have to Look Up Just to See Hell". A splash page was also added to the website, depicting Manson holding a bundle of fluorescent lights against his head.
. These references include the album having 15 songs, the last of which is titled "15", the number 15 spanning across the MM logo on the back of the "We're from America" single, the fact there are 15 letters in the album's title, and that The High End of Low would be released roughly 15 years after the band's major label debut, Portrait of an American Family
. Noted in an interview, Manson said he has been long obsessed with the number fifteen as it is the number of the devil in the tarot card deck.
The cover art for the album portrayed the face of Manson with red laser lights in his head, standing still looking at the camera next to a red-toned background. The back of the cover features a photo of Manson with a hat, with the track listing featured on the left side. The front cover was shot by Delaney Bishop and the back cover by Mike Riley. The inside photos were shot by Mike Riley and all Polaroid
s by Manson and Evan Rachel Wood.
The logo for The High End of Low appears to be based on the English logo for The Criterion Edition of the 1963 Akira Kurosawa film Tengoku to jigoku, which translates to 'Heaven and Hell', a lyrical theme in "Four Rusted Horses". As its title would suggest, "Arma-Goddamn-Motherfuckin-Geddon" contains numerous parallels to Biblical iconography. These themes, among others, pervade the song and video for the single, exploring the innate fascism
of money, censorship
and sensationalism
of American culture. It is one of the most indicting tracks on the record with the single's video and imagery acting as a prelude to the new era's ethos. The '$' symbol with the video acts additionally as a veiled reference to Salvador Dalí
, stemming from a pointed attack formulated on Breton
's belief that Dalí had abandoned his artistic integrity and surrealist
roots in the pursuit of fame and wealth. Furthermore, (and much like Manson) Dalí was met with accusations of being a Nazi sympathizer who held militaristic and fascist ideologies, due to his unashamed and open fascination with fascism.
The High End of Low is the first studio album by Marilyn Manson since their major label debut, Portrait of an American Family
, not to feature a conventional title track. However the song "I Have to Look Up Just to See Hell" is essentially the album's title track, as "The High End of Low" is a recurring lyric in the song. Worth noting is the EP
Smells Like Children
, which also did not have a title track, however the title of this release was lifted from an unrecorded song of the same name.
and Antichrist Superstar.
One of the most enthralling tracks on "The High End of Low" simultaneously serves as one of the most laden with multi-faceted imagery. Prior to the album release it was erroneously referred to as "White Spider"; however, the difference of just a few letters largely sets the tone for the rest of the piece. Fans of fantasy and etymology
may already be aware of the significance. A "wight" is an archaic
terminology that originally derived from Old English "wiht", and its meaning was a creature or otherwise living thing. Through centuries of poetry and fantasy it managed to acquire its more recognizable meaning, which stands at odds with its original definition. The wight is a form of a supernatural entity, somewhat comparable to that of a wraith-like, ghostly figure. They’re akin to that of a shadowy remnant, ultimately being a poor reflection of their former self. As wights are continually trapped in an existence of nonexistence, it is unsurprising that they were portrayed as aggressive, and violently filled with bile and hatred.
The seventh track from "The High End of Low", entitled "Running to the Edge of the World", contains a lyric which first arose publicly during the lead up to the abandoned Celebritarian era: "I don't seek death, I seek destruction, Until death we seek destruction, We don’t seek death, we seek destruction, Until death we seek destruction". Similarly, the lyric "United as one against all others" is a notable parallel to what is said by Manson and Evan Rachel Wood in the "Heart-Shaped Glasses (When the Heart Guides the Hand)
" music video before plummeting their vehicle off the side of the cliff. The title of the song itself may be a reference to the 1937 Michael Powell
film, The Edge of the World
. The twelfth track off of "The High End of Low", "We're From America
", opens with the lyrics "We’re from America/We’re from America/Where we eat our young." Apart from the analogy's condemnation of the way children are reared, exploited and ultimately destroyed, it is also a reference to a piece of artwork by Franciso de Goya entitled 'Saturn Devouring His Children'. The painting itself can be seen during the final scene of "The Nobodies
" music video. The painting and Manson's usage of it are largely tied to a series of alchemical
concepts which played an integral role throughout Holy Wood, and the perpetual evolution of Marilyn Manson. "Unkillable Monster" contains an open reference to a film by Luis Buñuel
in the lyrics: "Sometimes I dream I'm an exterminating angel, A travelling executioner from heaven".
"Blank and White" is about censorship
and about the day that the New York Times said "God is dead
" and that the suffragettes protested. One particular line in the song, "all you fuckers vote beep beep beep" may be a sarcastic political indictment of the "voters" that seek to effect change through such ineffectual and complacent means as holding pickets up along city streets. As Manson mentioned in the same Shockhound interview, the fact that this very line is echoed in the long censoring "beep" replacing "[shoot the] president of whatever" made him quite happy artistically. The second track of the album is called "Pretty as a Swastika". "It's something I said to a girl because of her complexion
, with black hair, red lips and pale skin. I mean, it was a complex and poetic comment that soon led to intercourse, so I felt no reason for it to be seen as confusing, hateful and destructive. The record label [told Manson to], take it off the album. Rather than do so, I decided to produce it on the inside of the sleeve with a different name, so it'll be sold in Wal-Mart
or wherever stores sell guns but are afraid to deal with lyrics. So, I put "Pretty as a ($)" because all of their motivations are based on money."
. On April 27, the track listing for the deluxe edition of the album's bonus disc surfaced on HMV
's website, revealing that the disc would contain up to seven remixes. The limited edition CD featured 6 bonus tracks with alternate versions of four songs and a remixes of the single "Arma-goddamn-motherfuckin-geddon". The standard edition also featured two bonus tracks.
and The Golden Age of Grotesque
. UK television station Channel 4
announced that they would premier the music video during the early hours of April 18, however this did not occur and the station later explained that "due to unforeseen circumstances, the video was not delivered to Channel 4 in time to screen it." They also reported that because other stations had been screening it, Channel 4 did not plan to air it in the future; curiously, this explanation is false. Universal Music later reported that the music video was expected to premier around May 5, however this date was not met either. On May 14 however, the music video, in which Manson and bassist Twiggy, Chris Vrenna and Ginger Fish
appear, debuted on NME.com in censored form, before appearing on the band's official website
in uncensored form hours later. In August 2009, the "Director's Cut" version appeared on Delaney Bishop's blog. Delaney Bishop, the director for the video, later released an excerpt of the director's cut of the video through his website and can be viewed on YouTube
. The excerpt is the entire second verse and is composed of footage almost entirely different from the original.
On September 10 and 11 Manson posted three photos on his Myspace
of stills from the video of "Running to the Edge of the World". The first two stills were uploaded to his "video stills from the future" photo album. The third was released the next day in his "My Mobile Photos" photo album. On November 4 at 6:19pm EST, the video was uploaded to the official website. It had briefly been up under the title "test1" two days prior, but only for a few hours. The video was directed by Manson and Nathan "Karma" Cox, who also directed the video for "Personal Jesus
". It opens with Manson, dressed in a white shirt singing the song to a camera while partially concealing himself with a curtain. As the bridge and outro of the song play, he beats a woman to death, speculated to represent Evan Rachel Wood
, played by Kelly Polk.
" was released as the a promo single of the album. Kerrang!
s article erroneously states that the song was released during the second week of March 2009; however, this did not actually happen until March 27, when it was released for free as an MP3 on Marilynmanson.com
, accompanied by a new layout for the website. The song was reissued as a digital single on April 7, 2009, and is currently available on iTunes
and Amazon
.
"Arma-Goddamn-Motherfuckin-Geddon
" was the first official single released by Marilyn Manson from the album. It has a remix by the Teddybears
. The song was released for download on May 5, 2009, along with the pre-order of The High End of Low.
"Running to the Edge of The World" was the second official single released by Marilyn Manson from the album. An alternate version of the song was included in the album's bonus CD. The song was released for download on November 4, 2009, and a music video was produced for the song.
's online Smoking Section to be called The High End of Low. Also in the same news piece, Manson revealed that a music video would be produced for the nine-minute "I Want to Kill You Like They Do in the Movies". Rudy Coby
confirmed via his Facebook
page that the single had been switched to "Arma-goddamn-motherfuckin-geddon" at the insistence of Marilyn Manson's label, Interscope Records
.
Promoting The High End of Low was a free download of the song "We're from America
". This was followed by the song's reissue as a digital single on April 7, and its limited release as a physical single on April 14. The album's first conventional single, "Arma-goddamn-motherfuckin-geddon", entered airplay on April 13, and would be released in CD format on May 15 in Germany and on May 18 in the United Kingdom. The song's music video, filmed between April 4 and 5, failed to meet two expected release dates, before premiering on the NME
website in censored form, and hours later on the band's official website
in uncensored form. Also in promotion of the album, The High End of Low was made available for streaming on Marilyn Manson's MySpace
profile before its worldwide release, and on May 28, Hot Topic
hosted clips from the album on its website's homepage.
On May 7, 2009, an official minisite for The High End of Low went online. Along with a new promotional photo, the site provides partial lyrics to "Arma-goddamn-motherfuckin-geddon", links to pre-order both the album and the "Arma-goddamn-motherfuckin-geddon" CD single, a mailing list and a Facebook
application that features lyrics and samples to songs from the album. The order songs also to feature on this application were as follows: beginning May 7, "Devour", "We're from America
" and "Arma-goddamn-motherfuckin-geddon"; these were replaced on May 15 by "Four Rusted Horses", "Leave a Scar" and "Pretty as a Swastika"; these were replaced on May 22 by "Into the Fire", "WOW" and "Blank and White"; than, these were replaced on May 29 by "I Want to Kill You Like They Do in the Movies", "Unkillable Monster" and "Running to the Edge of the World"; and finally, these were replaced on June 5 by "I Have to Look Up Just to See Hell", "15" and "Wight Spider", after which the fate of the application is unknown. On May 8, 2009, an e-mail sent through the site's mailing list confirmed that each week leading up to the album's release, a song will be accessible through phones by texting MANSON to 909090, the first of which being "Wight Spider".
, which assigns a normalized
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average
score 58, based on 14 reviews, which indicates "generally mixed or average reviews". Some critics felt it sounded diluted and repetitive while others praised the album for showing "Manson's more human face after his divorce and best material since Mechanical Animals
". Allison Stewart from The Washington Post
gave the album a positive review, saying that "Manson's divorce from burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese
had led to a new musical high." Spin
writer Doug Brod gave a positive review and stated that "[w]hile it's still easy to dismiss his shock tactics as puerile and insensitive he hasn't sounded this vital—and tuneful—since Mechanical Animals." The BBC
review stated that the new album saw Manson resurrected after the lackluster Eat Me, Drink Me
, with credit given to the skilled bass work on the album. The review sums up the album by saying that it "proves there's still a fair dose of blood and bile to pour from his carcass yet. More impressively, at its best it provides a pointed satirical commentary on noughties America." "We're From America" was cited as the strongest track on the new album. Planet Sound
gave the album a positive review, citing it as his best work since Mechanical Animals and that Manson has his "preening confidence back. It results in strutting glam and magnificently OTT ballads, with Manson engaged with sounding alien again." Los Angeles Times
reviewer Mikael Wood stated that the band even provide a "surprise or two, as in 'Running to the Edge of the World,' a lush acoustic power ballad complete with pretty falsetto vocals." Wood also states that "'High End' makes a deeper impression as a result of Manson's reunion with longtime guitarist-bassist Twiggy Ramirez; together with producers Sean Beavan
and Chris Vrenna, they sculpted a sound both harder-hitting and more finely detailed than on any previous Marilyn Manson record." Rolling Stone
reviewer Jody Rosen gave the album a mediocre review, citing the diminished shock value of the album compared to years past. Rosen stated the best parts of the album are in the ballads like the blues
-tinged "Four Rusted Horses" for a more endearing depiction of Manson as a melancholy human rather than Antichrist Superstar
. Phil Freeman of allmusic criticized the lack of variety in the album with "two or three musical ideas are repeated throughout the disc". He also criticized the lyrics, stating that Manson "[feels] like he's trying to convince himself as much as the audience" and that he is "pretty much advertising that [he's] out of ideas". A review in The Guardian
complained of the lack of novelty in the album, which repeated "the usual entry-level shock-rock histrionics".
with 49,000 copies sold. Despite reaching a higher charting position than Manson's last studio effort, Eat Me, Drink Me, which debuted at № 8, it arrived with the lowest opening week sum of any of Manson's albums since The Last Tour on Earth
began with 26,000 in 1999. Since its debut the album dropped steadily, falling to the № 24 position in its second week and № 60 in its third.
In the vein of the album themes and imagery revolving around Manson's conception of life as a movie, the live counterpart of "The High End of Low" reflects this theatricality by simulating each song in the live tour as a different "act". Replete with movie stage-sound lights illuminating Manson onstage, the veil of "backstage"/"onstage" has been lifted to portray this cinematic effect; Manson reapplies his makeup front-and-center onstage, stagehand
s assist with wardrobe changes in full view of the audience, and the final illustration of this concept is that prior to each song's commencement afterwards, a stagehand emerges and signifies that each new act has begun by use of a clapperboard
in front of Manson, as if to convey the filmic mantra of "lights, camera, action" and the song begins.
A new theatric stage was revealed within the first European leg of "The High End Of Low Tour". During "Great Big White World" Manson performed within a white lightbox in reflection of the "whited out" Hollywood hollowness and isolation lyricized within the song. The entirety of the song was sung behind the semi-transparent sheet, removed from the audience. "If I Was Your Vampire", which also deals with a similar lovelorn isolation, was alternately performed with this theatrical device on early dates of the tour.
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|}
Production
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...
. 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...
, who mixed 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...
, Mechanical Animals
Mechanical Animals
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...
, and Eat Me, Drink Me
Eat Me, Drink Me
Eat Me, Drink Me is the sixth full-length studio album by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released on June 5, 2007, debuting at number 8 in the United States with more than 80,000 copies sold in the first week. It was recorded in a rented home-recording studio in Hollywood, California by...
, is co-producer of the album along with Chris Vrenna. On January 2, 2009, 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...
finalized the album's title, and approximately a month later, on February 2, 2009 the record was revealed through 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...
's online Smoking Section to be called The High End of Low. Also in the same news piece, Manson revealed that a music video would be produced for the nine-minute "I Want to Kill You Like They Do in the Movies". Rudy Coby
Rudy Coby
Rudy Coby, also known as "Labman", is an American comedic magician. He is a member of the Magic Castle in Los Angeles. In the early 1990s, Coby appeared in several small theatrical live shows, and on broadcast television. He is known for delivering eclectic and original comedic performances, of...
confirmed via his Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
page that the single had been switched to "Arma-Goddamn-Motherfuckin-Geddon" at the insistence of Marilyn Manson's label, 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:...
.
The album was originally scheduled for release in October 2008, although due to touring commitments this date was pushed back to winter 2008, before a slating of May 2009, which turned out correct. Initially, Manson also intended to release a song from the album before the end of 2008, however these plans did not materialize. The album was released on May 25, 2009 in the United Kingdom and May 26, 2009 in the United States. The album's first radio single, "Arma-Goddamn-Motherfuckin-Geddon
Arma-Goddamn-Motherfuckin-Geddon
"Arma-Goddamn-Motherfuckin-Geddon" was the first official single released by Marilyn Manson from their May 29, 2009 album The High End of Low. It has been remixed by the Teddybears...
", was released on May 18, 2009. Critical response to the album was mixed, with some reviews criticizing the repetitiveness of the music and lackluster ideas, while others praised a more human Manson following his divorce, and a return to the sound of the well-received Mechanical Animals
Mechanical Animals
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...
.
Many themes permeate "The High End of Low", mostly ones of violence like in the songs "Arma-Goddamn-Motherfuckin-Geddon", "Pretty as a Swastika", "Blank and White", "I Want to Kill You Like They Do in the Movies"; pain: "Leave a Scar" and "Unkillable Monster"; politics in "We're from America"; love and other destructive emotions like in the songs "Devour" and "Running to the Edge of the World"; death in "Four Rusted Horses" and "I Have to Look Up Just to See Hell"; and self-realization
Self-realization
Self-realization is a self-awakening.Self-realization may also refer to:* Self-Realization Fellowship, worldwide spiritual organization founded by Paramahansa Yogananda...
/rebirth: "Into the Fire". The logo for The High End of Low appears to be based on the English logo for The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection is a video-distribution company selling "important classic and contemporary films" to film aficionados. The Criterion series is noted for helping to standardize the letterbox format for home video, bonus features, and special editions...
edition of the 1963 Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa
was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 filmsIn 1946, Kurosawa co-directed, with Hideo Sekigawa and Kajiro Yamamoto, the feature Those Who Make Tomorrow ;...
film Tengoku to jigoku, which translates to 'Heaven and Hell', a lyrical theme in "Four Rusted Horses". The album debuted at № 4 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...
, falling to № 24 and № 60 in its second and third weeks. The album has sold over 142,000 copies to date in the US.
Development and production
Initially, Manson revealed the recording session's for the band's seventh album would take place between March and May 2008, that two Eat Me, Drink Me b-sides may be included, and that he would again be working with Tim SkoldTim Skold
Tim Sköld is a multi-instrumentalist who, in addition to producing solo work, has also collaborated with multiple musical groups including Shotgun Messiah, KMFDM and Marilyn Manson.-Early life:...
, as well as Slayer
Slayer
Slayer is an American thrash metal band formed in Huntington Park, California, in 1981 by guitarists Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King. Slayer rose to fame with their 1986 release, Reign in Blood, and is credited as one of the "Big Four" thrash metal acts, along with Metallica, Megadeth and...
's Kerry King
Kerry King
Kerry King is an American lead and rhythm guitarist. He is best known as the lead guitarist and cofounder of American thrash metal band Slayer. He co-founded the band with Jeff Hanneman in 1981 and has been a member ever since...
and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Yeah Yeah Yeahs are an American indie rock band formed in New York City in 2000. The group is composed of vocalist and pianist Karen O, guitarist and keyboardist Nick Zinner, and drummer Brian Chase. They are complemented in live performances by second guitarist David Pajo, who joined as a touring...
' Nick Zinner
Nick Zinner
Nicholas Joseph Zinner is the guitarist for the New York rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs. He is known for his "unmistakable" wild hair, skinny physique, and pale appearance...
on the album; a demo
Demo (music)
A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...
of one song was also recorded during the tour (the song did not make the album's final cut), with Manson filling notebooks ideas for other potential lyrics and tracks. Also rumoured was a collaboration with James Iha
James Iha
James Yoshinobu Iha b. March 26, 1968 in Chicago, Illinois) is a Japanese American rock musician. He is best known as having been a guitarist and co-founder of the alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins and for his eclectic musical projects of recent years, most notably being a permanent...
, although this was never officially confirmed.
In December 2007 Tim Skold had departed from the band, due to the return of former bassist Twiggy Ramirez, who re-christened himself "Twiggy", dropping the serial killer surname. The reunion was announced in January 2008. Coincident with the announcement, Manson gave an exclusive interview to the now defunct fansite "The Heirophant", in which he revealed plans to record an album with Twiggy and Vrenna after the Rape of the World Tour
Rape of the World Tour
Rape of the World was a worldwide arena tour by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was the tenth tour the band embarked upon and the seventh to span over multiple legs. It was launched 10 days ahead in support of their sixth full-length studio LP, Eat Me, Drink Me, which was released on June 5,...
ended.
In a February 2008 interview with Steppin' Out, Manson described the new album as, "very ruthless, very heavy, and very violent."
On October 19, 2008, Manson and Twiggy announced at the 2008 Scream Awards
2008 Scream Awards
The Spike TV Scream Awards is an award show dedicated to the horror, sci-fi, and fantasy genres of feature films. The show was created by executive producers Michael Levitt, Cindy Levitt, and Casey Patterson....
after party that the album would "sound more like 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 that the recording sessions are "pretty much done." It was also revealed that live guitarist Wes Borland
Wes Borland
Wesley Louden Borland is an American musician and artist, best known as the guitarist for the band Limp Bizkit. He has been in several other bands as well including: Black Light Burns, The Damning Well, Goatslayer, Big Dumb Face, and Combichrist...
would remain with the band while they toured in support of the record, something which did not materialize. In an interview with Spinner.com
Spinner.com
Spinner is an AOL Music property, which bills itself as "the ultimate music blog for free MP3s, free CD listening, [and] discovering new artists."...
released the following day, Manson put forth an explanation of Twiggy's experience working on the album: "This record is the record we always wanted to make and [Twiggy] is writing from a point of view that I've always written from lyrically. I don't think earlier on he had the opportunity to be damaged, and his soul to be trampled on by women as much as me. So now that his penis has been cut off metaphorically, and been smashed into fucking Sloppy Joe
Sloppy joe
A sloppy joe is an American dish of ground beef, onions, sweetened tomato sauce or ketchup and other seasonings, served on a hamburger bun. Commercially made sauces are also available. Textured vegetable protein may be used as a vegetarian substitute for the meat...
's, someone shit on his heart a thousand times, we tried to put a musical face to that." A statement by Manson that the band were considering releasing a song before the end of the year implied that the album was unlikely to be released in winter 2008, contrary to Manson's announcement in May of that year.
In December 2008, Manson revealed the sonic qualities of three tracks. One was said to feature "a coven of witchy girls", the other "acoustic swampiness that harkens back to when [he] was living in New Orleans", and the song Manson plays guitar on also features him "snorting something, whatever it might have been" as a percussive instrument. On March 10, 2009, a blog entry by producer Sean Beavan confirmed two additional titles, "15" and the rumored "Four Rusted Horses".
In a March interview with Kerrang!, Manson revealed that The High End of Low contains 15 songs, "15" being its closing track. He also claimed that the fourteenth track "Into The Fire"" is a "glorious epic" which Twiggy would be most memorable for as a guitarist. Manson also explained that the songs on the album are listed by the order they were written and recorded. He also revealed the title of another song, "We're from America
We're from America
-Charts:...
", which was made available for free download through the band's website
MarilynManson.com
MarilynManson.com is the official Marilyn Manson website. The website, since its launch in 1998, has been integral to the promotion and direction of the band...
on March 27, 2009. The same month, five rough mixes of songs from the album were leaked to the Internet. Chris Vrenna has commented on the leaks, explaining that "I hate stealing of music in any form. If a band chooses to put tracks online, that is great. [...] But, downloading unauthorized music is that same as walking into your local CD store and shoplifting the disc! I think true fans know that usually songs found online before the record's release are either rough mixes of tracks and will wait to hear the music in the way the artist intended."
On March 27, 2009, Metal Hammer released a blog describing two songs from The High End of Low, "Arma-goddamn-motherfuckin-geddon" and the previously unverified track "The Wow" (actually titled "WOW"). Later on April 7, 2009, Metal Hammer confirmed the titles of three new songs, "Blank and White", "Running to the Edge of the World" and "White Spider" (actually titled "Wight Spider"). The report also confirmed the leaked song "maybeharmfulifswallowed" has since been retitled "Leave a Scar".
On April 16, 2009, Marilynmanson.com
MarilynManson.com
MarilynManson.com is the official Marilyn Manson website. The website, since its launch in 1998, has been integral to the promotion and direction of the band...
was updated to include the track listing for The High End of Low, thus revealing three previously unreleased song titles: "Pretty as a Swastika", "Unkillable Monster" and "I Have to Look Up Just to See Hell". A splash page was also added to the website, depicting Manson holding a bundle of fluorescent lights against his head.
Concept and artwork
Many themes permeate "The High End of Low", mostly ones of violence like in the songs "Arma-goddamn-motherfuckin-geddon", "Pretty as a Swastika", "Blank and White", "I Want to Kill You Like They Do in the Movies"; pain: "Leave a Scar" and "Unkillable Monster"; politics in "We're from America"; love and other destructive emotions like in the songs "Devour" and "Running to the Edge of the World"; death in "Four Rusted Horses" and "I Have to Look Up Just to See Hell"; and self-realization/rebirth: "Into the Fire". The album is ultimately a closing of previous ideas, morals and the past. Manson has stated the whole album is influenced by film, particularly the track "I Want To Kill You Like They Do In The Movies". The High End of Low runs rampant with references to the number 15, a first since 1998's Mechanical AnimalsMechanical Animals
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...
. These references include the album having 15 songs, the last of which is titled "15", the number 15 spanning across the MM logo on the back of the "We're from America" single, the fact there are 15 letters in the album's title, and that The High End of Low would be released roughly 15 years after the band's major label debut, Portrait of an American Family
Portrait of an American Family
Portrait of an American Family is the debut full-length studio album by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released on July 19, 1994 in the US through Nothing and Interscope Records. It was produced by the band's frontman and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails...
. Noted in an interview, Manson said he has been long obsessed with the number fifteen as it is the number of the devil in the tarot card deck.
The cover art for the album portrayed the face of Manson with red laser lights in his head, standing still looking at the camera next to a red-toned background. The back of the cover features a photo of Manson with a hat, with the track listing featured on the left side. The front cover was shot by Delaney Bishop and the back cover by Mike Riley. The inside photos were shot by Mike Riley and all Polaroid
Instant film
Instant film is a type of photographic film first introduced by Polaroid that is designed to be used in an instant camera...
s by Manson and Evan Rachel Wood.
The logo for The High End of Low appears to be based on the English logo for The Criterion Edition of the 1963 Akira Kurosawa film Tengoku to jigoku, which translates to 'Heaven and Hell', a lyrical theme in "Four Rusted Horses". As its title would suggest, "Arma-Goddamn-Motherfuckin-Geddon" contains numerous parallels to Biblical iconography. These themes, among others, pervade the song and video for the single, exploring the innate fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
of money, censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
and sensationalism
Sensationalism
Sensationalism is a type of editorial bias in mass media in which events and topics in news stories and pieces are over-hyped to increase viewership or readership numbers...
of American culture. It is one of the most indicting tracks on the record with the single's video and imagery acting as a prelude to the new era's ethos. The '$' symbol with the video acts additionally as a veiled reference to Salvador Dalí
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech, Marquis de Púbol , commonly known as Salvador Dalí , was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres,Spain....
, stemming from a pointed attack formulated on Breton
André Breton
André Breton was a French writer and poet. He is known best as the founder of Surrealism. His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism"....
's belief that Dalí had abandoned his artistic integrity and surrealist
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
roots in the pursuit of fame and wealth. Furthermore, (and much like Manson) Dalí was met with accusations of being a Nazi sympathizer who held militaristic and fascist ideologies, due to his unashamed and open fascination with fascism.
The High End of Low is the first studio album by Marilyn Manson since their major label debut, Portrait of an American Family
Portrait of an American Family
Portrait of an American Family is the debut full-length studio album by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released on July 19, 1994 in the US through Nothing and Interscope Records. It was produced by the band's frontman and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails...
, not to feature a conventional title track. However the song "I Have to Look Up Just to See Hell" is essentially the album's title track, as "The High End of Low" is a recurring lyric in the song. Worth noting is the EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
Smells Like Children
Smells Like Children
Smells Like Children is a EP by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released on October 24, 1995 in the US through Nothing and Interscope Records. It was produced by the band's frontman and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails...
, which also did not have a title track, however the title of this release was lifted from an unrecorded song of the same name.
Composition
There are various lyrical references and evocations within "The High End of Low". Film influences are a common thread, with the album being Manson's most celluloid-inspired record to date, as reflected within the album artwork and film reel disc itself. The lyrics however mark a vitriolic return to scathing diatribes against wanton American blindness and occult themes which have not as prominently been explored since 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...
and Antichrist Superstar.
One of the most enthralling tracks on "The High End of Low" simultaneously serves as one of the most laden with multi-faceted imagery. Prior to the album release it was erroneously referred to as "White Spider"; however, the difference of just a few letters largely sets the tone for the rest of the piece. Fans of fantasy and etymology
Etymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
may already be aware of the significance. A "wight" is an archaic
Archaic
Archaic may refer to a period of time preceding a "classical period":*List of archaeological periods**Archaic Greece**Archaic period in the Americas**Early Dynastic Period of Egypt*Archaic Homo sapiens, people who lived about 300,000 to 30,000 B.P...
terminology that originally derived from Old English "wiht", and its meaning was a creature or otherwise living thing. Through centuries of poetry and fantasy it managed to acquire its more recognizable meaning, which stands at odds with its original definition. The wight is a form of a supernatural entity, somewhat comparable to that of a wraith-like, ghostly figure. They’re akin to that of a shadowy remnant, ultimately being a poor reflection of their former self. As wights are continually trapped in an existence of nonexistence, it is unsurprising that they were portrayed as aggressive, and violently filled with bile and hatred.
The seventh track from "The High End of Low", entitled "Running to the Edge of the World", contains a lyric which first arose publicly during the lead up to the abandoned Celebritarian era: "I don't seek death, I seek destruction, Until death we seek destruction, We don’t seek death, we seek destruction, Until death we seek destruction". Similarly, the lyric "United as one against all others" is a notable parallel to what is said by Manson and Evan Rachel Wood in the "Heart-Shaped Glasses (When the Heart Guides the Hand)
Heart-Shaped Glasses (When the Heart Guides the Hand)
"Heart-Shaped Glasses " is a song by Marilyn Manson. It was released as the first single from their sixth album, Eat Me, Drink Me released on June 5, 2007. Initially, "Putting Holes In Happiness" was set as the first single from the album, but this was changed, similar to the case of "Get Your Gunn"...
" music video before plummeting their vehicle off the side of the cliff. The title of the song itself may be a reference to the 1937 Michael Powell
Michael Powell (director)
Michael Latham Powell was a renowned English film director, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger...
film, The Edge of the World
The Edge of the World
The Edge of the World was the first major project by British filmmaker Michael Powell.-Plot:The film is the story of the de-population of one of the isolated, outer islands of Scotland as, one by one, the younger generation leaves for the greater opportunities offered by the mainland, making it...
. The twelfth track off of "The High End of Low", "We're From America
We're from America
-Charts:...
", opens with the lyrics "We’re from America/We’re from America/Where we eat our young." Apart from the analogy's condemnation of the way children are reared, exploited and ultimately destroyed, it is also a reference to a piece of artwork by Franciso de Goya entitled 'Saturn Devouring His Children'. The painting itself can be seen during the final scene of "The Nobodies
The Nobodies (song)
"The Nobodies" is a song by American industrial rock band Marilyn Manson. It is the third and final single from their fourth studio album, Holy Wood , released in 2001....
" music video. The painting and Manson's usage of it are largely tied to a series of alchemical
Alchemy
Alchemy is an influential philosophical tradition whose early practitioners’ claims to profound powers were known from antiquity. The defining objectives of alchemy are varied; these include the creation of the fabled philosopher's stone possessing powers including the capability of turning base...
concepts which played an integral role throughout Holy Wood, and the perpetual evolution of Marilyn Manson. "Unkillable Monster" contains an open reference to a film by Luis Buñuel
Luis Buñuel
Luis Buñuel Portolés was a Spanish-born filmmaker — later a naturalized citizen of Mexico — who worked in Spain, Mexico, France and the US..-Early years:...
in the lyrics: "Sometimes I dream I'm an exterminating angel, A travelling executioner from heaven".
"Blank and White" is about censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
and about the day that the New York Times said "God is dead
God is dead
"God is dead" is a widely-quoted statement by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. It first appears in The Gay Science , in sections 108 , 125 , and for a third time in section 343...
" and that the suffragettes protested. One particular line in the song, "all you fuckers vote beep beep beep" may be a sarcastic political indictment of the "voters" that seek to effect change through such ineffectual and complacent means as holding pickets up along city streets. As Manson mentioned in the same Shockhound interview, the fact that this very line is echoed in the long censoring "beep" replacing "[shoot the] president of whatever" made him quite happy artistically. The second track of the album is called "Pretty as a Swastika". "It's something I said to a girl because of her complexion
Complexion
Complexion refers to the natural color, texture, and appearance of the skin, especially that of the face.-History:The word "complexion" is derived from the Late Latin complexi, which initially referred in general terms to a combination of things, and later in physiological terms, to the balance of...
, with black hair, red lips and pale skin. I mean, it was a complex and poetic comment that soon led to intercourse, so I felt no reason for it to be seen as confusing, hateful and destructive. The record label [told Manson to], take it off the album. Rather than do so, I decided to produce it on the inside of the sleeve with a different name, so it'll be sold in Wal-Mart
Wal-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...
or wherever stores sell guns but are afraid to deal with lyrics. So, I put "Pretty as a ($)" because all of their motivations are based on money."
Album
The album was originally scheduled for release in October 2008, although due to touring commitments this date was pushed back to winter 2008, before a slating of May 2009, which turned out correct. Initially, Manson also intended to release a song from the album before the end of 2008, however these plans did not materialize. The album was released in two physical formats. The standard jewel case CD release contained a bookletBooklet
Booklet may refer to:* A small book or group of pages* Postage stamp booklet, made up of one or more small panes of postage stamps in a cardboard cover...
. On April 27, the track listing for the deluxe edition of the album's bonus disc surfaced on HMV
HMV
His Master's Voice is a trademark in the music business, and for many years was the name of a large record label. The name was coined in 1899 as the title of a painting of the dog Nipper listening to a wind-up gramophone...
's website, revealing that the disc would contain up to seven remixes. The limited edition CD featured 6 bonus tracks with alternate versions of four songs and a remixes of the single "Arma-goddamn-motherfuckin-geddon". The standard edition also featured two bonus tracks.
Music videos
On April 3, Polydor Records alluded to the previously unconfirmed music video for "Arma-goddamn-motherfuckin-geddon", saying it would be available no earlier than April 17. On April 6, behind-the-scenes video clips and photos of the song's music video, directed by Delaney Bishop between April 4 and 5, 2009, surfaced, which showed that the video would may be somewhat parody the visual themes of 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...
and 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...
. UK television station Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
announced that they would premier the music video during the early hours of April 18, however this did not occur and the station later explained that "due to unforeseen circumstances, the video was not delivered to Channel 4 in time to screen it." They also reported that because other stations had been screening it, Channel 4 did not plan to air it in the future; curiously, this explanation is false. Universal Music later reported that the music video was expected to premier around May 5, however this date was not met either. On May 14 however, the music video, in which Manson and bassist Twiggy, Chris Vrenna and Ginger Fish
Ginger Fish
Kenneth Robert Wilson , better known by his stage name Ginger Fish, is an American drummer primarily known for playing drums for Marilyn Manson 1995-2011...
appear, debuted on NME.com in censored form, before appearing on the band's official website
MarilynManson.com
MarilynManson.com is the official Marilyn Manson website. The website, since its launch in 1998, has been integral to the promotion and direction of the band...
in uncensored form hours later. In August 2009, the "Director's Cut" version appeared on Delaney Bishop's blog. Delaney Bishop, the director for the video, later released an excerpt of the director's cut of the video through his website and can be viewed on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
. The excerpt is the entire second verse and is composed of footage almost entirely different from the original.
On September 10 and 11 Manson posted three photos on his Myspace
Myspace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
of stills from the video of "Running to the Edge of the World". The first two stills were uploaded to his "video stills from the future" photo album. The third was released the next day in his "My Mobile Photos" photo album. On November 4 at 6:19pm EST, the video was uploaded to the official website. It had briefly been up under the title "test1" two days prior, but only for a few hours. The video was directed by Manson and Nathan "Karma" Cox, who also directed the video for "Personal Jesus
Personal Jesus
"Personal Jesus" is Depeche Mode's 23rd UK single, released on August 29, 1989, and the first single from the album Violator. The single reached No. 13 on the UK Singles Chart and No. 28 on the Billboard Hot 100...
". It opens with Manson, dressed in a white shirt singing the song to a camera while partially concealing himself with a curtain. As the bridge and outro of the song play, he beats a woman to death, speculated to represent Evan Rachel Wood
Evan Rachel Wood
Evan Rachel Wood is an American actress and singer. She began her acting career in the late 1990s, appearing in several television series, including American Gothic and Once and Again...
, played by Kelly Polk.
Singles
"We're from AmericaWe're from America
-Charts:...
" was released as the a promo single of the album. 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...
s article erroneously states that the song was released during the second week of March 2009; however, this did not actually happen until March 27, when it was released for free as an MP3 on Marilynmanson.com
MarilynManson.com
MarilynManson.com is the official Marilyn Manson website. The website, since its launch in 1998, has been integral to the promotion and direction of the band...
, accompanied by a new layout for the website. The song was reissued as a digital single on April 7, 2009, and is currently available on iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
and 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...
.
"Arma-Goddamn-Motherfuckin-Geddon
Arma-Goddamn-Motherfuckin-Geddon
"Arma-Goddamn-Motherfuckin-Geddon" was the first official single released by Marilyn Manson from their May 29, 2009 album The High End of Low. It has been remixed by the Teddybears...
" was the first official single released by Marilyn Manson from the album. It has a remix by the Teddybears
Teddybears
Teddybears is a Swedish band formed in 1991, known for mixing pop, rock, hip-hop, electronica, reggae, punk and many other genres.-History:...
. The song was released for download on May 5, 2009, along with the pre-order of The High End of Low.
"Running to the Edge of The World" was the second official single released by Marilyn Manson from the album. An alternate version of the song was included in the album's bonus CD. The song was released for download on November 4, 2009, and a music video was produced for the song.
Promotion
On January 2, 2009, Manson finalized the album's title, and approximately a month later, on February 2, 2009 the record was revealed through Rolling StoneRolling 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...
's online Smoking Section to be called The High End of Low. Also in the same news piece, Manson revealed that a music video would be produced for the nine-minute "I Want to Kill You Like They Do in the Movies". Rudy Coby
Rudy Coby
Rudy Coby, also known as "Labman", is an American comedic magician. He is a member of the Magic Castle in Los Angeles. In the early 1990s, Coby appeared in several small theatrical live shows, and on broadcast television. He is known for delivering eclectic and original comedic performances, of...
confirmed via his Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
page that the single had been switched to "Arma-goddamn-motherfuckin-geddon" at the insistence of Marilyn Manson's label, 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:...
.
Promoting The High End of Low was a free download of the song "We're from America
We're from America
-Charts:...
". This was followed by the song's reissue as a digital single on April 7, and its limited release as a physical single on April 14. The album's first conventional single, "Arma-goddamn-motherfuckin-geddon", entered airplay on April 13, and would be released in CD format on May 15 in Germany and on May 18 in the United Kingdom. The song's music video, filmed between April 4 and 5, failed to meet two expected release dates, before premiering on the NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
website in censored form, and hours later on the band's official website
MarilynManson.com
MarilynManson.com is the official Marilyn Manson website. The website, since its launch in 1998, has been integral to the promotion and direction of the band...
in uncensored form. Also in promotion of the album, The High End of Low was made available for streaming on Marilyn Manson's MySpace
MySpace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
profile before its worldwide release, and on May 28, Hot Topic
Hot Topic
Hot Topic is an American retail chain specializing in music and pop culture-related clothing and accessories, as well as licensed music on CD. The majority of the stores are located in regional shopping malls. The first Hot Topic store was opened in 1988 by Orv Madden, who retired as CEO in 2000...
hosted clips from the album on its website's homepage.
On May 7, 2009, an official minisite for The High End of Low went online. Along with a new promotional photo, the site provides partial lyrics to "Arma-goddamn-motherfuckin-geddon", links to pre-order both the album and the "Arma-goddamn-motherfuckin-geddon" CD single, a mailing list and a Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
application that features lyrics and samples to songs from the album. The order songs also to feature on this application were as follows: beginning May 7, "Devour", "We're from America
We're from America
-Charts:...
" and "Arma-goddamn-motherfuckin-geddon"; these were replaced on May 15 by "Four Rusted Horses", "Leave a Scar" and "Pretty as a Swastika"; these were replaced on May 22 by "Into the Fire", "WOW" and "Blank and White"; than, these were replaced on May 29 by "I Want to Kill You Like They Do in the Movies", "Unkillable Monster" and "Running to the Edge of the World"; and finally, these were replaced on June 5 by "I Have to Look Up Just to See Hell", "15" and "Wight Spider", after which the fate of the application is unknown. On May 8, 2009, an e-mail sent through the site's mailing list confirmed that each week leading up to the album's release, a song will be accessible through phones by texting MANSON to 909090, the first of which being "Wight Spider".
Critical reception
Upon the its release, the album met with mixed reviews. At MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, which assigns a normalized
Standard score
In statistics, a standard score indicates how many standard deviations an observation or datum is above or below the mean. It is a dimensionless quantity derived by subtracting the population mean from an individual raw score and then dividing the difference by the population standard deviation...
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average
Weighted mean
The weighted mean is similar to an arithmetic mean , where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others...
score 58, based on 14 reviews, which indicates "generally mixed or average reviews". Some critics felt it sounded diluted and repetitive while others praised the album for showing "Manson's more human face after his divorce and best material since Mechanical Animals
Mechanical Animals
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...
". Allison Stewart from The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
gave the album a positive review, saying that "Manson's divorce from burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese
Dita Von Teese
Dita Von Teese is an American burlesque dancer, model, costume designer, author and actress.-Early life:...
had led to a new musical high." Spin
Spin (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...
writer Doug Brod gave a positive review and stated that "[w]hile it's still easy to dismiss his shock tactics as puerile and insensitive he hasn't sounded this vital—and tuneful—since Mechanical Animals." The BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
review stated that the new album saw Manson resurrected after the lackluster Eat Me, Drink Me
Eat Me, Drink Me
Eat Me, Drink Me is the sixth full-length studio album by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released on June 5, 2007, debuting at number 8 in the United States with more than 80,000 copies sold in the first week. It was recorded in a rented home-recording studio in Hollywood, California by...
, with credit given to the skilled bass work on the album. The review sums up the album by saying that it "proves there's still a fair dose of blood and bile to pour from his carcass yet. More impressively, at its best it provides a pointed satirical commentary on noughties America." "We're From America" was cited as the strongest track on the new album. Planet Sound
Planet Sound
Planet Sound was a Teletext music page on ITV and Channel 4 in the UK. It was broadcast on analogue Teletext from page 340, and on digital Teletext from page 820. From May 24, 2007, Planet Sound was also available to read online via the Teletext website...
gave the album a positive review, citing it as his best work since Mechanical Animals and that Manson has his "preening confidence back. It results in strutting glam and magnificently OTT ballads, with Manson engaged with sounding alien again." 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....
reviewer Mikael Wood stated that the band even provide a "surprise or two, as in 'Running to the Edge of the World,' a lush acoustic power ballad complete with pretty falsetto vocals." Wood also states that "'High End' makes a deeper impression as a result of Manson's reunion with longtime guitarist-bassist Twiggy Ramirez; together with producers 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...
and Chris Vrenna, they sculpted a sound both harder-hitting and more finely detailed than on any previous Marilyn Manson record." 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...
reviewer Jody Rosen gave the album a mediocre review, citing the diminished shock value of the album compared to years past. Rosen stated the best parts of the album are in the ballads like the blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
-tinged "Four Rusted Horses" for a more endearing depiction of Manson as a melancholy human rather than 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...
. Phil Freeman of allmusic criticized the lack of variety in the album with "two or three musical ideas are repeated throughout the disc". He also criticized the lyrics, stating that Manson "[feels] like he's trying to convince himself as much as the audience" and that he is "pretty much advertising that [he's] out of ideas". A review in The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
complained of the lack of novelty in the album, which repeated "the usual entry-level shock-rock histrionics".
Commercial performance
The album debuted at № 4 on Billboard 200Billboard 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...
with 49,000 copies sold. Despite reaching a higher charting position than Manson's last studio effort, Eat Me, Drink Me, which debuted at № 8, it arrived with the lowest opening week sum of any of Manson's albums since The Last Tour on Earth
The Last Tour on Earth
The Last Tour on Earth is a live album comprising recordings from Marilyn Manson's Mechanical Animals and Rock is Dead tours. On the studio version of "The Dope Show", Manson says that drugs "are made in California", but in the live version, he says that "drugs, they say, are made right here in...
began with 26,000 in 1999. Since its debut the album dropped steadily, falling to the № 24 position in its second week and № 60 in its third.
The High End of Low Tour
To support the release of The High End of Low, Marilyn Manson staged a worldwide stadium tour, titled The High End of Low Tour. It is the band's twelfth tour and it is also the band's eighth tour to span over multiple legs. The tour spanned from June 3, 2009 until December 21, 2009. The only known tour date of the tour's seventh leg in 2010 has been cancelled, and during the last show in France Manson announced that there would be no further tour dates in 2010.In the vein of the album themes and imagery revolving around Manson's conception of life as a movie, the live counterpart of "The High End of Low" reflects this theatricality by simulating each song in the live tour as a different "act". Replete with movie stage-sound lights illuminating Manson onstage, the veil of "backstage"/"onstage" has been lifted to portray this cinematic effect; Manson reapplies his makeup front-and-center onstage, stagehand
Stagehand
A stagehand is a person who works backstage or behind the scenes in theatres, film, television, or location performance. Their duties include setting up the scenery, lights, sound, props, rigging, and special effects for a production.-Types of stagehand:...
s assist with wardrobe changes in full view of the audience, and the final illustration of this concept is that prior to each song's commencement afterwards, a stagehand emerges and signifies that each new act has begun by use of a clapperboard
Clapperboard
A clapperboard is a device used in filmmaking and video production to assist in the synchronizing of picture and sound, and to designate and mark particular scenes and takes recorded during a production...
in front of Manson, as if to convey the filmic mantra of "lights, camera, action" and the song begins.
A new theatric stage was revealed within the first European leg of "The High End Of Low Tour". During "Great Big White World" Manson performed within a white lightbox in reflection of the "whited out" Hollywood hollowness and isolation lyricized within the song. The entirety of the song was sung behind the semi-transparent sheet, removed from the audience. "If I Was Your Vampire", which also deals with a similar lovelorn isolation, was alternately performed with this theatrical device on early dates of the tour.
Track listing
Standard edition bonus tracks- "Pretty as a Swastika" (Alternate Version) [Independent music store version] – 2:26
- "Arma-Goddamn-Motherfuckin-Geddon" (TeddybearsTeddybearsTeddybears is a Swedish band formed in 1991, known for mixing pop, rock, hip-hop, electronica, reggae, punk and many other genres.-History:...
Remix) [International versions] – 3:30
Deluxe edition bonus disc
Deluxe edition bonus tracks- "Fifteen" (Alternate Version) [iTunes bonus track] – 4:17
- "Into The Fire" (Alternate Version) [iTunes pre-order & Japanese versions] – 4:34
- "Arma-Goddamn-Motherfuckin-Geddon" (Alternate Version) [Hot Topic deluxe edition] – 3:39
Album charts
| Charts (2009) | 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... ) |
11 |
| Austria (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... ) |
38 |
| 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... ) |
16 |
| Canada (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... ) |
4 |
| Czech Republic Czech Republic The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest.... (IFPI) |
13 |
| Denmark (Tracklisten Tracklisten Tracklisten is a Danish top 40 record chart that is presented every Thursday midnight at .The weekly Danish Singles Chart also known as Track Top-40 combines the 40 best selling tracks from legal music downloads and the sales of music singles on either CD or vinyl... ) |
32 |
| Europe European Top 100 Albums The European Top 100 Albums chart is the European adaptation of the Billboard 200 albums chart. It was created in March 1984.The European Top 100 Albums, commonly referred to as Eurochart Top 100 Albums shows the sales of an act in 19 European countries based on IFPI data.The European Top 100... (Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis... ) |
6 |
| Finland (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... ) |
9 |
| 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... ) |
9 |
| Germany (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... ) |
11 |
| Hungary (Mahasz Mahasz Mahasz is the Hungarian music industry association, founded in 1992. Mahasz hands out the Hungarian Music Awards and maintains the music charts for Hungary.... ) |
17 |
| Ireland (IRMA Irish Recorded Music Association Irish Recorded Music Association is the Irish record industry association. IRMA is a non-profit association set up to manage and control the music industry in the Republic of Ireland.-Goals and activities:... ) |
47 |
| Italy (FIMI Federation of the Italian Music Industry The Federation of the Italian Music Industry is an umbrella organization that keeps track of virtually all aspects of the music recording industry in Italy.... ) |
18 |
| Japan (Oricon Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc... ) |
9 |
| Mexico (AMPROFON) | 34 |
| Netherlands (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... ) |
73 |
| Norway (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... ) |
26 |
| 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... ) |
8 |
| Poland (ZPAV Polish Music Charts The Polish Music Charts are two official album charts and seven singles charts in Poland, provided by ZPAV, the Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry . The first, the Top 100, is a monthly chart based on data received from the album companies... ) |
31 |
| Portugal (AFP Associação Fonográfica Portuguesa The Associação Fonográfica Portuguesa is currently the only recording industry association in Portugal. Created in 1989, it succeeded GPPFV and UNEVA .... ) |
22 |
| Spain (PROMUSICAE) | 9 |
| Sweden (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 .... ) |
15 |
| Switzerland (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... ) |
6 |
| United Kingdom (OCC) | 19 |
| U.S. 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... |
4 |
Total sales
| Country | Sales |
|---|---|
| 137,000
|}
First week sales
| Country | Sales |
|---|---|
| Japan | 10,583 |
| United Kingdom | 7,746 |
- A Total U.S. album sales as of November 2010.
Release history
| Region | Date | Label | Format | Catalog |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Japan | May 20, 2009 | Universal International | Compact disc Compact Disc The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,... , deluxe edition |
UICS9107 |
| Australia | May 22, 2009 | 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:... |
Compact disc, deluxe edition | 2706388 |
| Germany | Polydor Records Polydor Records Polydor is a record label owned by Universal Music Group, headquartered in the United Kingdom.-Beginnings:Polydor was originally an independent branch of the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft. Its name was first used as an export label in 1924, the British and German branches of the Gramophone... |
Compact disc | 0-602527-061825 | |
| France | May 18, 2009 | Polydor Records | Compact disc | 0-602527-061825 |
| New Zealand | Interscope Records | Compact disc, deluxe edition | — | |
| United Kingdom | Interscope Records | Compact disc, deluxe edition | 2706182 | |
| Korea Korea Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the... |
May 26, 2009 | Universal International | Compact disc, deluxe edition | — |
| North America | Interscope Records | Compact disc, deluxe edition | B0013017-72 | |
| Brazil | Universal International | Compact disc | — | |
| Hungary | Universal International | Compact disc, deluxe edition | — |
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, percussion, guitars, production, photography, art direction, design - Twiggy – guitars, bass, keyboards, production
- Chris Vrenna – keyboards, programming, production, composer, engineering, mixing
- 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...
– piano on "Into the Fire"
Production
- 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...
– production, mixing, engineering - Ted Jensen – mastering
- Delaney Bishop – photography
- Mike Riley – photography, assistant
- Tony Ciulla – management
- David Weise – business management
- Jacob Jackel – business management
- Martin Kierszenbaum – A&R
- Liam Ward – art direction, design
- Jeff Witters – cover layout
- Rock Roskin – booking agent
- Emma Banks – booking agent
- Chris Dalston – booking agent
- Michelle Jubetirer – legal
- Justin Hergett – assistant
- Wesley Michener – assistant
- Jeremy Underwood – assistant
- Pete Doell – mastering (bonus alternate versions)
- Jim Åhland – additional vocals (Teddy Bears remix of Arma-goddamn-motherfuckin-geddon")
- Rob Crawford – additional vocals (Teddy Bears remix of Arma-goddamn-motherfuckin-geddon")
- Rob Orton – mixing (Teddy Bears remix of Arma-goddamn-motherfuckin-geddon")