Marilyn Manson isn’t quite over the David Bowie phase that he started going through on 1998’s Mechanical Animals, but the glam factor has certainly been taken down a notch. The music and Manson's look on Holywood (in the shadow of the valley of death) is more of a throwback to his Antichrist Superstar album. He has ditched the androgynous body suit and red hair and has returned to the more traditional pale-faced, black-haired Marilyn that we used to know and love.

Musically this album is darker and, in a bizarre way, more sensitive. There are a few songs such as "Lamb of God" and "Coma Black" that could almost be considered acoustic ballads amongst the swirl of gothic and industrial metal crunch. Manson’s band has evolved from a gang of mediocre metalheads, hiding behind bizarre loops and noises, into a talented outfit that now uses samples to enhance appreciation, rather than distract the listener from their performances. The addition of guitarist John 5, formerly of Judas Priest singer Rob Halford’s band, has sped up this evolution and the result is an album that rocks just about as hard as any other this year. They are still behind Rob Zombie in the Goth rock/pop genre, but are closing in quickly.

I won’t dwell for too long on the lyrical content of this album, because it’s exactly what you would expect from Marilyn Manson. Every song is irreverent and seemingly meant to offend. Disillusioned and ignorant youths will probably cling to every word, but anyone with half a brain will write the shock factor of Manson’s lyrics off as simply the words of a smart businessman who knows how to get a rise out of parents and other authority figures. Alice Cooper scared the world with "School’s Out" and "No More Mr. Nice Guy" and now it’s Marilyn Manson’s turn with song such as the sacrilegious "Cruci-fiction In Outerspace" and "King Kill." His songs are the musical equivalent of a horror movie, but Manson is betting that people will read more into it than he ever meant. To use an extremely clichéd phrase, he’s laughing all of way to the bank.

Like most major albums being released in the era of dotcoms, Holywood has a CD-ROM portion that can be accessed using a PC that has Internet access. I loaded the disc into my computer and, after a few clicks, a very graphic black-and-white film appeared on the screen. The opening shot is of a toe tag hanging from a cadaver in a morgue. A doctor enters the room and proceeds to carve open the body’s (Manson's?) skull and slowly pulls a small human fetus out of the head (hmmm, anyone see the ‘South Park’ episode about co-joined twin mylexia?). It’s very disturbing and gory, and yet was so expected from Manson that I just couldn’t be shocked by the little film. There are no other CD-ROM extras on the disc to speak of.

If you get offended easily, leave this record on the shelves. If you want a new record that rocks and looks at the "darker side of life," Holywood is the next CD you should pick up.