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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.

The Golden Age Of Grotesque
by Marilyn Manson


8.9

based on 12 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 73 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album

Official Artist Site

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.

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...

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.

Alternative Press

The army of noise behind his bitterness is at once massive and impressive. [Jul 2003, p.117]

E! Online

If you aren't down with Manson, this won't change you one bit. But for Manson fans, Grotesque is beautiful.

Entertainment Weekly

Inventive and powerful enough to merit intermittent attention, but ultimately crushed by the weight of its hoary pretensions.

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]

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]

Dot Music

It's an inferior re-run of the Marilyn Manson hammer horror panto that's been showing since '96.

Rolling Stone

What's surprising is that there's still so much life in what Manson is rehashing.

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.

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]

Blender

His campiest, and skimpiest, since his debut. [#17, p.138]

PopMatters

Even with several excellent songs... it's the lyrical inanity that makes the most lasting impression.

The average user rating for this album is 8.9 (out of 10) based on 73 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Kendo J gave it a10:
Simply incredible album. Everything about it screams awesome. Second only to Mechanical Animals but still gets a 10 because MA deserves an 11.

Cynthia V gave it a10:
Manson does not disappoint. My favorite songs are ''spade'', ''[s]aint'', ''Mobscene'' and...pretty much all of them.

Dan C gave it a10:
This was my first MM album at the age of 11 and I thought it was amazing. Listening to it now brings back so many memories. My particular favourite songs are: (S)aint Spade Doll - Digga - Buzz - Buzz - Ziggety - Zag.

B L gave it a6:
This album suffers from trying to recreate the "classic" Manson sound. The thing is a lot of the songs just aren't that good. mOBSCENE is one of the best and a obvious choice for the single. Golden Age of Grotesque (the song), (s)aint and Para-noir are the other stand-out tracks. The album isn't awful but other than a few tracks it's nothing special.

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.

The Golden Age Of Grotesque by Marilyn Manson

The Golden Age Of Grotesque
by Marilyn Manson