There is a point in One Assassination Under God – Chapter 2 where the language of survival finally becomes the language of retaliation. “The Arsonist” is that point. The song is not simply about having survived an attempt to destroy you. It is about what happens afterward, when the person who has been burned decides that the fire did not finish him and that the scars it left behind have become part of his strength. Manson himself described the song as the moment when the narrative of the two chapters “crystallizes into a battle stance,” and, referring to the painting he created for it, said that the “burned scar tissue” had formed into armor. That description gets very close to the heart of the song. The fire has not disappeared. It has changed him. The title is important because Manson does not call the song The Survivor or The Victim . He calls it "The Arsonist." An arsonist deliberately starts a fire, and this changes the entire perspective of the song. The speaker is no...
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Before playing the main stage at Rocklahoma 2025, on August 29th, Marilyn Manson guitarist Tyler Bates sat down for a revelatory interview with Starcade Media.
In the interview Tyler first of all reveals that Chapter 2 of the One Assassination Under God series of albums will be out soon, though a date is not given. He said: "We've had a great response to One Assassination Under God – Chapter 1, and we look forward to sharing Chapter 2 with people before you know it."
He also shared how personal and cinematic the process is like when he and Manson create songs together: "The way he and I write together is, I mean, it's a very personal environment. It's just the two of us, and the songs are created on the spot together. And so there's a lot of, let's see, put it this way. As a film composer, I've become deft at helping empower stories with music, and help people tell the story in the way that they wish to tell it. And for whatever reason, because Manson has such a cinematic aspect to just his art, the way he looks at life, as a person overall, we really connect. And when we're creating music together, it doesn't really require much dialogue. We just kind of, you know, read each other and just kind of get into it and do it.
Explaining what makes these albums different from the albums of the past, he said: "These songs are really weighted with a lot of personal thoughts and emotions, more than, say, some of the older material that was, let's say, based on the persona and the perspectives that he was interested in sharing or reflecting to people."
Tyler also hinted that concerts in the near future should expect rare and never before played live songs: "But with every tour that we do, every leg, we are going to be introducing different songs. And I can assure you that through the rest of the year, there will be songs that have either never been performed before or very, very rarely in our set."
You can watch the entire interview below:
In the interview Tyler first of all reveals that Chapter 2 of the One Assassination Under God series of albums will be out soon, though a date is not given. He said: "We've had a great response to One Assassination Under God – Chapter 1, and we look forward to sharing Chapter 2 with people before you know it."
He also shared how personal and cinematic the process is like when he and Manson create songs together: "The way he and I write together is, I mean, it's a very personal environment. It's just the two of us, and the songs are created on the spot together. And so there's a lot of, let's see, put it this way. As a film composer, I've become deft at helping empower stories with music, and help people tell the story in the way that they wish to tell it. And for whatever reason, because Manson has such a cinematic aspect to just his art, the way he looks at life, as a person overall, we really connect. And when we're creating music together, it doesn't really require much dialogue. We just kind of, you know, read each other and just kind of get into it and do it.
Explaining what makes these albums different from the albums of the past, he said: "These songs are really weighted with a lot of personal thoughts and emotions, more than, say, some of the older material that was, let's say, based on the persona and the perspectives that he was interested in sharing or reflecting to people."
Tyler also hinted that concerts in the near future should expect rare and never before played live songs: "But with every tour that we do, every leg, we are going to be introducing different songs. And I can assure you that through the rest of the year, there will be songs that have either never been performed before or very, very rarely in our set."
You can watch the entire interview below: