Marilyn Manson - The High End of Low

Rating: * * *

The king of shock rock is back. Or should that be the king of schlock. Yes, it's easy to fire a shot like that at the bloke born Brian Hugh Warner now that he's on to his seventh album and seemingly wanting to shock the world all over again with song titles like Pretty As A Swastika and the simply ridiculous Arma-godd**n-motherf*****-geddon.

It's all a little tryhard really. The thing is, there is nothing shocking about Manson's music - there hasn't been for years. His pained vocals, once a monstrous proposition on albums like Antichrist Superstar from 1996, now sound feeble and self-pitying.

However, you have to give it Manson, his albums always sound immaculate and polished (a hard thing to pull off when you're dealing with galactic distortion on Swastika), and he writes a catchy tune.

On the gothic stomp of Leave A Scar and epic six-minute acoustic power ballad Running To the Edge of World he sounds more middle of the road than ever before and oddly enough it suits him.

On Four Rusted Horses he wails "Everyone will come to my funeral to make sure that I stay dead", and you feel sorry for him, but the only one you feel for after I Want To Kill You Like They Do In the Movies is poor old ex-wife Dita Von Teese. Watch your back love.

Scott Kara