The High End of Low
The High End of Low is the seventh studio album by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released on May 20, 2009, by Interscope Records. Multiple editions of the record were released by the label, each containing unique bonus tracks. The album's lyrics were largely inspired by the personal troubles experienced by the band's eponymous vocalist relating to his divorce from burlesque performer Dita Von Teese, as well as his later relationship with actress Evan Rachel Wood.
Manson first began work on the album with guitarist Tim Sköld. However, Sköld left the band when the vocalist reunited with former bassist Twiggy Ramirez. The album was produced by Manson and Twiggy along with former Nine Inch Nails co-producer and keyboardist Chris Vrenna, as well as Antichrist Superstar and Mechanical Animals co-producer Sean Beavan. It was the last album to feature the band's long-time drummer Ginger Fish.
The record received mixed reviews from music critics, with several publications praising it as their best album since Mechanical Animals; although others were critical of both its length and more personal lyrical themes. The album debuted at number four on the Billboard 200, and was their second consecutive number one on Billboards Top Hard Rock Albums. It also peaked at number six on European Albums, and within the top 20 in 18 other territories.
"We're from America" and "Arma-goddamn-motherfuckin-geddon" preceded the album as single releases. A music video for "Running to the Edge of the World" was also released, which was condemned as a perceived glorification of violence against women. The band, which featured former Wired All Wrong member Andy Gerold on bass, toured in support of the record. While promoting the release, Manson made a series of disparaging comments about Interscope, its artistic censorship, as well as its-then CEO Jimmy Iovine. It was the band's final album released by the label.
Background and recording
announced in November 2007, while on the "Rape of the World Tour" promoting previous studio album Eat Me, Drink Me, that the then-current incarnation of the band would begin work on new material by the beginning of 2008. This included that album's co-composer, Tim Sköld, as well as long-time drummer Ginger Fish, Chris Vrenna and Rob Holliday. The first leg of the tour was a series of co-headlining shows with American thrash metal band Slayer. Manson indicated that Slayer guitarist Kerry King and former The Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha would be contributing to new material, along with Nick Zinner of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who remixed previous single "Putting Holes in Happiness" for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.File:X 6f60bfc2.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.85|Twiggy performing with Marilyn Manson at the Hammerstein Ballroom during the "Rape of the World Tour"
However, the following month, Manson encountered the band's former bassist, Jeordie White, while staying at The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. He had quit the band in 2002 as a result of creative differences during the recording sessions for their fifth studio album, The Golden Age of Grotesque. It was announced in January 2008 that Twiggy would be rejoining Marilyn Manson as live bassist for the rest of the "Rape of the World Tour", which resulted in Sköld exiting the band. Manson explained: "There's too much tension there . Those two couldn't be on stage with each other." Work began with Twiggy on new material in March 2008, although future collaborations with Sköld were not ruled out.
Former Limp Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland joined the band as a live guitarist for their August headlining show at the 2008 ETP Fest in South Korea, although Borland would quit to reunite with Limp Bizkit after just one other performance. He later said he was reluctant to be a "hired gun", citing the band's refusal to record any of the nine songs he submitted for their then-upcoming album. Manson clarified: "There was talk early on about collaborating with different guitar players on the record. That was before Twiggy and I got back together, because once Twiggy was back, there was nobody else, and I don't care what you have to offer—this was our record." Manson and Twiggy announced at the 2008 Scream Awards in October that the album was "pretty much done", and indicated it would sound more like Antichrist Superstar than the band's recent material. Manson later described the record as featuring " guitar solos and brutal, reckless screaming", and as being "very ruthless, heavy and violent". The album was co-produced by Manson, Twiggy and Vrenna, along with Antichrist Superstar and Mechanical Animals co-producer Sean Beavan.
Manson recorded his vocals at his Hollywood Hills home studio between November 2008 and his January 5, 2009, birthday. He described the album as containing "extreme" autobiographical content relating to the dissolution of both his marriage to burlesque artist Dita Von Teese, and his later relationship with then-19-year old actress Evan Rachel Wood, explaining: "Some of the things I say here, it's sad to say them—they're relationship-destroying statements. Some of it is stuff I should have said to my ex-wife. Some are things I've never said to the world." Manson used his home as a canvas to document the disintegration of his relationship with Wood, writing the album's lyrics on walls and coupling them with paintings and drawings, as well as used condoms, bags of cocaine and other drug paraphernalia. Much of the album's artwork was shot there.
Music and lyrical themes
The songs on The High End of Low appear on the album in the order in which they were written. The album contains material which spans across a wide variety of genres, such as industrial metal, glam rock, garage rock, blues, country, and synthpop. Its first track, "Devour", is a mid-tempo rock song which begins with an acoustic guitar, with heavy drums and distorted, screamed vocals becoming more prominent as it progresses. It was written in response to the "Shakespearean ideal of romance" presented on Eat Me, Drink Me. Lana Cooper of PopMatters said the song "runs an emotional gauntlet", and could "very well be the most depressing break-up song of all time. The lonely plink of guitar strings being tuned give way to Manson's soul-wrenching eruption of "And I'll love you / If you'll let me". he turns on a dime, and a few lines later is vowing revenge, spitting "I will blow your heart to pieces." Metal Hammer later included it on their list of the 10 most underrated Marilyn Manson songs.This is followed by "Pretty as a Swastika", a "mosh pit-ready" heavy metal song. Manson described it as one of his proudest moments lyrically. According to Manson, its title was "something I said to a girl because of her complexion—with black hair, red lips and pale skin. I mean, it was a complex and poetic statement which soon led to intercourse, so I felt no reason for it to be seen as hateful or destructive." At the insistence of Interscope Records, the song was re-titled on the album's back cover. Manson was critical of this censorship, saying: "Rather than take it off the album, I decided to produce it on the sleeve with a different name, so it'll be sold in Walmart or wherever stores sell guns but are afraid to deal with lyrics. So I put "Pretty as a ", because all of their motivations are based on money." "Leave a Scar" was written by Manson "about and for Evan on the day we broke up. Maybe some of the things I say in the song are cruel, but it is how I felt at the time."
"Four Rusted Horses" is a blues-inspired rock song, and was compared to the work of The Doors and Johnny Cash. Manson described its lyric as being "almost a nursery rhyme. everyone thinks that I was singing about the apocalypse, but it's more just about the four of us, my band, that managed to survive through all of this, and where do we go from here." "Arma-goddamn-motherfuckin-geddon" is an uptempo rock song which was described by The Quietus as "classic Manson". Caren Gibson of Metal Hammer claimed that the song was reminiscent of "Chain Reaction" by Diana Ross, as well as the work of Depeche Mode. "Blank and White" deals with censorship, specifically the reaction to Time magazine's cover story "Is God Dead?", which saw protesters brandishing blank picket signs. The lyric "God is dead but god is still white / So shoot up the mall, the school or the president of whatever / Or whoever wants a fight" was censored by Interscope on all editions of the album. Manson has said that this made him happy artistically, as "the song is about censorship, and they censored ."
"Running to the Edge of the World" is a David Bowie-inspired ballad, which features Manson singing in falsetto notes during its middle 8. "I Want to Kill You Like They Do in the Movies" is a primarily bass-driven rock song. At over 9 minutes, it is longest song on the album. Its lyrics document the disintegration of Manson's relationship with Wood, and his fantasies of "smashing her skull in with a sledgehammer." It was one of the first tracks the band recorded for The High End of Low, and was originally 25 minutes long. Reluctant to release a double album, they re-recorded a shorter version following the completion of the album's final song, "15", with Manson asking the band: "How many minutes do I have left on this CD ? And it was 9 minutes. I said, 'Roll it, I'm going to sing it.' What appears on the record is one performance."
"WOW" is an industrial dance song, and Manson has described it as a turning point for the album, explaining: "The first half of the record is kind of bitter and angry, but there's a confidence that starts to rebuild itself . I wanted to do a song that represented who I am, and why I started doing this in the first place." Manson plays a one-stringed guitar on the song, which also features the sound of him "snorting lines of something - whatever it might have been - as a percussion instrument." In a review of the leaked demo, which was originally titled "The WoW", James Gill of Metal Hammer described it as "genuinely filthy and intensely sexy. It doesn't have anything in the way of memorable hooks, but it's the sort of track that would sound amazing in a goth strip club... if one existed." "Wight Spider" is one of the heaviest songs on the album, and has been compared to the work of Mastodon. Metal Hammer also said of the track: "whether conscious or not, what learned from Trent Reznor is back: the track builds and builds without changing direction." "Unkillable Monster" is a down-tempo rock song which alternates between a quiet-verse and loud-chorus structure, and features layered, distorted vocals and guitars.
"We're from America" is the most overtly political song on the album, referencing various aspects of neoconservatism in its lyrics, such as pro-war and anti-abortion rhetoric. "I Have to Look Up Just to See Hell" was described by The Quietus as a "maggot-infested ride into the trough of melancholy." The penultimate track, "Into the Fire", portrays the vocalists' mental state on Christmas—wherein he unsuccessfully attempted to contact Wood 158 times, and cut himself on the hands or face with a razorblade for each corresponding attempt. It was the original album closer, with Manson describing it as a "glorious epic that I think will make Twiggy forever recognized as a guitar hero." The album's final song, "15", was completed on Manson's January 5 birthday. He called it "the most important song that's been written by Marilyn Manson as an entity. It's the most unusual song I have ever heard. I thought that the album was done, but what was happening in my life had not resolved itself. So on January 5, one five, I sang '15', and the lyrics tell the story of that day."