Warthur
Anyone who dismisses this album as a rip-off of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars is severely missing the point; when the inner booklet depicts Manson and pals as the alien rock band Omega and the Mechanical Animals it becomes crystal clear that we are in the realm of homage. (Now, Antichrist Superstar, there's the uncredited rip-off...)
Half the songs on the album are shallow and sleazy rock numbers that put a glammy spin on the band's poppy gothy brand of industrial metal, with the subject matters being crass promotion of self-destructive habits and a jaded dismissal of rock altogether. The other half are spacey, dissociative pieces which express at once a distressing emotional numbness and a powerful desire to reach out and feel something with someone again. Together, these schizophrenic halves come together to paint a more mature and convincing image of the pressures of fame and the distance between rock star image and the person behind the persona, just as Aladdin Sane was a more mature take on Ziggy Stardust.
It may be verging on dropping out of metal territory altogether, but I genuinely think it's Manson's best album. Unfortunately, the rest of his career seems to have been devoted to reassuring the fans who joined with Antichrist Superstar that he isn't ever going to do anything this experimental and unexpected again.