MARILYN MANSON PERFORMS WITH RAMMSTEIN, TURNS INTO VINCE NEIL

Here’s Marilyn Manson performing “The Beautiful People” in 2002…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGD468f1_Kc

…and here he is doing the same song with Rammstein  at the ECHO Music Awards in Germany earlier this week:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3p0u4tHk91s&feature=player_embedded

Holy shit, I know ten years is a long time and shit happens, but what is going on with poor Marilyn? He was never known for being a great vocalist, but at least he had chutzpah; now he just sounds tired and winded and, frankly, indifferent. During the first verse, he foregoes the whole seething-whisper thing he usually does in favor of just talking while sounding parched; during the second verse, he starts slurring his words together, the way Vince Neil does, and at one point, he seems to forget that he’s supposed to yell “HEY!”, and then does so almost as an afterthought. Which might be excusable, if he hadn’t been performing this song for sixteen years.

Despite all the shit I give him, I don’t hate Marilyn Manson; he’s made some really catchy albums, and back in the day at least, he put on a fun show. But this slow decline into just being a total shitbag (as opposed to half a shitbag) is getting pretty sad.

In other news, Manson’s new album, Born Villain, has a cover now (below). Forget that it looks like it took even less effort that his last album cover — it looks like it took even less effort than those Big Four yarmulkes we made earlier this week.

-AR