The Golden Age of Grotesque

Marilyn Manson

Teenagers around the world will be greeting Marilyn Manson's new album, The Golden Age of Grotesque, with unintelligible grunts of delight.

And there's a lot for them to feel happy about - not that they would admit it - because there's some decent stuff on this album for those with a weakness for heavy guitars riffs and a healthy bit of anger.

Whatever you think about the man with the pasty face he certainly knows how to wind people up and he's a damn good showman to boot.

He can also string a sentence together, as proved in Michael Moore's film Bowling for Columbine, when he intelligently criticised the gun problems in America.

But when the make-up comes off and you listen to the bare bones of the music you find out that Mr Manson is really quite conventional - I bet his real name's Graham Smith.

This album is nothing to write home about. It's very glam as far rock goes and although it's interesting in parts, it's just not THAT great or controversial.

Paul Keaveny