We Are Chaos

In March 2019, Marilyn Manson announced he had nearly finished recording the band's next studio album, and that country musician Shooter Jennings was involved.[2] The two were introduced by the producers of Sons of Anarchy in 2013, who asked them to compose a song for the finale of the sixth season of the television series.[3] This collaboration, "Join the Human Gang", was written by the show's creator Kurt Sutter and score composer Bob Thiele Jr., and was eventually rewritten and released by The White Buffalo as "Come Join the Murder".[4] The original version remains unreleased, with Manson saying that neither he or Jennings were happy with "the direction that [the producers] wanted us to go in".[3] Instead, Manson portrayed a character in the seventh season of Sons of Anarchy,[3][5] and recorded two albums with producer Tyler Bates, The Pale Emperor and Heaven Upside Down.[6][7] Manson and Jennings collaborated on a cover of David Bowie's "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)", for Jennings's 2016 album Countach (For Giorgio).[8]

In 2019, drummer Gil Sharone, who performed on The Pale Emperor and Heaven Upside Down, announced he was leaving the band to pursue other projects,[9] with former Black Flag drummer Brandon Pertzborn hired as his replacement.[10] It was later revealed that Bates was no longer involved with the group, and that their next album would be produced by Jennings and feature contributions from his drummer Jamie Douglass.[11] Pertzborn and the band's touring guitarist, Paul Wiley, were also confirmed to perform on the album.[12]

The band released their cover of The Doors song "The End" on November 22, 2019.[13] It was recorded as the theme music for the miniseries The Stand,[14] although series director Josh Boone said the recording "ultimately proved too expensive to use."[15] Manson said recording "The End" informed the approach he and Jennings took when recording the album, in that it "started us exploring different things. [Shooter is] very talented in so many ways, and working with him is very fluid. We have a totally different collaborative style than I did [with Tyler] on the last two records. Sometimes Shooter will already be doing something that I was going to suggest. We lock brains a lot together."[12]

The album was recorded over two-and-a-half years of intermittent studio time,[16] with Manson saying each musician's touring commitments made it difficult to coordinate schedules. To combat this, several different studios were used; Manson explained they would "shift between working in [Jennings's] studio, my studio, another studio that could accommodate initially [Jennings's] entire band, which includes strings and drums and everything."[3] Despite Jennings's band consisting of predominantly traditional country musicians, and Marilyn Manson being a hard rock group, the vocalist said: "We weren't afraid to mix the two together when we were making the songs."[17] His vocals were recorded late at night; Manson said that "Shooter found that my peak hour for singing was 3 a.m. I'm sure that's probably because it's [when] the full range of rasp comes out of my voice, but also just the creative circle that we go through, because we spent a lot of time talking when we're making the songs and what we wanted them to be, what we wanted to shape them into."[3]

The band finished recording the album in January 2020.[3] That same month, bassist Juan Alderete was involved in a bicycle accident which left him with a diffuse axonal injury, a type of traumatic brain injury. A GoFundMe page was created to help cover the cost of his medical expenses.[18] Alderete is credited with performing bass on the album.[19] Four months later, Manson and Jennings confirmed the album was complete, with both calling it a "masterpiece".[20]

Manson initially suggested the album could be self-titled, but this was later revised.[12] He said Elton John and Bernie Taupin were influences on its composition, saying that he and Jennings "started writing on piano and with vocals, and it seemed great for both of us to find a spot where my voice and piano [worked together because it] sounded really different. And it seemed like I could really go places that I had not gone before. Different keys, or different rhythms, or just different elements and ideas."[3] This new style of writing had an impact on Manson's vocal delivery, who sings in a "more baritone way" than on previous releases.[17]

We Are Chaos contains ten songs, and no additional tracks were recorded during the album sessions. Manson explained that once his and Jennings's respective bands found a mode to collaborate, the songs "flowed quickly" and "there were no extra songs. There was no fat to cut off the music."[17] He said fans would be "pleasantly surprised" about the sound of the album, saying: "A lot of people like to refer to [Shooter's] style of music as 'country', but I regard it more as 'southern'. I suppose that also drags in a bit of the [Rolling] Stones, in a way… There's a lot of piano, though not necessarily Elton John piano. Maybe 'Bennie and the Jets' piano. Let's just call it Shooter Jennings piano!".[12]

Manson described We Are Chaos as a concept album, who said it intentionally included ten songs so that "it would be treated, in the traditional sense, of how an LP works. How there's a Side A and a Side B", noting the mood and tone of the album changes drastically after the fifth track.[3] Of the overall concept, he said: "I've imagined I just filled all the pages with mirrors, and you fill in your own story when you listen to it. It's a concept record that tells a story that's going to be different for every single person, including me, every time I hear it, but [there's] definitely an arc to it." He said he frequently asked people for their interpretation of the album's content, and whether they believed it concluded with a "happy", "sad" or "tragic" ending.[21] He elaborated: "I wanted it to be like any movie or any great book or any painting or any poem, [in] that it becomes part of the listener's experience, not just mine. And it just reminds me of what I got out of my favorite records growing up, whether it be Diamond Dogs or Welcome to My Nightmare or The Wall or something where you feel like you're a part of something bigger that you can insert yourself into. And I think escapism is an important thing to have now. I wasn't necessarily anticipating being in lockdown when I wrote the record, but it happens to be a good escape for me to have done it and to listen to it now, and to see what people will think when it comes out. Hopefully, [they will] interpret it in a way that maybe I didn't even realize."[21]

Some lyrics on the album were inspired by the sudden death of Eric Rosenbaum, a tattoo artist publicly known as Norm Love Letters or Norm Will Rise, who had tattooed Manson on several occasions. Manson said: "I had just finished a tour and one of my best friends was Norm Love Letters, the tattoo artist. We had a scheduled appointment in two days… I had talked to him two days before he died. It was so heartbreaking. We had a very, very close relationship. I love that guy so much."[16] An author for Inked noted the lyrics on the album "feel like they were specifically written to fit this very moment in history, despite being penned well before COVID-19 was part of our lexicon. There is a delicate balance between the lyrical content of the album—which can come across as quite apocalyptic—and the music playing beneath those lyrics. Yes, there are the sort of grinding guitar sounds that one expects from every Marilyn Manson album, but there are also sounds reminiscent of Roxy Music, Iggy Pop and, most notably, David Bowie." They went on to compliment the collaboration between Manson and Jennings, saying their "shared love" of rock music from the 1970s "comes through, particularly on tracks like 'Paint You with My Love' and the haunting album-closing 'Broken Needle'. The respective musical backgrounds of each musician are also evident, complimenting each other throughout the album, but also pushing [each other] toward a new direction."[16]

The record was originally scheduled to be released in mid-2020,[3] but this was rescheduled after the cancellation of the band's appearance as the opening act on Ozzy Osbourne's No More Tours II series, a North American tour beginning in May 2020.[22] The tour was cancelled when Osbourne was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.[23]

Manson created the artwork for the album,[3] a watercolor self-portrait entitled Infinite Darkness.[24] Several editions of the record were issued, including CD and cassette versions, as well as numerous vinyl options: a picture disc, a pink-colored vinyl, and a red, black and blue-spattered vinyl. The latter was bundled with a limited edition 7" vinyl single of lead single "We Are Chaos", containing an exclusive remix as a B-side.[25] A version of the CD album containing two bonus tracks – acoustic versions of "We Are Chaos" and "Broken Needle" – were available in brick and mortar stores,[26][27] with these songs also appearing as bonuses on Japanese editions of the record.[28] Target stores in North America were supplied with an exclusive "translucent black ice" marbled edition of the vinyl containing a limited edition art print.[29]

The title track was issued as the lead single from the record on July 29, 2020, alongside details of the album including its cover and track list.[30][31] A music video for the song, which was directed, photographed and edited by Matt Mahurin while in quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was released the same day.[32] On September 8, Manson revealed in an interview that he will shoot a music video for the song "Don't Chase the Dead".[21] The track was released two days later, a day before the album release.[33] On September 24, the music video for the second single, featuring actor Norman Reedus and photographer Lindsay Usich, was released.[34]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	7.9/10[35]
Metacritic	77/100[36]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[37]
Clash	7/10[38]
Consequence of Sound	A–[39]
Exclaim!	7/10[40]
The Independent	[41]
Kerrang!	[42]
Metal Hammer	[43]
musicOMH	[44]
NME	[45]
Rolling Stone	[36]

Upon release, the album received mostly positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 77 based on 11 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews", the highest score for any of the band's albums.[36] Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave the album 7.9 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.[35]

Consequence of Sound said the production, musicianship and songwriting found on the album was among the best of the band's entire discography.[39] Clash described it as a concise record without filler, and said that, despite being disparate musicians, Manson and Jennings have "created, if not perfected, a rousing ballad of angst for the Millennials."[38] NME also complimented the collaboration between the two, praising Manson for focusing more on songwriting than "spectacle" with the album's lyrics while saying that Jennings's production resulted in the record being a "stately and varied listen with subtlety to match the spookiness." They went on to describe it as Manson's "most human work so far."[45]

Metal Hammer said the album's lyrics were "more wounded and emotionally raw than [Manson has] ever been",[43] while Kerrang! said the production evoked a "sense of stateliness at times" and a "sleazy rock club stench at others", and complimented Manson's "razor-sharp" lyrics. "It's not pared back, but WE ARE CHAOS is a less immediately antagonistic and forward prospect than [the band's] recent output. But that's a good thing that's been mastered to darkly brilliant effect here. Unexpected, bold and artistic, Manson remains an artist it is dangerous to underestimate."[42]

Both Cleveland.com and The Oakland Press dubbed it the album of the week,[46][47] while Spin said it was the eighth best album ever produced by Jennings.[48] Revolver dubbed it the 13th best album released in 2020,[49] and it also appeared on year-end lists by Alternative Press,[50] Consequence of Sound,[51] Loudwire,[52] and Ultimate Classic Rock.[53]

Industry forecasters predicted the record was on course to debut in the United States with pure album sales of between 20,000 and 22,000 copies, with an additional 2,000 to 5,000 units as a result of streaming and album-equivalent units.[54] It went on to debut as the highest-selling album of the week based on pure sales. Despite this, it entered in the lower portion of the top ten of the Billboard 200, primarily as a result of a lack of streaming activity.[55] The record debuted at number eight on the Billboard 200 with 31,000 album-equivalent units in its first week, becoming Manson's tenth top ten album. The recorded units included 28,000 traditional album sales, 3,000 streaming-equivalent units (or 4 million on-demand streams of album tracks), and less than 1,000 track-equivalent units (sales of individual tracks).[56] It also debuted atop Top Rock Albums, making it their first number one on that chart, and was their fifth consecutive number one on Top Hard Rock Albums; only three other acts have more number ones on the latter chart—Five Finger Death Punch, Linkin Park and Pearl Jam, who each peaked at the summit six times.[57] The album sold an additional 6,775 traditional copies on its second week in the US,[58] and 4,125 traditional copies the following week.[59] Similarly, We Are Chaos had the highest pure album sales total of the week in Canada, debuting at number eight.[60]

The album was predicted to enter the top three of the UK Albums Chart.[61][62] It went on to match the peak of previous album Heaven Upside Down when it entered the chart at number seven with first week sales of 4,638 copies, 437 copies behind the album which peaked at number three,[63] making it the band's sixth top ten album in the UK.[64] The record debuted at number one on the ARIA Charts, making it the band's second number one album in Australia, following 1998's Mechanical Animals.[65] In Japan, the record debuted at number 28 on the Oricon album chart, with first week sales of 1,344 copies.[66]

All tracks are written by Marilyn Manson and Shooter Jennings.

• All song titles are stylized in all caps.[1]

Credits adapted from the album liner notes of We Are Chaos.[19]

• Recorded at The Coil, Hollywood; additional recording at Station House Studios, Echo Park and Dave's Room, North Hollywood
• Mixed by Mark "Spike" Stent
• Album mastered by Randy Merrill at Sterling Sound
• Acoustic versions mastered by Pete Lyman at Infrasonic Sound

• Marilyn Manson – We Are Chaos at Discogs (list of releases)