Marilyn Manson
Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death)

THE REVIEW

We are in Columbine, where two boys burst into a school and commit a massacre before ending by taking their own lives.
For some strange reason, instead of asking how two kids had a war arsenal at home, it was decided to point the finger at easy targets such as video games, movies, and music.
Indeed, because with the latter, they targeted Marilyn Manson (and also Rammstein), raising a media storm that would end up overwhelming Brian Warner as well, and if until a few years earlier he loved being at the center of scandals and being America's bogeyman, now he no longer stands being accused of inspiring two boys to commit a massacre.
His true response would come a year later with the album "Holy Wood," a concept album centered on the cult of weapons, the capitalistic "American Dream" of being someone at all costs, the various attacks on American presidents, and religion. It thus portrays a bitter and merciless vision of Uncle Sam's America, where violence is ingrained in its DNA and is perpetuated through every form, such as the media with their morbid voyeurism in showing cruel news events and turning the perpetrators into celebrities.
Musically, it is a mix of the two previous works, all darker and with a gothic flavor in some parts. The singles, however, are the weakest part, "Disposable Teens" is a silly version of "The Beautiful People," and "The Fight Song" is a poorly concealed plagiarism of Blur's "Song 2."
But there's a but, it's an album that has aged very well, it's still relevant, perhaps even more so now than it was then, in this decade of terrorist attacks, pandemics, and wars (and unfortunately school shootings, like the latest one that occurred in Texas).
At the time, however, this album wasn't a great success, as Manson's character began to be accepted, and the MTV audience was more for the new controversial figure, namely Eminem, with whom Manson even made a track.
An album to absolutely rediscover.