Heaven Upside Down

Marilyn Manson performing at Stage AE in Pittsburgh on September 29, 2017

In August 2012, it was announced that Manson would play a fictionalized version of himself in the sixth season of Californication.[1] He met the score composer of the series, Tyler Bates, while filming the season finale in 2013.[2] The two then collaborated on the Manson's ninth studio album, The Pale Emperor, which was released in 2015 and described by numerous publications as the best album the band had released in over a decade.[3][4] In July 2016, Manson received the 'Icon Award' at the APMAs, after which he revealed several details about the follow-up to The Pale Emperor, such as its working title of Say10 and a tentative Valentine's Day release date.[5][6] He explained that the title originated from a note written in one of his workbooks from his time as a student at GlenOak High School.[7] Manson doubted whether Bates would agree to collaborate with him again following The Pale Emperor, saying that relations between the pair deteriorated to such an extent during the supporting The Hell Not Hallelujah Tour that Manson threatened Bates on-stage with a box-cutter knife.[8][N 1] Despite this confrontation, Bates agreed to work with the band, and renamed his music publishing company Box Cutter Music in honor of the incident.[9]

On May 8, 2017, Manson announced the album had been renamed Heaven Upside Down, and confirmed that recording had been completed.[10] As with The Pale Emperor, Manson and Bates worked on the record while the latter was composing score material for the American television series Salem,[11] the third season of which featured Manson as a recurring cast member.[12][13] Parts of the album were recorded in Louisiana, where he was filming scenes for Salem.[14] The record was produced solely by Bates,[15] and was recorded at Bates' Studio City recording facility Abattoir Studios,[16] with live drums recorded by The Pale Emperor contributor Gil Sharone.[17] Despite initially suggesting that longtime bassist Twiggy would contribute to the writing and production of the album, Manson later confirmed that he was invited but did not participate during sessions at Bates' recording studio. According to Manson, after listening to pre-recorded basslines performed by Bates, Twiggy responded by saying he would be unable to "play them any better, and that the record sounded great [as it was]".[18]

Manson and Bates largely improvised during their writing sessions. Bates said that songs were created "out of a conversation, essentially, just between [Manson] and I, and we make it pretty much on the spot. It's me making music right from my head, and the lyrics are developed by Manson right there in the studio with me."[19] Manson described the collaborative process between the two as being "a very intimate, personal experience. ... We sit across from each other, with headphones on, we look each other in the eye when we're writing." Manson opted not to record his vocals from inside a vocal booth, instead recording them while sitting at Bates' mixing console;[20] the majority of vocals on the album were recorded in single takes, with minimal overdubbing.[21] Bates sought to incorporate the band's concert performances and "the overall physical relationship to music in a live setting" into the album's production,[22] describing the record as "intense, fun and violent. It's more immediate than The Pale Emperor, much more aggressive, and definitely much more imbued with Manson's fucked-up humor."[19] He also said:

I wanted the album to be a platform for Manson to return to journalism, and write about the stuff we talk about, which is the sickness and passivity that is permeating the annals of society. Terrorism, mass shootings, reluctance to change, abandonment, dogma, apathy, judgment—all of this is pervasive in shaping our daily life's experience. The music is imbued with frustration, sadness, and anger about all of this, and to explore this landscape effectively, the sounds and the riffs needed to be more cutting and abrasive than The Pale Emperor. Heaven Upside Down is comprised of the music we love. Goth and Industrial. King-size guitar riffs. Sex. Equal parts 'fuck you' and jagged humor. Act II.

— Tyler Bates, in an interview with Pop Disciple.[22]

The band's vocalist initially described Say10 as being a musical departure from The Pale Emperor, and said it would be more comparable to the band's earlier work, particularly Antichrist Superstar and Mechanical Animals, but "with a new, different approach", and said it was "pretty violent in its nature for some reason, and it's not emotional in the same way [as The Pale Emperor]. It's got a chip on its shoulder."[11] He called it "by far the most thematic and over-complicated thing that I've done",[15] and indicated it would contain some of his most politically-charged lyrics,[24] but denied the political lyrical content related to the election of Donald Trump by saying that most of its lyrics were written before the 2016 US presidential election.[20] He had said he would not be voting in that election, explaining: "I don't think that, as an artist, I can make as much of a difference voting as I can [with] the commentaries I make in music".[25]

Manson dubbed Heaven Upside Down his "most precise and well-thought-out work",[7] and compared its lyrics to those of Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death), noting that the majority of lyrics on both records were initially written as prose.[20] He additionally described it as a concept album, and contrasted it with The Pale Emperor: "The last album was Faust, Mephistopheles. For me, this would be Pilgrim's Progress".[26] Lyrical themes and subject matter on the record range from politics, violence, sex and romance,[21] chaos and isolation,[22] and capitalism, religion, drugs, paranoia, fear and mental illness.[27] Musically, Heaven Upside Down was characterized by Manson as a hard rock and punk rock album, in the vein of Killing Joke, Joy Division, Bauhaus, and David Bowie's Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps).[8] Reviewers have additionally defined it as an industrial metal,[28][29][30] punk rock,[30][31] glam rock[30] and gothic rock record.[32]

The title of opening track "Revelation #12" is a reference to both the Book of Revelation and the Beatles' "Revolution 9".[7] "We Know Where You Fucking Live" was the first song Manson and Bates recorded for the album;[9] its lyrics reference state surveillance and drone warfare.[33] "Saturnalia" was the final song written for the album.[20] Manson described its lyrics as being "the real heart of the record."[34] He was unaware of the severity of his father's terminal illness until two days before he died,[35] on July 7, 2017,[20] the same day the band finished recording "Saturnalia".[20] Its lyrics contain numerous astrological and mythological references, specifically the astrological transit of Saturn – Saturn return – and the myth of Saturnus devouring his children.[23] Manson conflated his father's death with the lyrical content: "Seeing my father dying, I felt like that was the circle of life that he'd want me to put the energy of death into rebirth, you know, the snake eating its own tail, Saturnalia, Saturninus, that whole concept."[21] "Je$u$ Cri$i$" was described by Manson as "my résumé ... It's basically something I would say with a [sarcastic] shrug when someone asked me, 'What do you do?' 'Well, I write songs to fight and fuck to.'[34] He elaborated on the meaning of Heaven Upside Down as an album title: "I was going to call the record SAY10, but I didn't feel that that defined the album. I had the lyrics written for the song 'Heaven Upside Down', and I thought that defined the record more so because of the idea of time as a flat circle, constellations being defined by the negative space—the blackness; the idea of looking at something from an opposite point of view."[21]

The album was not released on Valentine's Day,[36] which prompted increasingly aggressive responses from fans of the band on social media platforms.[37] Manson later explained that several factors caused the delay, including Bates' schedule scoring films,[23] Manson being unhappy with the quality of the record by that date,[38] as well as the death of his father, to whom Heaven Upside Down is dedicated.[20] Bates also said recording was delayed due to the band's touring schedule; the pair had completed just six songs before beginning a co-headlining tour with Slipknot in the summer of 2016.[39] At least three tracks were recorded sometime after Valentine's Day: "Revelation #12", "Saturnalia" and "Heaven Upside Down",[38] with the album's name then being changed to the latter song title.[7]

Prior to the record's eventual release, Manson posted a series of videos on Instagram.[40] The first of these, posted on March 22, 2017, was captioned "6:19. The time has come."[41] Numerous publications hypothesized whether 6:19 referred to a June 19 release date, a Bible verse, or the lyrics to the Eat Me, Drink Me track "If I Was Your Vampire".[42][43] Further videos featured air-raid sirens and distant screaming,[44] a hooded figure,[45][46] and the Celebritarian Cross[47]—an inverted variation on the Cross of Lorraine which had been previously used by Manson as a logo for his Celebritarian art movement in 2005; the symbol subsequently appeared on the Heaven Upside Down album cover.[7]

Heaven Upside Down was released worldwide on October 6, 2017,[48] by Loma Vista Recordings in the United States,[49] Caroline International internationally,[50] and in Japan by Loma Vista in cooperation with Hostess Entertainment; Japanese editions contain a Mystery Skulls remix of "Kill4Me" as a bonus track.[51] The booklet was printed on Bible paper, with the lyrics formatted to resemble biblical text.[16] The record was mastered by Brian Lucey,[16] the engineer who mastered the majority of Bates' soundtrack work. According to Manson, Lucey was chosen because the album contains "some extreme experiments with sound. We were very particular in not allowing someone else to master it, who might accidentally eliminate them. We've got some very intense, alchemical, scientific, binaural sounds that sometimes even make me have a panic attack while I'm listening to it."[20] These sounds are most prevalent in the title track and "Saturnalia", which Manson highlighted as centerpieces of the record.[52]

Manson performing at the Hammerstein Ballroom; he sustained injuries during this show which resulted in the rescheduling of an entire leg of the "Heaven Upside Down Tour".

On the day of the 2016 US presidential election – November 8 – the band released a short teaser clip of a new video, "Say10".[53] which was created by director Tyler Shields.[54] It featured images of Manson brandishing a bloodstained knife while standing above a decapitated corpse lying in a pool of blood. Numerous publications noted the corpse was dressed in similar clothing to the kind regularly worn by Donald Trump—a suit and red tie.[55][56][57] Manson would later say that the decapitated figure in the video "wasn't anyone except if you wanted it to be them."[7] The band – which initially included Manson on vocals with Bates and Paul Wiley on electric guitars, Twiggy on bass and Sharone on drums[20] – began the first leg of the Heaven Upside Down Tour on July 20, 2017 in Budapest,[58] during which they debuted several new songs.[59] During the tour, the group narrowly avoided injury in Moscow when their tour bus was involved in a collision with a semi-trailer truck,[19] and Manson caused controversy in Eastern Europe when he referenced the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War during a concert in Kiev, saying: "You just made Moscow sound like your bitch."[60]

Their cover of Ministry's "Stigmata" was released on July 28, when it appeared on the soundtrack to Atomic Blonde.[61] "We Know Where You Fucking Live" was issued as the album's lead single on September 11, after premiering on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 show.[33] Its music video was directed by Bill Yukich and Perou,[62] and was posted onto YouTube four days later.[63] "Kill4Me" was issued as the album's primary airplay single in the United States, where it went on to become their highest peaking single ever on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Chart.[64] A series of advertisements created by Canadian pop artist Alex Kazemi to promote the album on Instagram were leaked online in late September, but were deemed too graphic to be used on the image hosting service.[65] Music videos were subsequently released for "Say10" and "Kill4Me", which were both directed by Yukich and featured actor Johnny Depp.[66][67]

The North American leg of the Heaven Upside Down Tour began on September 27, and was scheduled to incorporate appearances by the band at several music festivals, including the Aftershock Festival on October 22,[68] at which Nine Inch Nails was also scheduled to appear. Manson indicated a possibility of joining that band on stage during the festival, after he and Trent Reznor mended a longstanding feud.[69] However, Manson was injured on several occasions during the tour; he injured his ankle after jumping off the stage at Pittsburgh's Stage AE on September 29.[70] The following night, at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, he was crushed by a large stage prop,[71] and lay unconscious on the stage for up to 15 minutes[72] before being carried out of the venue on a stretcher to a nearby hospital.[73] Manson had broken his fibula in two places, which required a plate and ten screws to be inserted into his bone.[74] The rest of the tour was then canceled,[75] including their appearance at Aftershock,[76] with all dates – excluding festival appearances – rescheduled to take place at the start of 2018.[77]

The band's founding guitarist, Daisy Berkowitz, died on October 22, 2017 at the age of 49; he had been diagnosed with stage IV colorectal cancer in 2013.[79] Three days later, Manson announced he had "decided to part ways" with Twiggy, after the bassist had been accused of sexual assault by a former girlfriend, Jack Off Jill vocalist Jessicka Addams, while the pair were a couple in the mid-90s.[80][81] He was replaced on subsequent tour dates by former Racer X and The Mars Volta bassist Juan Alderete.[82] Alderete's first show with the band, at the 2017 Ozzfest Meets Knotfest festival in San Bernardino on November 5, found Manson performing in a wheelchair as a result of injuries he sustained earlier in the tour.[83] Manson attracted criticism from some publications after he used a replica assault rifle as a microphone during the concert, with some commentators arguing it was insensitive considering the city had previously been the subject of a terrorism-related attack,[84] and that the concert took place hours after a mass shooting in Texas, in which 24 people were killed.[85]

A cover of "God's Gonna Cut You Down" – recorded during the Heaven Upside Down sessions[35] – was featured on the soundtrack to 24 Hours to Live, which was released through Varèse Sarabande on December 8.[86] "Tattooed in Reverse" was released as a promotional single when it was serviced to active rock radio formats in the United States on March 6, 2018,[87] and peaked at number 35 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Chart. This made Heaven Upside Down the band's first studio album since 1998's Mechanical Animals to contain more than one charting song on Mainstream Rock.[64] The song's music video was directed by Yukich,[88] and featured singers Courtney Love and Lisa Marie Presley.[89] Yukich also directed the music video for the band's cover version of Gerard McMahon's "Cry Little Sister", which was released in June and recorded for the soundtrack of The New Mutants.[90]

The band embarked on a second co-headlining tour with Rob Zombie on July 11, titled "Twins of Evil: The Second Coming Tour", following the "Twins of Evil Tour" in 2012.[91] On the day the tour began, Zombie and Manson released their cover of the Beatles' "Helter Skelter", which featured former Manson band members John 5 and Ginger Fish.[92] Heaven Upside Down was the last album to feature Sharone, who departed the band in March 2019.[93] He was replaced on the subsequent "Twins of Evil: Hell Never Dies Tour" by former Black Flag and Ho99o9 drummer Brandon Pertzborn.[94] Shortly after the tour completed, Alderete was involved in a bicycle accident which left him with a diffuse axonal injury, a type of traumatic brain injury.[95]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	71/100[96]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[97]
Alternative Press	[29]
The Boston Globe	[28]
Clash	8/10[98]
Classic Rock	[99]
Consequence of Sound	B[100]
Drowned in Sound	6/10[101]
NME	[102]
Pitchfork	5.9/10[49]
Rolling Stone	[103]

The album was well received by music critics upon release. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, it received an average score of 71, based on 15 reviews, indicating "generally positive reviews".[96] It also holds an aggregate score of 65 out of 100 at Album of the Year, based on 17 reviews,[104] and 6.2 out of 10 at AnyDecentMusic?.[105]

Several publications said the album continued a creative resurgence which began with their previous release. AllMusic said: "If Pale Emperor was a welcome return to form that signaled a new day for the band, its successor is just as satisfying, if not better."[97] This sentiment was echoed by writers from both Loudwire and The Boston Globe, with the latter writing: "No one expected this band to be doing some of its best work 20 years after it first shook up the zeitgeist, but here it is, continuing to evolve while toning down its more dated or cartoonish aspects. It just goes to show that a good album beats a good scandal every time."[28][106] Loudwire later included it on their list of the best hard rock albums of the year.[107] Bloody Disgusting referred to it as the band's best album since Holy Wood,[21] while Consequence of Sound commented on Manson's stage injury: "Had the worst happened, Heaven Upside Down is the kind of career-defining record that [he] just might want to leave as his last great opus anyway."[100]

Numerous publications lauded the record for being solid and concise, including Classic Rock's sister publication Metal Hammer, which said the record illustrates how Manson can "still do what he got famous [for] doing: write biting, anti-establishment goth rock full of dark, playful imagery."[32] Singapore's The Straits Times awarded it 3.5 stars out of five, dubbing it the 'album of the week' while describing it as an exhilarating record.[108] Greg Kennelty of Metal Injection praised the album's consistency, calling it "an impeccably well-written album that constantly introduces new styles and aspects to its sound throughout, all while revolving around a very disquieting core tonality."[109] Clash commended the band for mixing various styles from throughout their discography, saying that Heaven Upside Down fused three distinct genres from their previous work—Antichrist Superstar's industrial, Mechanical Animals's glam rock, and the blues of The Pale Emperor.[98] ABC News described it as an "interesting record, keeping much of the bluesy stomp of the last [album] but peppering it with his signature sense of volatility." They rated the album 3.5 stars out of 5, and praised Bates for enabling Manson to "return to his roots", which they described as him "playing overtly with taboos and openly baiting his critics."[110]

Critics also praised the quality of its lyrics. Mark Beaumont of Classic Rock called it the band's "most astute album in decades".[99] The London Evening Standard rated the album 3 stars out of 5 while saying: "American life is scary enough right now without Marilyn Manson sticking his oar in. Nevertheless, [Heaven Upside Down] may offer some useful catharsis for those who feel like screaming", although they noted the record "offers zero reasons to be cheerful."[111] In another 3-star review, The List similarly asked: "Is Marilyn Manson the first or the last person we need to hear in these troubled times? ... [What] better to clear the fog out of the air [than] some cathartic, take-no-shit, heads-down rock'n'roll which holds a shattered mirror up to the face of America?"[112] Alternative Press said the album was best enjoyed while listening "on headphones, where [Manson's] unadorned, chilling stalker-esque asides will make your bladder flex. ... At the end of the [record], all that's missing is the sound of the [microphone] dropping."[29]

The album received some mixed reviews as well. NME said it was too similar to the band's earlier work while complaining that most of the songs were not innovative.[102] Both Crack Magazine and PopMatters complimented the inclusion of punk elements, which the latter said helped songs match the intensity of the band's earlier work, but were both critical of the lyrics.[30][31] Spin criticized its violent lyrical content in light of the 2017 Las Vegas shooting.[113] Conversely, Pitchfork argued that the lyrical content was ineffective, and said it was easily eclipsed by the horror found in real life.[49] Drowned in Sound said that fans were "unlikely to see the power or the passion of Manson's classic run again – it's very difficult to bottle lightning twice ... That said, [Manson] seems to have settled after many years of free-fall. In Tyler Bates he has found a collaborator who knows how to get the best from his twisted mind. It's business as usual, but after a decade of disappointment, it's good to know business is doing well."[101] Similarly, The Arts Desk said the album was "not quite in the league of its surprise swamp-rockin' predecessor, but the best of it belts out of the traps with a pop-industrial panache that's unarguable."[114]

Heaven Upside Down debuted at number eight on the Billboard 200 with 35,000 album-equivalent units, 32,000 of which were pure album sales, making it the band's seventh consecutive top ten album on the chart.[115] Industry forecasters had predicted it was on course to debut in the top ten with sales of between 25,000 and 32,000 copies.[116] It also became the band's fourth consecutive number one album on Billboard's Top Hard Rock Albums,[117] and debuted at number two on both Top Rock Albums and Top Album Sales,[118][119] which acts as the current equivalent of the previous Billboard 200, before it was reconfigured to incorporate album-equivalent units. On its second week, the record dropped to number 84 on the Billboard 200.[120] In Canada, the album matched the peak of The Pale Emperor by debuting at number four.[121]

It was also predicted to enter the top ten of the UK Albums Chart,[122] making Heaven Upside Down the band's first top ten album in the country since Eat Me, Drink Me peaked at number eight a decade earlier.[123] It went on to peak at number seven there with first-week sales of 6,636 copies – their highest opening week figure since The High End of Low debuted with 7,746 copies in 2009 – and the band's highest-charting album in the country since The Golden Age of Grotesque peaked at number four in 2003.[124] In France, the record debuted at number 15 with first week sales of 4,745 copies.[125] Heaven Upside Down entered the ARIA Charts at number four, making it the band's sixth top ten album in the country, and their highest-charting since Mechanical Animals reached number one in 1998.[126] It also entered at number six on the Official New Zealand Music Chart, their fifth top ten studio album there.[127] On the Japanese Oricon chart, the album debuted at number 29 with first week sales of 1,805 copies[128]—exactly half the amount The Pale Emperor debuted with two years earlier.[129]

All lyrics are written by Marilyn Manson; all music is composed by Tyler Bates.

• "We Know Where You Fucking Live", "Say10" and "Kill4Me" are stylized in all caps; "Jesus Crisis" is stylized as "JE$U$ CRI$I$".[16]

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Heaven Upside Down.[16]

Notes

References