Marilyn Manson - Behind the music

And the third angel sounded and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;

And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.

Revelation 8:10-11


As early as 1998 when he first delved fully into painting, Marilyn Manson has been one of the world's most notorious connoisseurs of the legenday spirit, absinthe. First referenced heavily as being integral to the creation process of 2000's Holy Wood (In The Shadow of the Valley of Death), it was 2003's Golden Age of Grotesque as Manson's homage to art, expressionism, late Nineteenth Century Parisian decandence and Weimar era "Degenerate" Art where Manson could scarcely be seen without a milky glass of the green spirit as his accessory.

Begining in mid-2005, Manson has been quoted in the press about his desires to produce his own line of absinthe and it was circa this time period in which he and Markus Lion, owner of Absinthe.de, casually began talks about this prospect. Two years later, Mansinthe is finally released, a high quality spirit distilled from grand wormwood, anise, fennell and other fine herbs. With other demagogue celebrity lines of absinthe sold by Absinthe.de such as H.R. Giger and the late Jhonn Balance (of the seminal and highly influential group Coil; see COIL & THE OCCULT), Manson is in good company with the lineage of his brand.



A bottle of France's most potent absinthe adorns one corner, replete with requisite grated spoon; During writing/recording, Manson imbided a great deal of this exotic, potentially dangerous import, he says, so much that the whole process began to teeter on the brink of self-destruction. The liqueur company - in a show of friendship - even sent its illustrious client a branch of the absinthe base element, wormwood.

"Wormwood tied into the album on a couple weird levels, because it was supposed to be a poison that God sent down to taint the waters to punish mankind. And it's related to King Solomon, who - as legend has it - had a ring that contained a worm which, when unleashed, could supposedly devour the world. Just like the serpent in [Norse mythology's Armageddon] Ragnarok, forever eating its own tail."

Marilyn Manson in Alternative Press. November 2000