Antichrist Superstar Puns

Antichrist Superstar sounds absolutely awesome.

I'm not specifically talking about the musicianship, nor the songwriting, nor the lyrics... all very nice, sure, but those aren't the heart of the matter. I speak only of those wonderful "sonics". Not strictly the technical engineering stuff, nor strictly the musical performances, but the sound design. Mood. Movement. Light, shadow, space, texture - ACSS is a feast for the ears and it's not discussed often enough in this regard. I'm going to try to fix that tonight.

Tonight I'm dimming the lights, clamping on my comfiest headphones, lighting up only the blackest of candles, and slipping into the vibrant, dangerous, warm, kind of pointy, and downright apocalyptic soundscape that is Antichrist Superstar. I'll be sharing some thoughts here on the album's release, the technical and aesthetic aspects of the production itself, how it's constructed, and why it was special both in the year of its release and to this day. Why? Because ACSS is 25 years old and I didn't get it a present yet, so this tribute is the best I can do. The sun's setting on 2021.

So let's head on over to Hot Topic and buy a few vials of Crave candy (my favorite was Nightmare on Orange Street), order an Arch Deluxe and Super-Size it, because tonight we're partying like it's 1996 by listening to the one and only Antichrist Superstar. Let's. Fucking. Go.

.....

A Not Brief Yet Still Incredibly Narrow History of Marilyn Manson's Antichrist Superstar:
Reconstructed Entirely From a Fan's Fuzzy Memories From 25 Years Ago. And That Fan Also Did Absolutely No Research Whatsoever - Not Even Verifying Basic Facts on Wikipedia. So Eat Me.

It's the year of our Lord 1996, and mainstream hard rock music is in an uncertain place. It's been two years since Kurt Cobain died and essentially took Seattle grunge with him, but we're still two years away from the summer of 1998, when Limp Bizkit prophetically emerged from a literal giant toilet at Ozzfest '98, thus signaling the start of a bumpy few years for rock music, to say the very least.

In between these two tragedies, the dominant trend in mainstream rock was "Alternative", which is another way of saying that there was no dominant trend. The Smashing Pumpkins, White Zombie, Weezer, Sonic Youth, The Butthole Surfers, NIN, Ween, RHCP and, sure - Marilyn Manson; all of these bands were unceremoniously lumped into one amorphous movement called "alternative rock" despite rarely having muc

I've heard dozens of versions of the story about the Antichrist Superstar master tapes. The story is constantly changing, new information seems to come and go, and then suddenly there'll be news of a remaster of something.... ARGH. Trent Reznor sometimes says things to fuck with people and I don't think Marilyn Manson has said anything coherent in 17 years... so I'm very, very lost.

SO, here in 2021, are any of these items FACTUAL, or is everybody just gossiping like this is some kind of fucking sewing circle?

• The Antichrist Superstar (ACSS) final bounced mix tapes are missing.
• The ACSS multitrack tapes are missing.
• The ACSS digital backups and/or Pro Tools sessions are missing.
• All analog and digital media regarding ACSS is missing.
• Trent Reznor is withholding the ACSS tapes because he's a dick.
• Trent Reznor is withholding the ACSS tapes because he's afraid Manson is going to do something really stupid and cheap with them.
• Trent Reznor is withholding the ACSS tapes because he's afraid Manson is going to drunkenly spill alcohol all over them or light them on fire or some other incredibly irresponsible thing.
• Trent Reznor isn't withholding the ACSS tapes at all; he's the rightful owner.
• Trent Reznor destroyed the ACSS tapes in a fit of rage.
• Trent Reznor destroyed the ACSS tapes by drunkenly spilling alcohol all over them or lighting them on fire or some other incredibly irresponsible thing.
• Trent Reznor lied and said he destroyed them as Step 1 in some sort of "Step 2: ???, Step 3: Profit!" scheme.
• There are no tapes, there never were any tapes, the whole album never left Pro Tools until the mastering stage.
• There are no tapes, there never were any tapes, we've been living in a simulation since the US government used the 1969 moon landing broadcast (the most watched event in human history) to beam a subliminal message that not only established this false reality in people's minds but also conditioned civilians to murder anyone who missed the broadcast or showed signs of rejecting the simulation.
• Marilyn Manson has the tapes.
• Marilyn Manson must have the tapes because he fucking announced that he's releasing an Antichrist Superstar Box Set some time in.. uhh... 2016
• Marilyn Manson must have the tapes because there's those reprehensible, vomit-inducing mixes on Lest We Forget, which we should all ironically forget
• *No tapes are missing but neither Trent Reznor nor Marilyn Manson have th

Read Part 1 here: https://www.reddit.com/r/marilyn_manson/comments/rbgkju/marilyn_manson_audiophile_theater_why_antichrist/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3.

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PART 2: A WORLD OF PURE IMAGINATION

At the conclusion of Part 1, I strongly suggested that the secret ingredient in both Marilyn Manson's and Antichrist Superstar's runaway success in the year 1996 was "size" - the sense of grandeur. That sense of "size" extends to the very sound of the album and, more specifically, to its sense of "space". A fairly crucial step in mixing most pop/rock songs is deciding on the virtual space in which the listener experiences the song**. The human ear has evolved to be incredibly good at discerning where things are placed based on sound - think about how you can immediately tell what direction a noise comes from in a dark room - and it's a very common practice for mix engineers to attempt to "build" a "fake" space using those same auditory principles**.

If this is sounding like nonsense, let's just put some headphones* on and try something. Before I shotgun both the album and a generous pour of bourbon, we're going skip ahead briefly and listen to "Tourniquet".

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CLASS EXERCISE: A Crash Course in Stereo Soundscapes: "TOURNIQUET"

We're going to do a listening experiment with one of my favorite soundscapes on this album, "Tourniquet", and I want you to listen along - but I want you to listen for something specific, and it's hard to explain exactly what that is. I very much want to stress that I do not ever listen to music in the manner that I'm about to describe - that would be exhausting and would kill my enjoyment. I'm usually just relaxed and blissful - but my subconscious mind does all the work of trying to make sense of the audio information entering my earholes. This exercise is just for illustrative purposes! You don't need to know what a bass guitar looks like to visualize the space here. Also, everyone's ears are different, so don't panic if you don't hear any of the stuff I'm talking about. It's about the big picture, not the tiny details.

Pop over to Spotify or grab your Antichrist Superstar compact disc or cassette or whatever, and of course have your headphones at a safe and comfortable volume. For extra fun, pretend you know nothing about

For any fellow Australians wanting to get their hands on a copy of the Antichrist Superstar vinyl reissue Discrepancy Records has it for preorder here.

The price is a bit steep but I'm sure it will be worth it to have a legit vinyl reissue in your collection.

Has anyone else noticed the literal smell of the CD booklet?

I’m not sure if it’s the ink, I’m just oddly sensitive, or if it’s a unique scent that was put in somehow? I haven’t really noticed it with other CD’s, I think maybe HolyWood had a scent too but it was different.

I’ve never heard anyone really talk about it, but to this day my original CD has this unique scent to it and it has always made the album that much more mysterious.

The best way I can describe it is maybe a sort of incense? It definitely fits the vibe and artistic stylings of the booklet.

I thought that was a very powerful moment that got overshadowed in the controversy.

Where marilyn manson had much stronger lyrics and ..... Really gave the audience an antichrist theme and it was a masterpiece of a perfomance

https://youtu.be/NPQD7KxutcM

If i remember correctly he wrote:

"20 years

great album"

Should we care? Probably not

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Share your opinions about it!

I know the majority of his music is meant to have a concept, but I feel like the last album he wrote like this was The High End Of Low, wich I love.

Looking for suggestions

I’m trying to find the absolute heaviest live recording of AS, specifically heavy in the guitars, help.

I haven’t listened to the album yet but my current task is to listen to all of Marilyn’s albums and the next one is Antichrist Superstar. I’ll edit the post after I listened to the album and the rest of his albums.