Marilyn Manson eras
Marilyn Manson Eras are lengths of time represented by an album released by the band. Eras consist of all things related to a specific style or theme throughout this time frame including photos, music, Manson's style, etc., released in that particular era.
Marilyn Manson Eras 1989-2010
Holy Wood Era (2000-2002)
Beginning in 2000, the Holy Wood era was largely the result of the effects that the Columbine High School Massacre had on the band. The central focus of the album and the corresponding Guns, God and Government tour was society's fascination with death and fame, exposing the flaws of a culture that worships violence and blurs the line between celebrities and murderers based on the ratings scale of the television.
The era placed emphasis on figures perceived as being martyrs to the American public, namely President John F. Kennedy, John Lennon, and their killers and explored the role the media played in glamorizing their deaths while simultaneously sensationalizing their killers. It is from this morbid fascination of America that Manson coined the term Celebritarian within the linear notes of Holy Wood.
From a conceptual point of view, the album marked the band's third and final part of the Triptych and held a far darker tone than it's predecessor, Mechanical Animals. Based on chart positioning and sales, this album did not fare as well with the general public, most likely due to the media's influence on the masses that portrayed Manson in an extremely unkind light.Interestingly enough, the era was originally planned to be extended to include a novel which has yet to be released though it has been said to be completely writen. Rumors of a possible movie adaption were also mentioned during this time, however nothing ever materialized on that front either.
The Golden Age of Grotesque Era (2003-2004)
Beginning in 2002, The Golden Age of Grotesque era was the band's journey with experimentation into new sounds (electronic/industrial rock) after bassist Twiggy Ramirez had left the band and was replaced with Tim Skold. The album contained imagery from the Weimar Republic, Nazi Germany, the Swing Era of the 1930s, and Vaudeville, and dealt with the themes of commercial success in music (selling out) and "degenerate" art. The era spawned some of the band's most popular hits, namely "Tainted Love", a cover of the popular Gloria Jones song, though done in the style of Soft Cell's cover version of the song.
Lyrically, the album was composed less of metaphors and did not tell a specific story; rather, it contained a large amount of wordplay and multiple allusions to early twentieth-century film, literature, entertainment, and overall culture. Manson had collaborated with artist Gottfried Helnwein for most of the visual aspects of the era and drew heavily from Mel Gordon's 2000 book Voluptuous Panic: The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin.
Lest We Forget Era (2004-2006)
Beginning in 2004, the Lest We Forget era motioned for Manson's alleged "exit from music". The compilation served as a Best-of album for the past thirteen years in which Manson was involved in music. The subsequent tour and its imagery was of an elegant Victorian style and brought back the themes of Celebritarianism, last seen in the Holy Wood era. During this time, Manson had been experiencing depression, largely due to marital problems with his then-wife Dita Von Teese and began focusing on his career in painting, rather than music. His painting, "Experience Is the Mistress of Fools" is used as the cover of the album.
Although being largely inactive music-wise during this era, the band produced a commercially successful cover of Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus", released as a single.
Eat Me, Drink Me Era (2007-2008)
Beginning in late 2006, the Eat Me, Drink Me era was the after effect of Manson's failing marriage to Dita Von Teese, depression, and the events afterwards. The album dabbled with themes of vampirism, love, relationships, death, sex, and cannibalism. The album was widely considered more or less to be a solo effort by Manson and Skold. It was during this time that Manson began dating actress Evan Rachel Wood, who would inspire many of the songs of the album and also appear in the music video for "Heart-Shaped Glasses (When the Heart Guides the Hand)". The era made multiple allusions to the Lewis Carroll novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and the Vladimir Nabokov novel Lolita. It would also be during this time that Manson would begin work on his yet to be released film, based loosely on the life of Lewis Carroll, Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll. The era is notable for the personal nature of the album, which at this point, was the first of its kind for the band.
The High End of Low Era (2009-2010)
Beginning in 2008, The High End of Low era began with the return of Twiggy Ramirez to the band and followed the crumbling relationship Manson had with actress Evan Rachel Wood, and his ensuing identity issues. The album dealt with the themes of politics, love, death, pain, film, rebirth, and self-realization. The track listing of the album is arranged in order the songs were recorded, making the album a journal of sorts, chronicling the personal life of the struggling front man.
It was during this era that Manson had dropped his label of sixteen years, Interscope Records, and became engaged to Evan Rachel Wood, despite prior relationship problems.
