Mechanical Animals by Marilyn Manson

Mechanical Animals, the third Marilyn Manson album, came out on Interscope on September 15, 1998, with Michael Beinhorn producing, and it's the sound of the shock-rock band swapping the grind for glitter. The industrial bones are still there, but the edges are sanded down and the whole thing is dipped in the glam of Bowie, T. Rex and Queen, with Manson, bassist Jeordie White, drummer Ginger Fish and keyboardist Madonna Wayne Gacy playing it like a decadent vintage fantasy.

It's the middle panel of the trilogy that began with Antichrist Superstar, the piece that links the story together, and it's about the cost of fame and the pull of drugs. "The Dope Show" struts on a sleazy, fuzzed-up groove, and "Rock Is Dead", "I Don't Like the Drugs (But the Drugs Like Me)" and "Coma White" followed. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, a first for the band.

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