Marilyn Manson - Lamb Of God

Marilyn Manson is an American rock band formed by namesake lead singer Marilyn Manson, guitarist Daisy Berkowitz, and bassist Gidget Gein in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1989. Originally named Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids, they gained a local cult following in South Florida in the early 1990s with their theatrical live performances. In 1993, they were the first act signed to Trent Reznor's Nothing Records label. Until 1996, the name of each member was created by combining the first name of a female sex symbol and the last name of a serial killer, for example Marilyn Monroe and Charles Manson. Their lineup has changed between many of their album releases; the eponymous lead singer is the only remaining original member.

In the past, band members dressed in outlandish makeup and costumes, and engaged in intentionally shocking behavior both onstage and off. Their lyrics often received criticism for their anti-religious sentiment and references to sex, violence and drugs, while their live performances were frequently called offensive and obscene. On several occasions, protests and petitions led to the group being blocked from performing, with at least three US states passing legislation banning the group from performing at state-owned venues. They released a number of platinum-selling albums, including Antichrist Superstar (1996) and Mechanical Animals (1998). These albums, along with their highly stylized music videos and worldwide touring, brought public recognition to Marilyn Manson. In 1999, news media, infamously, falsely blamed the band for influencing the perpetrators of the Columbine High School massacre.

As this controversy began to wane throughout the 2000s, so did the band's mainstream popularity. Despite this, Jon Wiederhorn of MTV, in June 2003, referred to Marilyn Manson as "the only true artist today". Marilyn Manson is widely regarded as being one of the most iconic and controversial figures in rock music, with the band and its lead singer influencing numerous other groups and musicians, both in metal-associated acts and also in wider popular culture. VH1 ranked Marilyn Manson as the seventy-eighth best rock band on their 100 Great Artists of Hard Rock. They were inducted into the Kerrang! Hall of Fame in 2000, and have been nominated for four Grammy Awards. In the U.S., the band has seen eight of its releases debut in the top ten, including two number-one albums. Marilyn Manson have sold in excess of 50 million records worldwide.

Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death) was released on November 11, 2000. Produced by the band's lead singer with Dave Sardy, the album also features programming and pre-production editing by Bon Harris of Nitzer Ebb. The band wrote over 100 songs for the album, which was a return to the darker, more abrasive sound of Antichrist Superstar. Much of its content was written in response to the Columbine massacre, with the album's third single, "The Nobodies", directly referring to the shootings. Described by the band's frontman as the third part of a trilogy which began with Antichrist Superstar and continued in Mechanical Animals, its overarching theme is an exploration of the relationship between death and fame in American culture, and its lyrics and artwork contain many references to John F. Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald, John Lennon and Mark David Chapman, and Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth. The "Guns, God and Government Tour" elaborated on Holy Wood's central theme, and with its logo – a rifle and handguns arranged to resemble the Christian cross – Manson made no attempt to conceal what he saw as the source of that fascination.

The band also revealed that within their concept album trilogy, Holy Wood serves as prequel to Mechanical Animals and Antichrist Superstar despite the latter two preceding Holy Wood in release date. Each album contains its own distinct storyline, which can be linked together to create a larger overarching storyline encompassing all three. Manson has offered this much in the way of an interpretation: "[Holy Wood is about] wanting to fit into a world that didn't want me, and fighting really hard to get there. [The album's deepest elements] are idealism and the desire to start a revolution. If you begin with Holy Wood, then Mechanical Animals really talks about how that revolution gets taken away from you and turned into a product, and then Antichrist Superstar is where you're given a choice to decide if you're going to be controlled by the power that you created or if you want to destroy yourself and then start over. It just becomes a cycle."

I am going with Lamb of God from Holy Wood. This is exactly what Marilyn Manson is about for me. This track is something a little different to what they usually do and it does have a certain feel, the lyrics 'Nothings Gonna Change The World' ring true! It is a fucked up world we live in.