Heaven Upside Down

A master of showmanship, shock value, and theatrical controversy, Marilyn Manson has unquestionably cemented his place in American pop culture. The Antichrist Superstar’s industrial-strength 10th album is as diverse as it is brash. Bluesy riffs violently fling from beat to beat on the swaggering “Tattooed in Reverse,” the deliberately obnoxious “WE KNOW WHERE YOU FUCKING LIVE” shrieks and shakes with the disemboweling aggression of Mechanical Animals’ finest moments, and, in a rare moment of (relative) fragility, Manson pleads for understanding on “Blood Honey,” insisting, “I’m not being mean/I’m just being me.”