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Beyond the Backlash: Marilyn Manson, Slipknot, and Metal's Changing Audience

I. The Backlash: When Social Media Becomes the Story When Slipknot announced their 2027 (sic)est Stadium Tour , with Marilyn Manson opening the Wembley Stadium show and joining them for the South American dates, including The Town in São Paulo, the reaction was almost immediate. Thousands of comments appeared beneath the announcement, many from people saying they would no longer attend. Some described the decision as disappointing, others said they would not spend money on a concert that included Manson, and some presented the booking as a betrayal of what they believed Slipknot represented. The reaction was real, and there is no reason to pretend otherwise. What interests me, however, is what happens after that initial reaction: how it is collected, amplified, repeated by music publications, and gradually transformed from a collection of individual responses into something that can begin to look like a universal verdict from “the fans.” The current coverage makes that process fairly e...

"The Moon Has Now Eclipsed the Sun": New Photos from April 8, 2024


On April 8th, a total solar eclipse took place over a substantial portion of the skies of Central and North America, and with this event came new photos of Marilyn Manson and his wife Lindsay.

Lindsay posted the following photos on her Instagram account:



These are the two photos she posted of Manson, the first titled "Lunar" and the second titled "Solar", a reference to the eclipse, holding a bouquet of flowers:

 

Marilyn Manson also shared on his Instagram page two photos taken by Lindsay, of him holding a bouquet of flowers, which he captioned with: "The moon has now eclipsed the sun, the angel has spread his wings…", which are the well-known lyrics from "Cryptorchid" and "Antichrist Superstar".

 
 
The total solar eclipse is the perfect time to reintroduce these lyrics, which evoke the imagery of Manson's complete transformation leading toward the revolution, as was previously featured in Holy Wood. We have seen this in the previous imagery over the past year or so, especially with an image Manson and Lindsay posted this past Valentine's Day only in their Instagram stories of what looks to me like an angel overlooking a horizon in which an eclipse has taken place and the angel is spreading his wings.