What are the Chances the New Marilyn Manson Album is Any Good?

Marilyn Manson has kinda-sorta announced his new album, and, as it typical of the shock rocker, he’s remaining humble and modest with regards to the effect it will have on listeners:

Making more mayhem on SOA. And…the new album is prepared for landing. Fasten your seat belts.

— Marilyn Manson (@marilynmanson) September 2, 2014

Now, some of you have always hated Marilyn Manson, and none of what I’m about to say is for you. And some of you haven’t always hated Marilyn Manson, but may disagree with my assessment as to when his albums started to suck, which is fine — everyone’s entitled to his or her own opinion (I know because Vince keeps reminding me). For the record, I enjoyed all of Manson’s records to varying degrees up through Eat Me, Drink Me; depending on what day you ask me, I’ll argue that the best Manson album is either Antichrist Superstar or Mechanical Animals; and I thought his last two releases, the names of which I honestly can’t even recall without looking them up (apparently they were called The High End of the Low and Born Villain), were as boring as boring gets. So, in my estimation, it’s been seven years since Marilyn Manson released anything decent.

(And, really, I’m just talking about his music. As far as I can tell, he’s been an unnecessarily self-serious, inadvertently goofy putz for the entirety of his career.)

So basically, what I’m getting at is this: is there any reason for anyone but the most diehard Manson fans (i.e., the ones who think everything he touches turns to magic and carve his initials into their skin and blah blah blah) to feel optimistic about a new Manson album? Because on those last two albums, it almost felt as though Manson and his bandmates/employees/whatever forgot how to write a catchy song, which is basically the one thing a pop-metal star like Manson is required to do. Which is funny, because those albums marked the return of Jeordie “Twiggy Ramirez” White, who, once upon a time, co-wrote all of Manson’s biggest hits.

Rob at Metal Injection makes an interesting point:

“With late 90s nostalgia at an all-time high, I feel if Manson comes out swinging with a groove-laced single that harkens back to his previous work, along with the added publicity of the Sons of Anarchy gig, he could really push some units.”

I don’t really care whether or not Manson sells records, but just on a fan level, I would be delighted if he released something that “harkens back to his previous work” from the 90s. ‘Cause those last couple of albums made Holy Wood seem like a fucking masterpiece, and that album was never really anything besides an Antichrist Superstar retread in the first place.