Marilyn Manson

Heaven Upside Down

WHAT’S DIFFERENT: After cultivating a compelling head-swiveling take on desperado electro-blues-metal on 2015’s The Pale Emperor, Marilyn Manson goes back to his industri-metal roots with idiosyncratic takes on everything from glam sleaze (“Tattooed In Reverse”) to garage-punk rawness (“Revelation 12”), served up with great dollops of blasphemy (“SAY10”), goth-club dance tracks (“Saturnalia”) and freak poking (“KILL4ME”).

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: Artists who celebrate excess in all realms get pretty tedious after a short while. Where other bands of his generation are reducing their previous work into karaoke, Manson is keeping things exciting and crucial the only way rock’s long-running antihero can. Pro Tip: Listen on headphones, where his unadorned, chilling stalker-esque asides will make your bladder flex. As he drawls on “SAY10,” “I’m a legend, not a fable.” At the end of the rec, all that’s missing is the sound of the mic dropping.

OUR PICK: “Revelation 12”

Loma Vista Recordings http://www.lomavistarecordings.com/