Review Summary: All the joys of a Marilyn Manson concert in the safety of your living room, what more could you ask for?
If, over the course of your life you have managed to go without hearing of
Marilyn Manson, that rock you've been living under must be pretty big. Controversial shock rocker band fronted by one of the most outspoken men of the last twenty years, Marilyn Manson carved a name for themselves in the late 90s with their unique blend of shocking lyrics and performances mixed with a heavy industrial sound that was shown on albums such as
Antichrist Superstar and
Holywood . This DVD is a blend of a few shows that were towards the end of the
Gods Guns and Government tour that supported the
Holywood album, one of the biggest and most controversial tours that the band embarked on.
To start with, the setlist, you get a full 17 tracks on this live release, making it bigger than most releases from other bands, the set is good, featuring some of the best hits the band had across the first four albums, with an obvious lean towards
Holywood but all the other albums are represented, however, for fans of the debut, you only get one song
Lunchbox which features as the bands encore. For fans of the band in general, you'll find lots of songs here that you can enjoy, from
The Beautiful People to
Great Big White World .
Band-wise, they are all on top form, Marilyn Manson himself leading the way with his signature vocal performance, his singing voice, whilst never the best, shines on this, and his screams are a highlight, particularly on anthems such as
The Beautiful People and
Antichrist Superstar . The rest of the band are on form to, the main other participant being guitarist John 5, who lays down the riffs and occasional solos down with precision, making the aggression and heaviness that comes across easily on the albums transfer to the live environment, something that doesn't always happen in bands like this and can ruin a performance. Bassist Twiggy Ramirez nails it here, the bass on this is noticeable and there are points where it even takes a lead, the rest of the band takes a backing role, but it is done well.
As one would expect from a Marilyn Manson performance, there is a stage show, this includes costume changes, such as a pope outfit worn during the rendition of
Love Song to a long skirt that holds Manson high above the band in
Cruci-Fiction in Space but also props are used, such as a chariot pulled by topless women with horse heads as an opening and a podium in
Antichrist Superstar all of which adds an extra dimension to the concert, and the fact that the DVD is made of a blend of different concerts, which change mid song means that you get to see different costumes from different shows within songs.
And herein lies the issue with this DVD, the footage used is a blend of different shows, and because of this, the soundtrack is questionable, which show is it from? There are times in the show when the lips of Manson don't match the point of the song been sung and this is infuriating because it could have been avoided, there wasn't a need to use all the different concerts, most other live DVD's make it using only one, and this definitely could have done. It does make it harder to enjoy the show as it flits constantly between the different concerts which is annoying and confusing for the viewer.
The DVD also features a documentary called
The Death Parade which is a 30 minute show about the bands last trip around the world which is enjoyable and provides a surreal insight into the backstage world of the band
With all this, this is a very enjoyable footage highlighting one of the best tours of a great band in its prime, any fan of Manson should definitely endeavour to pick this up.
