Antichrist Superstar

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Antichrist Superstar "Shock" logo.

Antichrist Superstar is Marilyn Manson's second full-length studio release. Antichrist Superstar, sometimes spelled Antichrist Svperstar, was released in 1996. The album raised awareness of the band, and led to numerous protests due to the band's perceived anti-Christian stance. It was produced by the band's leader Manson, and Trent Reznor. However, studio assistants and engineer Sean Beavan can confirm that Reznor was never present during the vocals (a crucial 'productio point) or the mixdown. He is often considered the good guy but some recent court hearings have revealed that it was improper to charge a band a royalty, a studio fee, a producer fee, lodging, and ask for publishing.

The album can be considered a concept album; it follows a three part storyline, which tells the story of a abused and apathetic person (no sex given, metaphorized as "The Worm") who is attracted to a self-abusive rock star, and a resulting transformation into a new, destructive character known as "The Disintegrator". Much of the album is deliberately vague, to allow listeners to draw their own conclusions. It has elaborate packaging, containing pictures of the band, a visual worm-to-angel metamorphosis, symbols related to Kabbalah, and medical diagrams.

There is severe division amongst Manson fans over whether his best album is either this, or Mechanical Animals. Typically, this division does seem to exist upon gender lines, with males generally preferring Antichrist Superstar and females preferring Mechanical Animals. This is not true in all cases, however. The greater, worldwide group prefers the more recent Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death) or The Golden Age of Grotesque albums. These albums have proved the music of Manson to be huge in all countries.

The album, despite containing a gap of silence a few minutes long, is cyclical, as both opening and closing seconds include the distorted phrase "When you are suffering, know that I have betrayed you." When the album is placed on loop, the pacing between the sentences matches that of the additional distorted recitation found in the preceding hidden track "Empty Sounds Of Hate".

Track listing

The album is broken up into three parts, called "cycles", (although all on a single CD).

Cycle I - The Heirophant

1. "Irresponsible Hate Anthem" (Manson/Berkowitz/Gacy/Ramirez)
2. "The Beautiful People" (Manson/Ramirez)
3. "Dried Up, Tied and Dead to the World" (Manson/Ramirez)
4. "Tourniquet" (Manson/Berkowitz/Ramirez)

Cycle II - Inauguration of the Worm

1. "Little Horn" (Manson/Ramirez/Reznor)
2. "Cryptorchid" (Manson/Gacy)
3. "Deformography" (Manson/Ramirez/Reznor)
4. "Wormboy" (Manson/Berkowitz/Ramirez)
5. "Mister Superstar" (Manson/Ramirez)
6. "Angel With the Scabbed Wings" (Manson/Berkowitz/Ramirez/Gacy)
7. "Kinderfeld" (Manson/Ramirez/Gacy)

Cycle III - Disintegrator Rising

1. "Antichrist Superstar" (Manson/Ramirez/Gacy)
2. "1996" (Manson/Ramirez)
3. "Minute Of Decay" (Manson)
4. "The Reflecting God" (Manson/Ramirez/Reznor)
5. "Man That You Fear" (Manson/Ramirez/Gacy/Zum)

1. "Empty Sounds of Hate," aka "Track 99"

Ideas of what goes on in the story

Since Antichrist Superstar is a vague concept album, there can many different interpretations of what happens.

The characters in Antichrist Superstar as of followed:

"The Worm": The main character.

"The Superstar": A rock star the Worm used to worship.

"Little Horn" The Anti-Christ.

Cycle I - The Heirophant "Irresponsible Hate Anthem": The Beginning of the story starts off with this song. It is most likely a concert of some sort that the Worm is attending. "The Beautiful People": After the concert, the Worm gets to meet the Superstar of the band, who promptly tells the character to basically "fuck off". "Dried Up, Tied and Dead to the World": The Worm doesn't care about life anymore. The Superstar was most likely his only hero and the only person that he ever liked. "Tourniquet": This could be a love song about the Worm and the Superstar and how broken up he is about being told off.

Cycle II - Inauguration of the Worm "Little Horn": The Worm goes insane. Little Horn is said to be the Anti-Christ, and it is forming inside the Worm. "Cryptorchid": The Worm is feeling of no importance anymore. "Wormboy": The Worm is now starting to hate everything. "Little Horn" is growing more powerful inside of him. "Mister Superstar": One last word to the Superstar from the Worm before Little Horn appears. "The Angel with the Scabbed Wings": A song about posers that could be a metaphore for Little Horn posing as a human. "Kinderfeld": The Worm and Little Horn has a conversation about being an angel with scabbed wings.

Cycle III - Disintegrator Rising "Antichrist Superstar": Little Horn is out, and he's introducing himself to the world. "1996": Little Horn raveges Earth, destroying everything with the hate the Worm had growing inside him. "Minute of Decay": Nothing much is left on Earth except the Worm and Little Horn. "The Reflecting God": The Worm realizes what has happened. Little Horn tells him what he had to do and now The Worm is regretting it. "Man That You Fear": The ending. Little Horn destroying the world did nothing but make the Worm feel worse. The Worm now understands everything, but it doesn't matter anymore since he let Little Horn gain control and let him destroy the world. Now it feels like to the Worm that he's stuck in a dream. A horrible, horrible dream.

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More Likely, However is that this is semi-autobiographical..
Irresponsible Hate Anthem: The band circa 1996 - the beginning of the end of their old style - see Portrait of an American Family. A critical view of American Society which Manson perhaps views as immature.
The Beautiful People: Written by Manson about the people in Ohio when he was recording Antichrist Superstar.
Dried Up, Tied Up and Dead To the World: About Manson's self-described 'change' as he began work on Antichrist Superstar.
Tourniquet: What Manson described as his apocalyptic nightmare
Little Horn: The beginning of Manson's 'change', the so-called 'inauguration' of his new self.
Cryptorchid: A low point - doubting himself and his change, wondering what will be the product.
Wormboy: Reflection on his childhood and affirmation of what enemies have dubbed him - "Oh no..I am everything they said I was." Further change, but he seems secure.
Mister Superstar: Manson takes a look at his stage persona.
Angel with The Scabbed Wings: This is about appearances - while Manson looks the same on the outside, a change is brewing on the inside. His stage persona is a part of him.
Kinderfeld: This is an autobiographical song in which he talks about his childhood - "When he turns the trains on" refers to his grandfather, who would pretend to be playing with his trainset in the basement while masturbating. Kneeling on broomsticks was also a punishment given to him by his grandmother.
Antichrist Superstar: The new face emerges - callous and ignorant.
1996: A challenge song, to his many haters around the world - very mocking.
Minute of Decay: One of the first songs recorded on the album - in reality, Manson was frustrated by the Ohio surroundings and people, but for the album it probably refers to a point of insecurity, perhaps a few emotions flooding back.
The Reflecting God: He's back on the up again, confident and sure of himself. A critical view of the world. Could refer to his joining the satanist church.
Man That You Fear: Written by Manson about his attendance of his cousin getting married and grandfather's funeral and his family's consequent reactions - "The boy that you loved is the man that you fear." The worm's once-close friends and family realise they do not know who he is anymore, and he is possibly chased away because of this.

There are many, many interpretations for this album. These are only assumptions, although some of the information provided is documented in Manson's book, The Long Hard Road Out of Hell.

Personnel

• Marilyn Manson - All voices, Guitar (tracks 3, 11, 14), Pan Flute
• Twiggy Ramirez - Lead and Rhythm Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Bass
• Madonna Wayne Gacy - All keyboards, loops, and other original pieces of 16-bit audio information
• Ginger Fish - Live drums, Programming
• Zim Zum -played guitar on the tour for Antichrist Superstar

• Trent Reznor - mellotron (6), guitar (7, 9), rhodes piano (16)
• Daisy Berkowitz - guitar (4, 9, 12)
• Sean Beavan - guitar (2)
• Danny Lohner - guitar (10, 15)
• Chris Vrenna - drums (11)