Here’s something a little different. I’ll say that I’m not the biggest Marilyn Manson fan out there, but I do like some of his stuff. For the most part, compilation albums have been enough for me, with records like Lest We Forget containing pretty much everything I have an interest in listening to. Recently though, I have considered changing my tune on that a bit and might check out more of his back catalogue at some point in the future. As someone who prefers vinyl, this is no easy task. For some reason, whoever owns the Manson material just refuses to reissue any of it on LP. As a direct result, all of the original pressings have become collectors’ items worth hundreds of dollars, and tons of unofficial versions have popped up to fill the void. Some of these unofficial versions have also become collectors’ items and command decently high prices as well, if you can imagine that.
I did consider that this newest compilation release, I Want To Kill You Like They Do In The Movies, might not fit in so well with the rest of the content I usually publish on this blog. After all, most of my favorite stuff is classic rock and metal. But I also like to write about what I’m listening to at the moment, and right now, this just happens to be one of those things. You might not be ready to hear this, but Marilyn Manson is pretty much classic rock at this point. He started his band in 1989, which makes it 36 years old. His first hit record, Portrait of An American Family, was released in 1994, making it 31 years old. Sure, he’s goth and industrial rock, but I think that most people would agree that he’s got some hard rock and heavy metal mixed in there too.
Like many of Manson’s big hits have been, the songs I am primarily interested in here are covers. Stuff like “Working Class Hero” (John Lennon), “Suicide is Painless” (The M.A.S.H. theme), “Down In The Park” (Foo Fighters), “Gods Gonna Cut You Down” (Johnny Cash) and “Helter Skelter” (The Beatles), are just a few of the standouts on this record. Even Manson’s version of AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell” is pretty good. It’s very different, but I’ve decided that like it. There are also some other great songs on here that I never would have considered listening to before, but they happened to be in the way of the stuff I was interested in.
The jacket notes that this release consists of “The Essential B-Sides, Singles & Soundtrack Collection”, so a lot of these songs were recorded for movies. I have never seen, and never want to see, a single one of these movies. Take that as proof that you still might enjoy the music, even if you also happen to be someone who would rather juggle chainsaws than watch Queen of the Damned. I think it’s also worth noting that since the OST tracks were meant to be heard by the general public, a lot of them are not nearly as explicit as most of Manson’s original material. Still, you probably wouldn’t want to play this record at a seven-year old’s birthday party or anything. Unless he was really, really cool, of course. As you can see from the track list, there’s a lot of stuff here:
A1 Down In The Park – Lunchbox Single 1995
A2 Apple Of Sodom – The Lost Highway OST 1997
A3 The Suck For Your Solution – Howard Stern: Private Parts OST 1997
A4 Golden Years – Dead Man On Campus OST 1998
A5 Get My Rocks Off – Last Tour On Earth UK Edition 1999
A6 A Rose And A Baby Ruth – Last Tour On Earth UK Edition 1999
A7 Highway To Hell – Detroit Rock City OST 1999
B1 Five To One – Disposable Teens Single 2000
B2 Working Class Hero – Disposable Teens Single 2000
B3 Diamonds And Pollen – Disposable Teens Single 2000
B4 Suicide Is Painless – Book Of Shadows OST 2000
B5 Redeemer – Queen Of The Damned OST 2002
B6 KKK Took My Baby Away – We’re A Happy Family – Ramones Tribute 2003
C1 La La Song – Party Monster OST 2003
C2 Mind Of A Lunatic – This Is The New Shit Single 2003
C3 Baboon Rape Party – This Is The New Shit Single 2003
C4 This Is Halloween – Nightmare Revisited 2006
C5 Stigmata – Atomic Blonde OST 2017
D1 Cry Little Sister – 2018
D2 Helter Skelter – Feat Rob Zombie 2018
D3 Gods Gonna Cut You Down – 2019
D4 The End 2019
D5 Front Toward Enemy 2024
Production wise, when I first saw this record in the shop, I wondered if it could possibly be official. I’m not sure if Deadwood Designs is the label, or if they merely designed the graphics, but someone did a superb job here. Both the gatefold sleeve and records are beautiful, and there is no hint of blurriness or anything weird in the design. The track list is printed twice… once on the outside and again inside the gatefold, but I’m guessing that was an intentional choice. The gloss finish looks great, and the records themselves came out fantastic on clear wax. Overall, the artwork and design are at a level that I have not seen in an unofficial pressing before. Whoever did the design is obviously a Manson fan, and they really cared about how this thing came out.
The discs themselves are heavy weight and high quality. As just a guess, I would say they probably weigh in at right around 180g each, which is standard for a high-quality pressing. The red labels look very nice and tie everything together. Both of mine were flat and free of any defects and came inside of black poly-lined sleeves. They might not have needed it, but I gave both of the LPs a good cleaning just like I usually do, before giving them a spin.
Audio wise, this set sounds amazing. I had no detectable surface noise on my copy. It sounded as clean as a CD, but with that subtle layer of analog a lot of us are looking for. Since I’m not exactly a Marilyn Manson scholar, what I was mostly looking for here was how this compilation was going to flow. Since all the tracks obviously came from a digital source, I wondered if there would be volume and mixing issues that could possibly distract from the music. I was sort of surprised to find out there were none at all. Every track was perfectly balanced and sounded like it belonged on the same record. As an added bonus, there is an extra track not listed on the jacket called “Front Toward The Enemy” at the end of side D. Apparently, this is a very new track, and it certainly fits perfectly at the end of this compilation.
My ratings for I Want To Kill You Like They Do In The Movies should be pretty obvious if you have read this far. Since all of the tracks come from official studio recordings, the audio source is a perfect 10/10. It would have been easy to get lazy and forget or ignore the need to normalize and balance the volume level on the tracks, but all this was expertly done. As I hope you can see from my photos, the packaging and design also come in at a solid 10/10. Other labels should consider this release to be a high-water mark showing what you can do with something if care about the quality of what you are putting out there.
While I know this review isn’t quite as in depth as some of my others, I felt like a lot of people might enjoy this record but might not be aware that it exists. As these things usually go, I’m betting that much sooner than later, it will disappear from shelves and websites. Small labels don’t usually press a ton of this sort of thing. If it will come back after that is anybody’s guess, so if you want one, it’s probably better to find a copy now while you still can. It shouldn’t be too expensive, and I thought what I paid for my copy was a pretty reasonable price. Maybe I’ll talk about more MM in the future, since there is quite a bit of good stuff out there. Only time will tell, I suppose. Until then, good luck in the hunt if this is one you decide to pursue.