In the second part of NaN’s review of Marilyn Manson’s new album, We Are Chaos, five songs on the new album are broken down and analyzed by a fan. This is continued from Part One.
Track six, “Infinite Darkness”, is a sing shrouded in its namesake as all hope is taken from the narrator of the song and he has a wake-up call from the ghosts in his dreams, as seen in the first set of lyrics. “You’re dead longer than you’re alive” is the ultimate realization of the harsh truth that death comes for us even when we are living because we are exposed to things that “kill” us slowly as we grow; no longer is their innocence once the person is exposed to the truth, yet there’s no way to stop this from happening. One interesting part of this song in particular is that Manson uses a tone that is similar to his speaking voice though in a near whisper, which is something that is hardly seen even in slower and more vulnerable songs.
“Perfume” has a passive-aggressive, punk rock feel to it, not unlike (s)Aint from ‘Golden Age of Grotesque’ (2003) as the song seems to speak directly to the listener who feels misunderstood. The perfume is “something you never want to wear”, which is a metaphor that directly relates back to the line “So you wear your damage on your sleeve” because the person in question has been so vulnerable to the point of being forever scorned and bittered that they no longer want to, but they cannot stop showing that they care for others more than themselves as they tell everyone else to get behind them.
Next is “Keep My Head Together”, to me, serves as a mirror song for the track before it. Don’t try to change someone else, you’ll only end up changing yourself”comes from personal experience, which would fit with “Perfume” since the narrator of that song wore everything on their sleeve and would, most likely, project onto others what they wished to see in themselves, but that projection is internalized and slowly becomes a fixation that the person will end up changing to fit that image. This transition turns to self-loathing, which can be seen in the line “I eat glass, I spit diamonds” since the hardest gemstone forms from extreme pressure and heat, the latter which is a way to describe anger. The metaphorical diamond is a continuing theme, as Manson used it in the song Spade (Golden Age of Grotesque, 2003) and is used in the same manner to describe being fed up with what has been dealt with the narrator of the song.
“Solve Coagula” goes into depth about that self-hatred felt from the previous two songs. “There’s no one else I wanna be like, so I stay the same” shows the mentality of someone who assumes a position of self-martyrdom because they take on everyone else’s pain and not just their own. The singer is begging someone else to listen as if to prevent someone else from experiencing this cycle of torture that only you can see within yourself, for once you take oh this position of taking all the pain in the world you cannot stop and don’t want to be fixed. Someone has to feel miserable so others can continue to live in ignorant bliss, but one person can only take so much suffering and will have to, unfortunately, see another person take on what they could not, emotionally.
Finally, “Broken Needle” is the realization that the cycle where a person has so much empathy they feel they must carry it alone will never be broken. Yet everyone who is caught in this mindset is aware that they are not okay, try to reach out, and are ignored as a result. It is much worse than death because you are constantly trying to reach out even when there’s nothing to grab a hold on. You still have to “Rinse off all this pain, and your makeup. Stare into the mirror” and continue as if all is normal. The song’s slower pace and sound of desperation from Manson’s vocals call to mind the “Speed of Pain” from “Mechanical Animals” even as the sound fades in a similar style that stays with the listener, almost in a haunting way.
Again, these are my opinions and analyses as a long time fan of Marilyn Manson, so feel free to listen and form your own thoughts on these incredibly crafted songs. We Are Chaos can be found on YouTube, Spotify, and other music streaming services, as well as purchase directly from Marilyn Manson’s online merchandise store.
Written by Mordecai Russell
A loveable guy who loves playing Dungeons and Dragons, writing fanfiction, and watching many of his beloved YouTubers. Part of the LGBTQIA+ community and proudly living his truth!