This week will see Marilyn Manson release his first new album in three years. This time around, the God of Fuck is trying out some new flavors and sounds, with country progeny and producers extraordinaire Shooter Jennings taking the reins behind the scenes. In late July, we got our first taste of the album in the form of title track “WE ARE CHAOS.” Now, Manson has dropped another new single named “Don’t Chase the Dead,” which can be streamed below.
As you’ll hear, “Don’t Chase The Dead” is similar to “CHAOS” in that it has a slower pace and an eerie, jangly sort of vibe to it. However, while the first song had more of a country outlaw feel to it, this one definitely errs on the side of goth or dark new wave. That doesn’t mean it drips with the water damage and perversion of his early stuff, though; this track definitely embraces the old-school understanding of goth carved out of obsidian by bands like The Cure and Siouxsie Sioux and the Banshees.
Listen to “Don’t Chase The Dead” below:
Describing the album, Manson has said, “When I listen to WE ARE CHAOS now, it seems like just yesterday or as if the world repeated itself, as it always does, making the title track and the stories seem as if we wrote them today. This was recorded to its completion without anyone hearing it until it was finished. There is most definitely a side A and side B in the traditional sense. But just like an LP, it is a flat circle and it’s up to the listener to put the last piece of the puzzle into the picture of songs.
“This concept album is the mirror Shooter and I built for the listener — it’s the one we won’t stare into. There are so many rooms, closets, safes and drawers. But in the soul or your museum of memories, the worst are always the mirrors. Shards and slivers of ghosts haunted my hands when I wrote most of these lyrics.
“Making this record, I had to think to myself: ‘Tame your crazy, stitch your suit. And try to pretend that you are not an animal,’ but I knew that mankind is the worst of them all. Making mercy is like making murder. Tears are the human body’s largest export.”
WE ARE CHAOS comes out this Friday, and is available for preorder.
***
Words by Chris Krovatin
