"[On 'Antichrist Superstar',] I was being grandiose, saying that I would be this icon that would have a lot of power in my hands and be able to decide many people's future. That ended up being true. Life imitated art and the story started writing itself.'Mechanical Animals' represented the middle of the story and 'Holy Wood...' ties all the pieces together at the start. It's a parable."
The Antichrist Superstar era propelled Marilyn Manson to superstardom and marked a much stronger political tone for the music, I posted the MTV 1997 appearance above as you can almost feel the shock of the 'beautiful people' as he insults them. It was a wild time as the more he was demonized by the mainstream the more he played into it.
The album itself is Manson's hardest and greatest with what I can only describe as a slaughtering commentary on everything, and in later interviews from 2007 onwards it is by far most cited as the apex of what he was trying to recreate with each new album. This fact plays an interesting role in his later behavior as I believe he perhaps places a greater emphasis on the environment it was created in (drugs, etc, described in part 2) than his mood and current events at the time. Recreating this environment seems to be critical to his creative process. The results of the original environment however speak for themselves.
The theatrics of the supporting Dead to the World tour were embellished and a supporting DVD of the live tour was released as well; the ending of which contains a clip from the mysterious 'groupie' film that only Brian Warner, Andy Dick, and Tony Ciulla have seen and is discussed in episode 1 of season 5 of 'Dinner for Five'.
(Rare show where you can actually see them in full light)
The actual Dead to the World theatrical performance:
Dead to the world video album:
The era also resulted in a number of great rare tracks, soundtracks and covers. Such as the Long Hard Road out of Hell, Highway To Hell, Apple of Sodom, Suicide is Painless, Like a Virgin, and The Suck for your Solution. It seemed pretty well every 'dark' project wanted Manson to do some soundtrack work. I've decided not to write much about this era and move my continued investigative work into part 4 as the Bianca story picks up again during Mechanical Animals and honestly I feel like this era speaks for itself. Turn up the bass and crank 'The Reflecting God'.
• • •
More details have emerged about the Bianca Allaine accusations as she has provided a detailed account on the 'Enty Lawyer' podcast please give it a listen yourself.
After reviewing the account, and considering the point in time it occurred it's certainly a sad story, perhaps a bit disturbing, but as was pointed out to me by a user on Twitter the laws around the age of consent have changed considerably in the last 15-25 years. I'm not good enough with law myself to find a reliable reading and interpretation from how it worked in Texas in 1995 but I imagine much like here in Alberta the age of consent could have been as low as 14 at the time so do keep this in mind when reviewing these accusations.
The majority of the accusations actually take place later during the Mechanical Animals tour over a 3 month period but it was still before the year 2000 and a lot has changed since then. I completely believe her, and Bianca is not directly tied to Evan Rachel Wood and has been taking a very different approach to discussing it but based on what I've heard her say given most of it is relaying accounts of friends now deceased engaging in consensual activity at a time where their ages probably were of consent its definitely bordering on the edge, perhaps even in a grey area, but I do not think it's as criminal as it's being made out to be. Today it would be, but not then.
Laws change and given when we fast forward to 2007 and his relationship with Evan Marilyn Manson clearly takes into account the updated and revised ages of consent I have no reason to believe he wasn't earlier in time either. I bring this up as a lot of the discussion I'm seeing around based on a few things Evan Rachel Wood has said (which we will address when we get to their relationships era and accusations) and Bianca's accusations. But these two events happened a decade apart at a time when laws were changing. You can't retroactively apply today's laws to 1995 and I find it pretty inconsiderate how casually people are accusing him of being a pedophile today as so far from what I have seen is that when it comes to the age of consent he may be on the edge but stays within what's legal, at the time.
Bianca Allaine says she has turned her evidence over to the FBI so we will see what comes of that but I strongly suspect it will result in no legal action against Brian Warner and it's worth pointing out she doesn't really discuss any abuse in line with the allegations coming from Evan Rachel Wood or Esme Bianco.
Click here to recommend this post on progressivebloggers.ca and help other people find this information.
Richard Fantin is a self-taught software developer who has mostly throughout his career focused on financial applications and high frequency trading. He currently works for CenturyLink
Nazayh Zanidean is a Project Coordinator for a mid-sized construction contractor in Calgary, Alberta. He enjoys writing as a hobby on topics that include foreign policy, international human rights, security and systemic media bias.
