The latest volley in industrial music's invasion of the mainstream, shock-rock band Marilyn Manson revels in the perverse, the unpleasant and the grotesque, championing hate, alienation and negativity with the same fervour with which happy-face troubadours of the '70s promoted sunshine, peace and happiness. The band's music owes a great deal to labelmates Nine Inch Nails, incorporating processed vocals, screeching electronics and enough bad attitude to bring even Norman Vincent Peale down. But rather than follow Trent Reznor down the path of sonic experimentation, Marilyn Manson establishes an unrelenting, grungy, guitar-driven attack that makes Ministry and The Butthole Surfers sound "unplugged".
ANTICHRIST SUPERSTAR is not an album for everyone. It is the aural equivalent of root canal without novocaine. Marilyn Manson creates a harsh, nightmarish soundscape to symbolise all that is evil and corrupt in contemporary society. There can be no such thing as a casual listen to ANTICHRIST SUPERSTAR's 16 scabrous tracks, and no listener will come away unscathed.

• Q (8/00, p.126) - Included in Q's "Best Metal Albums Of All Time"
  Q (7/01, p.88) - Included in Q's "50 Heaviest Albums of All Time".
  Rolling Stone (5/13/99, p.64) - Included in Rolling Stone's "Essential Recordings of the 90's."
  Rolling Stone (11/28/96, pp.129-130) - 3.5 Stars (out of 5) - "...The group's third and most accessible album draws on the orgasmic din of death metal, the mechanized asault of hard-core industrial rock and swaggering FM-pop trash a la Def Leppard....an alluringly nasty piece of work..."
  Spin (12/96, p.140) - 8 (out of 10) - "...Its 16 songs rock like '70s Sabbath-style metal, but harder; the arrangements echo Queen in operatic scope but are more intense; the mood owes its vampiric chill to Bauhaus, but this band actually bites the vein..."
  Q (12/99, p.170) - Included in Q Magazine's Best Gothic Albums Of All Time - "...a near-death meisterwork....Goth is to the point of seizure, its squealing riffs, Beelzebub vocals and monstrous sense of melodrama set new standards for saleable unpleasantness."
  Entertainment Weekly (10/11/96, p.90) - "...Manson's high-concept depravity has its own sick charm. Nihilism this goofy makes one long to be 15 again and naive enough to swallow such `satanic' hokum whole." - Rating: B

Marilyn Manson: Marilyn Manson (vocals, guitar, pan flute); Twiggy Ramirez (acoustic & electric guitars, bass); Zim Zum (guitar); M.W. Gacy (keyboards); Ginger Fish (drums, programming).
Additional personnel includes: Trent Reznor (guitar, Fender Rhodes, Mellotron, programming); Dave "Rave" Ogilvie (programming).
Producers include: Trent Reznor, Dave Ogilvie, M. Manson.
Engineers include: Dave "Rave" Ogilvie.
The latest volley in industrial music's invasion of the mainstream, shock-rock band Marilyn Manson revels in the perverse, the unpleasant and the grotesque, championing hate, alienation and negativity with the same fervor with which happy-face troubadours of the '70s promoted sunshine, peace and happiness. The band's music owes a great deal to labelmates Nine Inch Nails, incorporating processed vocals, screeching electronics and enough bad attitude to bring even Norman Vincent Peale down. But rather than follow Trent Reznor down the path of sonic experimentation, Marilyn Manson establishes an unrelenting, grungy, guitar-driven attack that makes Ministry and The Butthole Surfers sound "unplugged."
ANTICHRIST SUPERSTAR is not an album for everyone. It is the aural equivalent of root canal without novocaine. Marilyn Manson creates a harsh, nightmarish soundscape to symbolize all that is evil and corrupt in contemporary society. There can be no such thing as a casual listen to ANTICHRIST SUPERSTAR's 16 scabrous tracks, and no listener will come away unscathed.

Initially mentored by Nine Inch Nails mainman Trent Reznor, Marilyn Manson created an accessible, highly successful variant on the former's electronic-tinged industrial rock. Manson took shock-rock to a whole new plateau in the late-1990s, influenced by past theatrical rockers like Kiss, Alice Cooper, and Motley Crue--and not since the days of those bands had religious and parental groups despised a rock group so much. Of course, the resulting controversy endowed Marilyn Manson with publicity and album sales in equally vast amounts. Although Manson talked about retiring from the music biz after the release of his 2004 album, he came back refreshed in 2007 with EAT ME DRINK ME, inspired by his crumbling marriage to Dita Von Teese.