Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death) by Marilyn Manson

Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death), Marilyn Manson's fourth album, came out on Nothing and Interscope in November 2000, and it's the band's reply to a country that had gone hunting for a scapegoat. After the Columbine High School massacre, news reports falsely claimed the killers wore the band's shirts and took cues from its music; Manson answered with a record he framed as a declaration of war. He produced it himself, writing in his old Hollywood Hills house and recording in undisclosed spots, Death Valley and Laurel Canyon among them.

Musically it slams the door on the glam sheen of Mechanical Animals and drags the band back into industrial metal, with John 5's guitar grinding against Jeordie White's bass, Ginger Fish's drums and Madonna Wayne Gacy's keyboards. It's a rock opera and the final piece of a trilogy with Antichrist Superstar, though its story comes first, since the saga runs backwards. "Disposable Teens", "The Fight Song" and "The Nobodies" were the singles.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.