Revision as of 17:38, 2 December 2010

Hey there, welcome! Glad you like the wiki, and I really appreciated your additions to Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death). Thanks a lot :) Litso 23:40, 3 August 2008 (CEST)

Fuck... There must be a bug somewhere, I had the same problem with an image gallery disappearing, We'll sort it out. [god]speed -MansonWiki Admin 18:26, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Copy paste

Hello, please know you are welcome here to edit the wiki. However, please do not copy paste directly from wikipedia. We encourage editors to write in their own words. Also, your direct copy paste to the Holy Wood article removed links that were relevant here. Thanks ‡-me-‡ 11:38, 8 August 2010 (UTC) (Admin)

The "original" article was a copy/paste of the Wikipedia article. Besides, the sections I did copy/paste were ones I wrote myself. Red marquis 02:45, 9 August 2010 (UTC)

Edits

Thank you so much for your work here, extremely well written. ‡-me-‡ Manson Wiki Administrator 06:14, 10 August 2010 (UTC)

Thank you very much. It is really great to have editors who write well. [god]speed 07:07, 10 August 2010 (UTC) Manson Wiki Administrator

Note

While your content is well written, Readers should not have to be armed with a dictionary in order to understand the points you are attempting to portray. Example: "by the kratocratic plutarchy" just as an example. [god]speed -MansonWiki Admin 12:07, 28 August 2010 (UTC)

Essays

Thanks for adding these :) It was just the other day that I added them to my "to do" list :P ‡-me-‡ - MansonWiki Admin 13:17, 1 September 2010 (UTC)

Concepts

Hi Red, I've been watching your edits and I'm becoming increasingly concerned as the the analytical nature of what you have to add. As mentioned before, we try to strictly avoid analysis and theory as I'm sure you can understand, these things are largely interpretive. We generally like to provide information with references and I've yet to see any? Your contributions are well written as always and it's not that we don't appreciate or understand the concepts that you are discussing by any means, I personally have been very much into interpretation and analysis of Manson's work. However, being an encyclopedic data base, there isn't much room for them. For example: It is written within the Holy Wood concept the "Winter of Discontent" (and its resolution on Valentine's Day), how so? And do you know where this lyric was taken from and why it was used? Or is this your interpretation? If so, I'm sure you can understand that these things are probably best left for private essays or analysis threads. ‡-me-‡ - MansonWiki Admin 08:35, 7 September 2010 (UTC)

Hi Red, first of all I must apologize too. I deliberately questioned you to prove a point. That being that content that is of an analytical nature is not always accurate and probably best left off of the wiki. The term "The Winter of our Discontent" was actually first coined by Shakespeare and put to print in Richard III, 1954. It's relevance in the song President Dead, is that at a 1963 news conference, a reporter questioned Kennedy: "Reporter: "There is some impression and talk in the town and country that your Administration seems to have lost its momentum and to be slowing down and to be moving on the defensive. Could you comment on this feeling in the country?" President Kennedy: "I think we are making some progress so that if you ask me whether this was the 'Winter of Our Discontent', I would say no. If you would ask me whether we were doing quite as well this winter as we were doing in the fall, I would say no, too." Kennedy was assassinated later that year, hence the lyric "we can't all be martyred in the winter of our discontent." ‡-me-‡ - MansonWiki Admin 08:43, 8 September 2010 (UTC)

If you're looking for somewhere to bounce ideas, concepts and analysis regarding the triptych, here's a good place to start. Rest assured the administration does watch over edits here. While we could write these articles ourselves, we like to encourage fans to add and participate in the creation of Manson Wiki, "for the fans, by the fans." ‡-me-‡ - MansonWiki Admin 11:50, 9 September 2010 (UTC)

Give us about 15 minutes, So that <me> can look over it as well. :) [god]speed -MansonWiki Admin 11:06, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

xx

Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death) is the fourth full-length studio album by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released on November 14, 2000 in the US and Australia by Interscope Records. Unlike their previous outings, Holy Wood was a commercial disappointment despite generally favorable reviews from critics^[1] and marked a return to the industrial rock/metal style of the band's earlier efforts after the group's foray into glam rock on Mechanical Animals.

It is a concept album and the third and final installment in a trilogy that includes Antichrist Superstar and Mechanical Animals.^[2] It charted at No. 13 on the Billboard 200^[3] and spawned three singles ("Disposable Teens", "The Fight Song" and "The Nobodies") and a novel which remains currently unreleased.^[4]

After its release, Marilyn Manson revealed that his concept album trilogy is told in a reverse timeline (chronologically reverse from their actual release dates). Holy Wood, therefore, opens the storyline followed by Mechanical Animals and concluded with Antichrist Superstar.^[5][4]

Since it is the band's first album following the Columbine High School massacre on April 20, 1999, Holy Wood served the group as both rebuttal and retort at the accusations leveled at them. The band's controversial frontman has described the record as "a declaration of war".^[6][7]

Origin and recording

The album's conception and gestation was marked by the singer's three month seclusion at his then home in the Hollywood Hills following the Columbine tragedy. After cancelling the remaining dates of the band's Rock Is Dead Tour,^[8] the band retreated from public view.^[4] During this period of relative silence, Manson avoided interviews and publicity.^[4][7] The frontman spent this time vacillating on "what I was going to do and how I was going to react"^[7], stating, "There was a bit of trepidation, deciding, 'Is it worth it? Are people understanding what I'm trying to say? Am I even gonna be allowed to say it? Because I definitely had every single door shut in my face...there were not a lot of people who stood behind me."^[4] The singer would later admit in Alternative Press that there was also a genuine concern for his safety, "...one reason I didn't leave was, I genuinely believed that there was a realistic possibility that I could be shot Mark David Chapman-style". A further blow would come in the form of the disintegration of his long-term relationship with then-fiancée, actress Rose McGowan.^[4] The one break in his self-imposed exile was in May of that year when the embattled musician began to address the accusations starting with his Rolling Stone magazine op-ed piece, "Columbine: Whose Fault Is It?".^[9]

After determining to continue making music and settling on a course of attack, the band spent a year of production and recording.^[10][7] Of the album, Manson stated, "The news media held me responsible for basically every act of violence that happened in America, no matter what. So what should I do? Stand there and let them fuck me over or turn around and smash their teeth in? I decided that I'm going to do the latter and I'm going to do it so hard that they'll wish they've never been born."^[7]

The album was written in Manson's aforementioned former home, which is the same house where the Rolling Stones were rumoured to have written Let It Bleed.^[5] Recording was done in a mansion that once belonged to escape artist Harry Houdini.^[11] Manson has claimed that over 100 songs had been written during the production of Holy Wood, though only 19 made it into the final product.^[12]

At the 1999 MTV Europe Music Awards, Manson revealed to MTV News' John Norris the title of his then-unrevealed album and movie screenplay, which he "will go into production sometime in the next year."^[13] He further divulged,

Concept

Following the moral panic that ensued after Columbine, the singer and the band served as scapegoat,^[14][15] held culpable by various media outlets,^[16][7] religious figures^[17], pundits, civic groups^[18] and politicians^[19][20] who made sensational allegations that the band's music and imagery drove Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold to kill their classmates^[10] despite later reports to the contrary; that the two actually considered them "a joke".^{[21][22][7][23]} Consequently, much of the album's content addresses the issue and articulates on American society's common obsession with firearms, religion, and media martyrs by appropriating criticism on what Manson sees as the three core ideals conservative Christian America hold above all else, "Guns, God and Government".^[24][23] Parents and the news media are also attacked for the more harmful roles they play in the glorification and acceptance of wholesale violence in "mainstream" culture in comparison to music, movies, books or video games.^[6][10]

As a concept album, Holy Wood's plot is a thinly-veiled satire of modern America centered on its ill-fated protagonist "Adam Kadmon". Kadmon is an idealistic abstract figure borrowed from the Kabbalah where he is described as the "Primal Man" or, in the similar Sufic and Alevi philosophy, "Perfect or Complete Man""; the very archetype for humanity.^[11] Disillusionment takes over the protagonist, however, as he watches humanity consumed by Holy Wood's ideology of 'Guns, God and Government' into a culture of death and fame that holds celebrity-worship, violence and scapegoatism as moral values and martyrdom has become religion — a religion that canonize dead celebrities into saints and idolize 'Jack' Kennedy as the transfigured 'Lamb of God' and modern-day Christ. Deliberately a parallel of Christianity and a critique of both American celebrity culture and of Jesus Christ's own role as the blueprint of that culture and the 'Dead Rock Star' martyr/celebrity phenomenon,^[25] this religion is named "Celebritarianism".^[6] In Manson's own words, "'Holy Wood' — which isn't even that great of a hyperbole of America — is a place where an obituary is just another headline. Where if you die and enough people are watching, then you're famous."^[4] The Guns, God and Government world tour that supported the album expanded on this with the tour's logo — a rifle and handguns arranged to resemble the Christian cross. Much like in Mechanical Animals, another lesser character is found in "Coma Black". Similar to the character of "Coma White" from the previous album, Coma Black is an obscure figure which, simultaneously, may or may not be an unattainable ideal, an androgynous facet of Adam or an actual person.^[11]

The album makes numerous confrontational references to events and figures in pop culture history to audit everyone's participating role in creating the culture that culminated in Columbine. With an eye toward their implications and ramifications, the vast number of these allusions primarily drew from the cultural impact of the tumultuous and defining Cold War period of 1960s America.^[5] A substantial amount of the record is devoted to a cultural analysis of Abraham Zapruder's film of the JFK Assassination^[5], on which Manson has commented, "To me, that's the only thing that's happened in modern times to equal the crucifixion of Christ"^[4] and further sarcastically described in an op-ed piece for Rolling Stone as "[a] good clip of mankind’s generosity to share his violence with the world in such a cinematic way."^[26] The death of notable author and intellectual Aldous Huxley on the same day is also brought up — a fact buried in newspapers the following morning because JFK's greater celebrity gave his assassination top-billing in the headlines — and subsequently deplored with a quip often attributed to Joseph Stalin, "One death is a tragedy. A million deaths is just a statistic". The record further drew parallels with what Manson saw as the climate of fear directed against youth culture in the 1990's and the Altamont Free Concert tragedy which brought an abrupt and violent end to the 'love generation', identifying the latter as the point that cemented America's fear of its own children.^[5]

Template:Quote box Allegories in the album to The Beatles' White Album and the Charles Manson murders^[5] are especially significant regarding an issue brought up in the wake of Columbine — anti-mimesis or life imitating art), since the White Album was thought to have played a key role in the Tate/LaBianca murder case when news media reported that Charles Manson took inspiration from his misreading of the record, resulting in his infamous Helter Skelter manifesto. Marilyn Manson observed that the Beatles song of the same name ""was the first piece of music to be blamed and associated with violence".^[5] In this sense, the rock singer drew parallels with the White Album; both him and it have been used as a scapegoat by a traumatized, knee-jerk reactionary American public and both expound on America's obsession with guns and violence and addresses the political concepts of evolution and revolution.^[11] Most critically, however, the record puts a spotlight on the universal phenomenon of the press 'canonizing' people into media martyrdom in TV or print by turning their death into a vulturistic overexposed spectacle. He cites, as examples, icons of American assassination such as John Lennon, John F. Kennedy and Jesus Christ who have attained cult-of-personality celebrity-worship as a result.^[11] Of Kennedy and Christ's martyrdom he opines,

When Bill O'Reilly suggested, in an interview on the O'Reilly Factor, that 'disturbed' kids could misinterpret certain lyrics in his songs to mean "when I'm dead everybody's going to know me", Manson replied by tying the aforementioned observations to Columbine,

Packaging

Like Antichrist Superstar, the album also utilizes a compositional device called the song cycle structure dividing Holy Wood into four sections which form the framework and outline of Kadmon's story: A: In the Shadow, D: The Androgyne, A: Of Red Earth and M: The Fallen.

The album's cover, which portrayed Manson in a crucified pose with a missing jaw as a dual statement on censorship and America's obsession with media martyrs,^[11] generated minor controversy upon release and had to be offered with a cardboard sleeve featuring an alternative cover due to some retailers refusing to stock the album with the original artwork. Manson described the move as "censorship" and stated that "those who seek to censor my album cover have successfully proven [the] point [of the image]."^[7]

Book and film

Template:See The album was originally to be accompanied by a book and a film of the same name which were to further explore the album's backstory.^[7][27] In an interview with Manson in December 2000, Chuck Palahniuk briefly mentions the book and compliments its style, adding it is due for release "next spring".^[28] The book has yet to be released, allegedly due to a publishing dispute,^[29] and the film never began production.

Guns, God and Government Tour

Main article: Guns, God and Government Tour

In support of the album, Marilyn Manson launched the Guns, God and Government Tour, which featured six legs and a total of 125 shows.^[23] The Ozzfest leg of the tour is particularly notable since it marked Marilyn Manson's first performance in Denver, Colorado (on June 22, 2001) since Columbine. Predictably, the band met heavy resistance from conservative groups with the performer receiving numerous death threats and calls to skip the date.^[30][31] The Christian organization Citizens for Peace and Respect asserted on their website that the band "promotes hate, violence, death, suicide, drug use, and the attitudes and actions of the Columbine killers".^[32] In response, Manson promised,

The Denver show also provided the backdrop for Manson's landmark interview on gun violence and America's climate of fear in Michael Moore's 2002 documentary Bowling for Columbine.^[33]

Three concert films depicting the tour, Guns, God and Government, Guns, God and Government - Live in L.A., and The Death Parade, were recorded.

Reception

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	link
Entertainment Weekly	B link
Robert Christgau	Template:Rating-Christgau link
Rolling Stone	link

The album received generally favorable reviews. It earned a collective score of 72% out of 100 from Metacritic.^[1] Barry Walters from Rolling Stone commented that "The band truly rocks: Its malevolent groove fleshes out its leader's usual complaints with an exhilarating swagger that's the essence of rock & roll.... On Holy Wood, Manson is as ambitious, personal and heavy as he's ever been, but the album is not, as he has proclaimed, the band's White Album. The music of these L.A. scenesters, though still evolving, can't hope to match the Beatles' level of eclectic experimentation or melodicism."^[34] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic commented that "Much of its charm lies in Manson trying so hard, perfecting details in the concept, lyrics, themes, production, sequencing, the tarot card parodies in the liner notes, the self-theft, the self-consciously blasphemous cover art. There's so much effort, Holy Wood winds up a stronger and more consistent album than any of his other work. If there's any problem, it's that Manson's shock rock seems a little quaint in 2000."^[35] PopMatters commented: "The central flaw of Holy Wood is that the power of its message, an important and provocative one, is watered down by its artistic pretensions. While Holy Wood is often affecting, it would be a better album if it was shorter and dealt with its subject matter directly, instead of through the veil of the 'concept album'."^[6] Katherine Turman of Amazon commented "The impact of Marilyn Manson's subversive musical agenda has waned, and what's left is a provocative, talented artist writing affecting, powerful, and yes, controversial songs...Rife with references to the Beatles and the Kennedys, and full of pop-culture barbs, Holy Wood is a musically diverse and powerful statement...Like Marilyn Manson the man, Holy Wood is intelligent, dynamic, and multifaceted, with myriad charms that are evident to the tuned-in listener."^[36]

According to LA Weekly, "Yeah, it's a party. And it's great rock music. Those who claim Manson "went back to Goth" and reclaimed Antichrist's noise after Mechanical proved too subtle for kids are only partly right. Okay, he virtually cloned his hit "The Beautiful People" in "Disposable Teens." And there are several familiar yell-and-stomp numbers on Holy Wood. But even those almost all contain a double-take chord change or a textural overdose or a mind-blowing bridge, and they'll be terroristic in concert. More important, there are a bunch of plain brilliant tracks where Manson anoints bits of rock history into his own church."^[37] Billboard Magazine said, "Manson proves again that he's one of the most skilled lyricists in rock today." ^[37] DOTMusic commented "Where 'Holy Wood' does come together and threaten to transcend its at times cliched parts is in its clarity of vision. This is a lean, visceral album that is as tripwire lithe as its maker. Manson's also remembered to write some great pop-goth tunes this time out, nowhere more so than with first single 'Disposable Teens'."^[37] Sonicnet commented "Nonetheless, while more ambitious than almost all of today's metal-flaked rock competition, the 19-track Holy Wood is not without its problems. On numbers such as "President Dead" and "Cruci-Fiction in Space," the band seems to be just rehashing old terrain. And, while The Wall may be a worthy role model, Manson and company don't quite have Pink Floyd's lyrical or musical range, adding to the rote feeling that troubles some of this overlong (60+ minutes) disc."^[37] Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times commented "Manson can go on teasing his fan base with his Grand Guignol circus show, but it's hard to imagine in the age of Eminem and other hard-core rappers that he is still even in the Top 10 on parents' most-feared list. That makes him seem severely dated--and he doesn't do much to correct the impression. For someone with the ambition and possibly the talent to be the new David Bowie, Manson appears resolved to settling for the new Alice Cooper. Manson is a smart, articulate, likable guy. He's too talented to be wasting his time chasing the ghost of Alice Cooper."^[38][39] In 2001, UK music magazine Kerrang! named Holy Wood the year's "Best Album" at their annual Kerrang! Awards.^[40]

Kerrang! published a 10th anniversary commemorative piece on the album in their November 10, 2010 issue called Screaming For Vengeance^[7] in which they called the album "Manson's finest hour...A decade on, there has still not been as eloquent and savage a musical attack on the media and mainstream culture as Manson achieved with Holy Wood...[It is] still scathingly relevant today." The article goes on to say, "...perhaps that's where Holy Wood achieved its greatest success. In deflecting the attention that was targeted at him back onto the [news] media, they reacted exactly as he knew they would: by blustering and further exposing their own inadequacies... The shame of it all, though, is that so little has changed. That the album is still so relevant today suggests it failed in its task of changing attitudes. That it exists at all, though, is a credit to a man who refused to sit and take it, but instead come out swinging."^[7]

Commercial performance

In the United States it debuted and peaked at No. 13 on the Billboard 200 and was awarded gold status in March 2003 for selling more than 500,000 copies.^[41]

Track listing

Template:TracklistTemplate:TracklistTemplate:TracklistTemplate:TracklistTemplate:Tracklist

Notes

• The disc contains a data track which leads to a video no longer hosted by Interscope's website. ^[2] This video was later included as a secret track on the companion DVD of Lest We Forget.^[42]

Charts, certifications and procession

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Template:Col-2 Singles

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Credits and personnel

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Marilyn Manson^[45]

• Marilyn Manson — arranger, vocals, producer, art direction, concept, syncussion, optigan, mellotron, distorted flute, synth bass, keyboards, piano, pianette, ambiance, electric harpsichord, rhythm guitar
• Twiggy Ramirez — bass, guitar (rhythm, lead, Leslie, warped), keyboards
• John 5 — guitar (lead, rhythm, acoustic, synth, electric, slide, phase)
• Madonna Wayne Gacy — synths, ambiance, keyboards, samples, bass synth, synth strings, mellotron, "Children's choir and canned laughter of dead people unsure of why they are laughing"
• Ginger Fish — drums (live, drum machine), death & siren loops, keyboards

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Production^[45]

• Bon Harris of Nitzer Ebb — synthesizers, programming, pre-production editing, organic drum programming, bass, keyboard, "Insect hi-hat", sleigh bells, (destructive) manipulation, electronics, piano
• Paulie Northfield — additional engineering
• D. Sardy (Dave Sardy) —- producer, synths, (organic) drum programming, mixing, noise rhythm guitar, "pills"
• P.R. Brown — art direction, design, photography
• Greg Fidelman — engineer, all Pro-Tools
• Nick Raskulinecz — assistant engineer
• Joe Zook — assistant engineer
• Kevin Guarnieri — assistant engineer
• Danny Saber — additional loops
• Alex Suttle — backing vocals

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References

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Template:Marilyn Manson
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