How Marilyn Manson’s ‘As Sick As the Secrets Within’ Compares to His Other Songs
Classic rock stars have to thread the needle between evolving and pleasing fans of their older music. Marilyn Manson’s comeback song “As Sick As the Secrets Within” has a lot of similarities to the singer’s older songs. There’s one major difference. Interestingly, Manson paired the song with one of his signature surreal music videos. One aspect of the video could turn heads.
Marilyn Manson’s ‘As Sick As the Secrets Within’ is no ‘The Beautiful People’
Some critics feel that Manson should be understood more as an agent provocateur than a musician. Sure, his blasphemous, gender-bending antics garnered more attention than his songs in the 1990s, but he still managed to write some classic tracks like “The Beautiful People,” “The Dope Show,” and “Coma White.” If Manson was going to make a comeback now, he needed to write something on that level.
Unfortunately, he didn’t. “As Sick As the Secrets Within” sounds like an album track from one of the forgotten records he released during his 2000s artistic low point. The only surprising thing about it is the weird effects on his voice, which may or may not be lazy Auto-Tune. Some high points in “As Sick As the Secrets Within,” like the suspenseful guitar riff or the Depeche Mode-style synthesizer, are dulled by a track that goes on for far too long and doesn’t have much of a hook.
Marilyn Manson once explained whether his songs are honest or not
Of course, some people will wonder how much the song and its evocative title relate to Manson’s public controversies. In his 1998 book The Long Hard Road Out of Hell, Manson revealed his complex relationship to honesty in his music. “I wanted to create a giant piece of performance art that said that, despite everything that’s happened with the media and people trying to ban our shows, ‘I did this, and I got away with it,'” the “Lunchbox” singer wrote. “We’re all hypocrites, but by admitting it, you transcend it and it no longer becomes a personality defect as it is in the people who blindly cling to their own self-righteousness. By knowing all this, you grow from it. I’ve grown from it.
“I will never admit this to anyone, but I’ll write it here: The reason I haven’t copped out in an interview and said, ‘Yeah it’s just a character, this is just a concept album,’ is because to me it is so much more,” the rocker added. “But in a sense it is. That’s why when people ask, ‘Well is it an act or isn’t it?’ it’s both. I mean my whole life is an act, but that’s my art.”
Why the music video for ‘As Sick As the Secrets Within’ is suspicious
Manson gave “As Sick As the Secrets Within” a big, ugly, Un Chien Andalou-style music video. What did you expect him to do? There are octopuses, a crucifix, and Manson scribbling some creepy paintings. It’s fine that Manson retreated to his signature style, but none of the images here are memorable.
The only shocking aspect of the clip is that some of the images have the glossy sheen of AI-generated art. If Manson used AI-generated art in his music videos, his career derailed more than anyone could have expected.
Maybe Manson can turn things around with his next single. I wouldn’t bet on it.
