I'm sure a lot of you have dismissed him as being either an Alice Cooper and/or David Bowie rip off (I won't deny that he has tried to be both of these people before) or an annoying idol for the mallcore types to bow down to, but to me he is an artist. He's quite intelligent actually; did you know he is a member of Mensa? Yes yes, he also was a Reverend in the Church of Satan and considered Anton LaVey to be his mentor, but I wouldn't consider him to be a LaVeyan Satanist since he also said he frequented the library and the local Blockbuster more than the Church of Satan and appears to have an eclectic belief system from what I can tell.

My favorite albums from him are probably the first two: "Portrait of an American Family" and "Antichrist Superstar". His debut album is quite different than what came later since Daisy Berkowitz, the original guitarist and co-founder of the band (they were originally called Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids) contributed a lot to the songwriting and thus there are some solos here and there and the album has a more "fun" feel to it compared to the later releases which are obviously more dark and serious.

I can think of a lot of reasons why I also like "Antichrist Superstar". The concept of the worm to angel metamorphosis is pretty interesting and it's a pretty heavy album with songs such as "Angel with the Scabbed Wings", "1996", and "Irresponsible Hate Anthem" but finishes out with the melancholic number "Man That You Fear". I also just liked the band era in general since Zim Zum was in the band, who is also a talented guitarist; I still miss Daisy but he was a worthy successor (don't get me wrong, I like John 5 too).

So I hope there are some of you out there who are fans. To me, there's a lot more behind the band and the man than just the shock value and makeup.