Marilyn Manson is my favorite band. Check out how different the albums sound. There's a central triptych theme within Antichrist Superstar, Mechanical Animals and Holy Wood.
http://www.providermodule.com/discography/
An easy guide
http://www.nachtkabarett.com/Triptych
^ GREAT SITE (Grant Morrison fans should like it due to it's occult stuff)
HOLY WOOD, MERCURY & THE ANDROGYNE | The identity which Manson adopted during 'Holy Wood', as well as the Triptych containing its predecessors 'Mechanical Animals' and 'Antichrist Svperstar'. Mercury is the key element in alchemy which is said to yield the fabled Philosopher's Stone and is the planetary element which bears the influence of artistic and poet flair. Its equivalent in Greek mythology is the God Hermes who is known as 'The Messenger of the Gods'. The Androgyne is a symbol of alchemical balance, Male & Female; Black & White; Marilyn & Manson, and thus a symbol of the transformation and evolution which The Triptych represents.
OMĒGA AND THE MECHANICAL ANIMALS | "All that glitters is cold", sung through a voice modulator within 'Posthuman'. During the 'Mechanical Animals' era, Manson personified Omēga, an exaggerated and hollow rockstar who sung empty anthems about sex, drugs and fame. The outwardly hollow Omēga was to act as a counterpart to the reverse and introspective side of the album. Manson in keeping with numerological significances, split both aspects of the album in half with 7 songs by the fictitious 'Omēga & the Mechanical Animals' and the inverse 7 songs being the sincere, melancholic and introspective side of the album.
A famous allusion to Shakespeare, and dually to the Rock 'n' Roll gods of the past, were made with these lyrics Manson inverted to illustrate the concepts of the album...
"All that glitters is gold" is a line in Led Zepplin's 1970's rock anthem 'Stairway to Heaven', in turn a deviation of Shakespeare's famous maxim, "All that glitters is not gold." The latter is a popular phrase used in reference to outward appearances not always being as they seem; on a superficial, surface level something may appear outwardly much more valuable than it in reality is. It's origins are found in Shakespeare's play, 'The Merchant of Venice', where the The Prince of Morocco, upon realizing the morbid error of his obsession with superficial beauty, exclaims:
"All that glisters is not gold; / Often have you heard that told. / Many a man his life hath sold / But my outside to behold. / Gilded tombs do worms enfold."
Shakespeare, 'The Merchant of Venice (II, vii)
Along with February 14th, Coma White is another recurring element in the Triptych which is a highly debated and largely misinterpreted aspect of it. In Mechanical Animals and The Triptych, Coma White is represented as a girl, the love interest of Manson. But though the representation is of a girl it's only a personification of the metaphor that Coma plays in the life of this story's protagonist. Manson himself has stated that Coma is not literally a woman but is a personification of an ideal of perfection, an unobtainable entity which we forever pine after and seek to make tangible but forever out of reach. It's a concept which the representation of which, though illustrated as a girl, is interchangeable with all that we use to numb and pleasure ourselves with: drugs, sex, religion, TV,etc. It's these very things which we use to attempt to bring us closer to this state of perfection to make us happy, these things that we believe bring us closer to "god", that liberates us but in reality does nothing but make us numb, inebriate us and make us more and more mechanical. Where in order to survive and function a "fuel" is needed: inject our veins or snort some powder; fuck to heighten our emotions; getting off voyeuristically in front of a screen at the misery of others; have the assurance that there's a higher power that makes you better than everyone else or at least being "one of the Beautiful People" to just look like you are, all to make life seemingly worth living. But this contentment instead makes us automatons in need of another "hit" in order to survive. Mystics claim that the orgasm felt during sex for a mere few seconds is a brief but dulled glimpse of the experience of being one with god, yet god is perpetually out of reach and "a number you cannot count to." So we use these methods and crutches to try to reach this perfect intangible state being but instead bring us further and further away from it because these things are a synthetic and induced happiness, as well as completely temporary, where the constant need for them makes us more like soulless machines.
If that doesn't peak your interest.....
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