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The Golden Age Of Grotesque
by Marilyn Manson

Marilyn Manson reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 60 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
8.9 out of 10
based on 12 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 72 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album

Manson's fifth album finds the shock-rocker turning to the glory days of vaudeville and burlesque for inspiration.

LABEL: Interscope
RELEASE DATE: 13 May 2003
DISCS: 1 disc
GENRE(S): Alternative, Rock

NOTES: Limited edition CD release comes with bonus DVD.


What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

80
All Music Guide
It feels as if Manson now feels liberated from not being consistently in the spotlight, and his music has opened up as well.
Read Full Review
80
Alternative Press
The army of noise behind his bitterness is at once massive and impressive. [Jul 2003, p.117]
75
E! Online
If you aren't down with Manson, this won't change you one bit. But for Manson fans, Grotesque is beautiful.
Read Full Review
67
Entertainment Weekly
Inventive and powerful enough to merit intermittent attention, but ultimately crushed by the weight of its hoary pretensions.
Read Full Review
60
Q Magazine
The good news is that Grotesque rocks like a bastard.... Not so good news is that Manson's shock shtick still lacks real substance. [Jun 2003, p.103]
60
Mojo
Better than the conceptual barf of its predecessor Holy Wood, but not as sharp as his best record to date, '98's glammy Mechanical Animals. [Jun 2003, p.100]
60
Dot Music
It's an inferior re-run of the Marilyn Manson hammer horror panto that's been showing since '96.
Read Full Review
60
Rolling Stone
What's surprising is that there's still so much life in what Manson is rehashing.
Read Full Review
50
Playlouder
There's nothing that catchy here - Manson seems to have used all his best hooks already. But it's not terrible, and it sounds good LOUD.
Read Full Review
50
Uncut
Seems to be his regular melange of jackboot glam and electro-metal spiced up with those endearingly juvenile stabs at pretension and subversion. [Jun 2003, p.94]
40
Blender
His campiest, and skimpiest, since his debut. [#17, p.138]
30
PopMatters
Even with several excellent songs... it's the lyrical inanity that makes the most lasting impression.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now! The average user rating for this album is 8.9 (out of 10) based on 72 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Cameron D gave it a7:
Not my favorite manson album, but still worth listening too. There are few very good songs on here.

Jake W gave it a10:
Good catchy hooks, awesome guitar riffs, some original drumming, some cool electronic, a well rounded album that you don't want to stop listening to.

[Anonymous] gave it an8:
my favourite album of Marilyn Manson.

Kosta Y gave it a9:
Ok, I agree that Marilyn Manson didn't put much effort into his lyrics writing, but this album is unique- you will not see anything as sexually grotesque in any other MM albums. That's what I really like about MM- awlays comes up with something new, different and shocking.

Ryan gave it a0:
Terrible music. Boring, old and rushed. DONT WASTE YOURTIME OR MONEY on this trash!!! Please, just stay away from this junk.

Randy B gave it a7:
I really would like to give this a 7.5, but that's unfortunately not an option.... Using trashy burlesque theatre as the inspiration for his fifth album, Marilyn Manson creates a decadent new addition to his body of work. The Golden Age of Grotesque finds twisted beauty in the overall dark-whorehouse theme that lies in its tracks. It opens with ‘Thaetre’, which might as well be the intro music to a show at the Goth version of the Moulin Rouge, and leads into one of the album’s undeniable high water marks and second single, ‘This is the New Shit’. Here you won’t find the extreme darkness of Holy Wood or lipstick glam of Mechanical Animals, but a sexual powerhouse, as is blatantly displayed by the song ‘Vodevil’ later in the disc. Sometimes lyrically ridiculous and less musically developed than his last two works, but Grotesque is still awesome.

m j gave it a9:
Good, more "rock" than industrial or experimental or acoustic, less of a war on religion, more on perceptions of sex, pain, love, ect ect.. More like jaded-romantic goth than his last couple cds of appolypse-rock. Miss the antichrist absolutely shocking antics, but this is still very very good+high quality in a different sort of flavor, namely quality vs. experimental.

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