Gripping hooks, clutching choruses and your basic vexed hard-rock anthems are all the ingredients needed to make a good Marilyn Manson song. The preface of Holy Wood, the follow-up to 1998’s Mechanical Animals, is supposed to be about a naïve boy who doesn’t fit in a perfect society. Whether he likes it or not, Manson has become the spokesman for today’s tormented adolescence.

Produced by Manson and Dave Sardy (Slayer and the Red Hot Chili Peppers), Holy Wood appears to be a reaction for the way the media and society blames him for the decay of today’s younger generation. In Disposable Teens, Manson sings about the deterioration of youth, blaming elders for bringing "this fucking world to a bitter end." The song sounds uncanningly similar to Beautiful People and is heard on the Blair Witch II Soundtrack. Nonetheless, it is a classic Manson anthem. The Fight Song, with drum machines in the versus familiar to Blurs, Song # 2, mixed in with a Sex Pistols vibe towards the end is a headbanging track that will keep Manson fans satisfied. In the somber Shadow of the Valley of Death, Manson sings about how the world’s view on religion has made him feel isolated and that he "wishes he could be king, then would know I am not alone."

Manson lashes out to his critics and still captivates his audience with heavy melodic anthems that will surely carry over on their well-known live performances and keep them on the forefront of the shock-rock scene.