Style: Rock, rock, AOR
Primary Emotions/Themes: Violence, anti-religion, self improvement, self destruction
Thoughts: Last I heard Manson before this was Mechanical Animals. The previous efforts were largely shock rock with a few good singles. The Pale Emperor is quite different. It's slower, more deliberate, more mature.
There have been a LOT of changes here. Instead of 15+ songs on the album ranging all over the place in quality, we have ten focused songs. Instead of nearly eighty minutes of music, we have a comfortable 50 minutes. Instead of the quality of the music ranging from excellent to downright unlistenable, we have a slower, more focused style that draws heavily from Manson's past but throws in a strong helping of blues and classic rock and roll.
The Pale Emperor is a different Manson than the one I am used to. It's like he took a long look in the mirror and wanted to take this record seriously... put some time in for fewer but higher quality songs rather just throwing whatever shit the band has prepared onto the record. There is a refinement here that wasn't here in the past.
Granted I haven't listened to a Manson album in over a decade prior to this one. This is a welcome change, as the early stuff was truly hit or miss with me.
The major theme on this record is slower guitar oriented songs. Of course Manson's voice is front and center, and his rough, almost winy voice is still instantly recognizable. Much like in the past he's really good at channeling his voice to show a wide variety of emotions.
In the opening song Killing Strangers we already get a large sampling of what's to come: low crooning with a bit of twang, rough - almost shouted vocals that sound strained, and outright aggressive vocals to accentuate the more forceful parts of the song. As much as Manson is recognizable here, its also obvious that he has aged, but also matured in the way that he handles his voice. It's a clear highlight of the album.
The music itself is guitar oriented but not in the same distorted semi-metal way that the earlier stuff was. Distortion is rare in the album, most of the time the album has a blues influence overdrive on the guitar or uses a clean tone. When the distortion does come in it's more to accentuate a point.
Ten songs, not a dud among them. Anything from the rocker Deep Six to the atmospheric and almost doomy Warship My Wreck. The album is just under an hour long and that's a perfect length for something like this. Manson has refined his sound into something way better than what he was during the peak of his popularity - I'll take this version of him over the early stuff any day.
Written February 1st 2024
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