Portrait of a Shitty Band?

Over the last couple of months there's been a lot of articles that have crossed my eyes on social media regarding nu-metal. I thought this one posted on Invisible Oranges was really interesting as the author attempted to articulate the environment and social landscape of the 1990's that led to the emergence of nu metal as a genre.

He's in there, somewhere.

 Also in the news sphere online was reporting that former Marilyn Manson guitarist Scott Putesky aka "Daisy Berkowitz" died from a 4 year battle with colon cancer. Though Marilyn Manson wasn't really mentioned in the Invisible Oranges article, they certainly had a significant appeal to the nu-metal demographic. So when M and I were talking about exactly what Marilyn Manson was and how it fit into the musical landscape of the 1990's and perhaps even today, I felt compelled to try to articulate my relationship with Manson's music.

The first time I heard Marilyn Manson was on Beavis and Butthead so internet usage wasn't widespread, it was mostly limited to message boards and IRC and if you didn't know people who were into the extreme underground metal of the time, what you were exposed to was pretty limited, especially as a teenager living in bumfuck redneck Central Virginia. Which is to say that while bands like Cannibal Corpse or more likely Pantera were much heavier and much more likely to feature on a mixtape cassette that I'd be listening to at the time, Marilyn Manson was intriguing for a pair of reasons.

The first and most obvious was that their first album followed in the wake of Nine Inch Nails' "The Downward Spiral", which for most younger rock fans at the time was the first real exposure to industrial influenced music with heavy doses of samples, drum treatments, and just awkward unconventional music that was a challenge to listen to. (This is still a great record, btw.) Hearing Manson's first album "Portrait of an American Family", its not really surprising that NIN mastermind Trent Reznor was quite involved in the band's music from a purely aural aspect.

The other reason was that in terms of aesthetic and lyrical content there was no other commercially viable artist who was so transgressive or anti-establishment. In retrospect, its very easy to see how the band had an image cobbled together from Alice Cooper, Ziggy Stardust, and Gwar. At the same time, thinking back to the Invisible Oranges article, it's not hard to see how the content of the band in those early years was very much a product of their environment, which just happened to be Florida. Land of retirees living in cookie cutter suburbs, Disney World, and untold numbers of creepy evangelicals.

You know, you are a product of your environment.

 So upon first exposure, a rock band that engages in simulated sex acts on stage, burns bibles, and literally threatens every aspect of the accepted social norms in the United States during the 1990's would clearly have an appeal to disaffected teenagers. Especially disaffected teenagers who had in their recent memory saw Kurt Cobain kill himself. I'm not gonna front otherwise, the first 2 Marilyn Manson records caught my attention too. Especially when they ripped off the chord progression to Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" for their breakout single, a cover of the Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams."

(Interesting observation; At The Gates basically ripped off the same chord progression as performed by Marilyn Manson for the main guitar harmony for "Blinded by Fear" and nobody hardly says a word.)

So why did it lose appeal to me and why do I think he generally fell off?

For starters, Marilyn Manson musically suffered greatly after those first 2 albums when they disassociated with Trent Reznor. The band tried to go for a more creepy, kitschy industrial aesthetic. It simply sucked if your musical inclination was metal rather than "alternative." From a shock rock perspective, given how extreme Manson's imagery and theatrics were, it didn't really leave many boundaries left to cross. Well, unless you were GG Allin and willing to mutilate yourself and defecate on stage. At that point I'm not sure it's shocking or just kinda gross for most fans. Manson's act, so dependent on shock value, basically played all of their cards at the beginning. Once it wasn't shocking anymore, what's left?

Way more extreme than basically anyone who ever live could hope to be.

At the same time, in 2 short years my own musical experiences had expanded greatly as I discovered internet forums, met upperclassmen, and discovered black metal. Like Manson, 2nd wave black metal was highly theatrical and demonstrative. It challenged social norms. More importantly, for many of the musicians involved, black metal was no act. Churches were burned. People were murdered. No fucks were given. Musically, though the bands had similar aural elements, there were many of them releasing new and exciting albums on a regular basis. Going to the local Plan 9 Records and buying Rotting Christ's "Thy Might Contract" one month, then Emperor's "Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk" the next, before discovering Satyricon's "Nemesis Divina" a week later...reading about the mythology behind Mayhem and Dissection. It felt more serious, more "real." Some dude in a thong groaning to a programmed beat just wasn't nearly as interesting.

That wss actually how Norwegian black metal bands did their photo shoots. Their vocalists blow their brains out. Sorry for the mess.

So where does Marilyn Manson fit into metal history and into the scene today? I think that despite the band's commercial success, they are a relatively minor footnote most remembered for the fact that the two dorks that shot up Columbine High School in 1999 were perceived to be fans of the band. Perhaps also remembered for breaking down the last taboos in theatrical musical performance. I don't think anything from "Mechanical Animals" onward is really remembered; perhaps for Manson's androgynous appearance but not for the music. The band continues to release music that's mostly forgotten after it comes out, and tours large clubs to perform to 30 somethings that want to reconnect with a part of their teenage years by hearing songs from the first 2 albums.

Marilyn Manson has basically become like Tom Petty (except for the being dead part); soulless bland dad rock for adults who grew up as poorly adjusted teenagers in the 1990's.

While typing this up, I went on YouTube and revisited some of Marilyn Manson's music to see if any of it at all still had a hook or caught my ear. Truth is, very little of it does. But the song "Lunchbox" is kinda revealing in retrospect. It's refrain "I want to be a rock n' roll star so nobody fucks with me" pretty much says what it was all about. It was never about creating music. It was always about rock stardom for Marilyn Manson, so while the band certainly consumed a lot of drugs and engaged in debacherous sexual behavior and made a pile of money off of their antics, when you pick at the corpse of the music they left behind, there's not a lot of meat there. There never was.

A Pre-mature Post-Mortem for Century Media?

There was a time when Century Media Records was the beating heart of the metal underground. Between bands that were on their early roster (such as Grave and Asphyx) and bands they distributed in North America (think of those Candlelight bands like Emperor and Opeth which got released under the Century Black imprint) the label was basically in the center of what was going on in the 1990's; especially during the 'dark' days when metal was supposedly "dead" yet CM was releasing landmark albums by Strapping Young Lad and Nevermore. Yes, they released crap like Stuck Mojo and Mucky Pup as well, but this was offset by offerings by bands like Morgoth and Arch Enemy, among others. It was a label with a diverse and compelling roster of bands.

So what happened and how did we get to a point where not only has the label been bought by Sony Music, but its back catalog is effectively been peddled to a third party two years later (most likely for pennies on the dollar)?

In my opinion, Metalcore was the downfall of the label. Specifically the signing of Shadow's Fall. Century Media had always dabbled in the old school Metalcore of the 1990's such as Turmoil and 454 Big Block but I think it was the unexpected success of Shadow's Fall and then the even greater success of Lacuna Coil (on the ironic coattails of Evanescence) that followed which shifted the label's priorities. They became a victim of their own success. The elevation of these bands, as well as the respective successes of artists like Arch Enemy (following the addition of Angela Gossow; the music may not have been as good but commercially it was a huge success), SYL, and God Forbid meant that CM had reached the level of the now defunct Roadrunner Records and were no longer the obscure label that released "Something Wicked This Way Comes" by Iced Earth or "Wildhoney" by Tiamat. With the Metalcore wave, the label went all in. Their bands were getting booked on Ozzfest and headlining the New England Metal and Hardcore Fest. They didn't really sign other new or up and coming bands unless they were part of the Metalcore wave. Sure, "legacy" acts like Immolation and Napalm Death were releasing fantastic albums on the Century Media imprint, but they weren't treated like the focus of the label.

That all died around 2010 or so, when the Metalcore wave ended. Instead of returning to what had worked for the label before, they seemed only interested in either signing established bands (such as the signing of Insomnium) or desperately trying to discover the "next" new thing. Unfortunately for the label's commercial aspirations, neither Deathcore, Djent, nor "Occult Rock" managed to find the same lucrative success in the current decade that Metalcore did in the 2000's. Of course, this happened in the backdrop of the music industry at large being savaged by downloading and the inability to date of artists and labels to monetize streaming or YouTube clicks. Perhaps seeing the future, founder Robert Kampf sold his creation to major label Sony in 2015, presumably for the rights to the back catalog and roster of established bands that wouldn't require an enormous investment to get a return on (how hard is it to promote a Body Count or At The Gates album really?)

Let's be real, Ice T basically promotes himself.

As a fan and observer of the genre, I find it fascinating and perhaps informative. I wouldn't have guessed that Relapse or Metal Blade would outlast Century Media; yet here we are. While Metal Blade is definitely most famous for it's legacy acts like Cannibal Corpse and Amon Amarth, there's no shortage of young, up and coming artists getting their albums released (albeit with little promotion) thru the label. Somehow, I think that label will continue as long as Brian Slagel has the heart and energy to keep it going. (If it goes the way Peaceville did after Hammy gave it up is another matter...)

Meanwhile, the labels that seem to have the energy and spirit of what Century Media was, such as Profound Lore, Dark Descent, and Hell's Headbangers, seem to be thriving if on a smaller scale. The death metal underground remains as it always has been, with labels like Comatose, Sevared, Unique Leader, and Willowtip still serving their subgenres faithfully. Hell, there's now even the emergence of smaller international labels like Everlasting Spew in Italy, Transcending Obscurity from India, and Disembowl Records from Indonesia which are releasing top notch, top quality artists that, in the age of Facebook and social media are receiving acclaim.and deserving notice.

Perhaps the label that needs to pay attention next is Nuclear Blast. The label shares a similar origin with Century Media (late 80's, Germany) and even at one point had a partnership together. They have become essentially the new Roadrunner in recent years (not mere coincidence, as the former label boss Monte Conner now works for them) as they seek to focus primarily on legacy acts such as Slayer, Testament, and Machine Head or whatever the latest metal "trend" is.

Same number of original members as KISS.

The thing with trends it that they're hard to predict and rarely have much staying power (see: deathcore, djent) and some of the legacy acts that tours and labels depend on to draw are getting long in the tooth. Suffocation's vocalist doesn't tour with the band anymore because of real life. And none of this considers that the majority of the people that are or were fans of these legacy artists are themselves getting up in age. I'm 37; I've got student loans, car payments, and a plethora of real life responsibilities and life ambitions that dip into the amount of money and attention that even I, as a devoted fan, can spend keeping up with the artists in this scene (for example, I update this blog exactly what? 2 or 3 times a year?) The kids themselves? They're the ones keeping the niche labels alive or they're not even into metal at all; instead they listen to Imagine Dragons or Taylor Swift or that "Cash Me Outside How Bout Dah" girl.

I guess to try to wrap a bow around this and to give my "hot take", I think that niche labels run by passionate fans who are lucky to break even and feel compelled to promote heavy music as a labor of love are going to be okay. Between Facebook, YouTube, and Bandcamp it's cheaper than ever to promote good bands (as well as a whole lot of bad ones...) On the other hand, I see the disintegration of Century Media as a sign of what will be to come for the larger metal labels that overextend themselves. I don't see Metal Blade surviving Brian Slagel's retirement. Relapse has always kinda been a gateway between the bigger labels and the niche and I think they'll do okay. But Earache will eventually run out of ways to monetize their back catalog (how many times can you reissue Entombed's "Left Hand Path" anyhow?) and I think Nuclear Blast may eventually go the way of Century Media.