Marilyn Manson’s ‘Mechanical Animals’ turns 28 on 15 September
Marilyn Manson’s “Mechanical Animals” turns 28 on 15 September. The 1998 Nothing/Interscope album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200.
Marilyn Manson’s third studio album, “Mechanical Animals,” turns 28 this year. The band released the record on 15 September 1998 through Nothing and Interscope Records. Where the industrial rock of 1996’s “Antichrist Superstar” dominated the group’s prior work, “Mechanical Animals” moved toward 1970s glam rock, a shift the band has credited in part to Billy Corgan, who heard early versions of the songs and urged the band to “go all the way with it.”
The album was recorded at Conway Recording Studios and Westlake Recording Studios in Hollywood and at The White Room in Boston, and co-produced by Marilyn Manson with Sean Beavan and Michael Beinhorn. Tom Lord-Alge handled mixing and Ted Jensen mastering. The 14-track CD runs “Great Big White World,” “The Dope Show,” “Mechanical Animals,” “Rock Is Dead,” “Disassociative,” “The Speed of Pain,” “Posthuman,” “I Want to Disappear,” “I Don’t Like the Drugs (But the Drugs Like Me),” “New Model No. 15,” “User Friendly,” “Fundamentally Loathsome,” “The Last Day on Earth” and “Coma White,” with a hidden multimedia track on the CD pressing. The vinyl edition splits the same songs across two separately sleeved records, one credited to Marilyn Manson and the other to the fictional band Omega and the Mechanical Animals.
“Mechanical Animals” debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 223,000 copies, the band’s first album to reach the top of that chart. It also topped the Canadian Albums Chart and has been certified platinum in the United States, Canada and New Zealand. Four singles followed the release: “The Dope Show” on 15 September 1998, “I Don’t Like the Drugs (But the Drugs Like Me)” on 17 February 1999, “Rock Is Dead” on 14 June 1999 and the promotional single “Coma White” on 20 September 1999. “I Don’t Like the Drugs (But the Drugs Like Me)” features guitar by Dave Navarro. The album forms the second installment of a trilogy that opened with “Antichrist Superstar” (1996) and closed with “Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death)” (2000).
About Marilyn Manson
Marilyn Manson formed in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1989, when singer Brian Warner – who took the stage name Marilyn Manson – paired with guitarist Scott Putesky, known as Daisy Berkowitz. Performing initially as Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids, the group built a following in South Florida through theatrical live shows, with a lineup that came to include bassist Brad Stewart (Gidget Gein), keyboardist Stephen Bier (Madonna Wayne Gacy) and drummer Fred Streithorst (Sara Lee Lucas). In 1993, Nine Inch Nails founder Trent Reznor signed the band as the first act on his Nothing Records label and offered them an opening slot on the Self Destruct Tour.
The band’s debut album, “Portrait of an American Family,” was released on 19 July 1994, followed by the “Smells Like Children” EP in 1995, which included a cover of the Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This).” Jeordie White, performing as Twiggy Ramirez, had by then replaced Gein on bass. The second studio album, “Antichrist Superstar,” followed on 8 October 1996, co-produced by Reznor, Marilyn Manson, Sean Beavan and Dave Ogilvie, and debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 behind lead single “The Beautiful People.” Guitarist Zim Zum joined during that album’s recording, replacing founding member Daisy Berkowitz.
“Mechanical Animals” followed on 15 September 1998, with the band relocating from New Orleans to Los Angeles and guitarist John 5 replacing Zim Zum during the sessions. Twenty-eight years after its release, the album remains the middle chapter of the band’s self-described triptych, bridging “Antichrist Superstar” and “Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death).”
Support Side-Line
More people read Side-Line than ever, and there is still no paywall and no advertising. Readers pay for it instead - from $5 a month.
Why we ask
Advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news organisations we have not put up a paywall, and we refuse to add annoying advertising, so we need to ask for your help. Side-Line’s independent journalism takes time, money and hard work to produce, and we do it to push the artists we like, who are equally fighting to survive.
Handled by PayPal.
Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!
