On this album I’m giving my listeners a piece of me, and they are welcome to take a bite.” Says Brian Warner, the man better known as Marilyn Manson. ‘Eat Me Drink Me is his latest original material after 2003’s ‘Golden Age of Grotesque’ and this one is as personal a record as it could be. Manson literally bares open his heart and gone is the anger against god, society and the American way of life; this one is all about Marilyn Manson and his life.

The album kicks in with the first song which starts on a slow but slowly builds up like a raging beast screaming to be heard, felt and experienced. ‘If I was your vampire’ is a song Manson says he wrote about his now ex-wife Dita Von Tesse, when he woke up alone on Christmas morning. After this song the album goes on a whirlwind tour of emotions and takes the listeners on an altogether new level of thought. It’s the same old songs about getting your heart broken and the after effects but Manson gives it all his own touch of dark morbidity.

With songs like ‘Heart Shaped Glasses’ and ‘Just A Car Crash Away’ Manson retains the old charm that his song writing has but also manages to experiment with the songs musically as he incorporates guitar solos and extended choruses. The presence of German bassist/ guitarist Tim Skold shows its influence on the music as very rarely has Manson used guitar solos in any of his songs. The percussion on this album reaches an entirely new level as everything from a broken chair to a rusty bear trap have been used to provide the eerie sound effects in some of the songs.

Faithful Manson fans who have been expecting hardcore hate anthems like ‘Antichrist Superstar’ and “Rock Is Dead’ stand to be somewhat disappointed by this album. Only those who choose to listen with an open mind will know that the anger is there, the hate is there but it’s just hiding behind a flimsy layer of dying love.

This is ‘Eat Me, Drink Me’, this is Marilyn Manson, take it or leave it.