MARILYN MANSON — Portrait Of An American Family (review)

MARILYN MANSON — Portrait Of An American Family album cover Album · 1994 · Alternative Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
siLLy puPPy
These rabble-rousers hit the world with a vengeance pissing off everyone from the prudish elite and Christian right to the music community itself with endless debates about if they were metal or not. Also engaging in controversial antics on and off stage that got them banned and persecuted but certainly not ignored! In fact none other than Mr. Trent Reznor caught their show and saw a quality act that he took on making this debut album a major hit in the production department as well as with the totally catchy over-the-top pop metal tunes that also score highly in the vitriolic lyrical department. Despite shortening their name to simply MARILYN MANSON, album #1 finds them with the same initial line-up that went under the name Marilyn Manson & The Spooky Kids prior to being signed to Reznor's Nothing Records label.

MANSON really knew how to borrow a little here and a bit from there to create a totally new yet somewhat familiar concoction that really struck a chord in dysfunctional America, the subject of his scorn that would peak on the following album. After many years I have decided to dust off my MANSON albums and see if they held up after all this time and I have to give a gleeful affirmative for an answer. This debut album just plain rocks like few others did at the time. Tracks like “Cake And Sodomy” and “Dope Hat” are just amazing and achieved the foulest of poetic expression accompanied by somewhat simple yet distinct metal instrumentation. Although I hear influences ranging from W.A.S.P. To Jane's Addiction in the mix, MANSON did a great job to keep the influences toned down and dressed up in their own outrageous regalia. I find I still love this album as much as I did the first time I heard it and only a couple lesser tracks keep me from giving this a full 5 star rating.
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