Mechanical Animals is the third studio album by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released on September 15, 1998, by Interscope Records. The album marked a major shift from the industrial metal and alternative metal styles of the band's earlier efforts, into an experimentation with 1970s glam rock with industrial rock and electronic rock styles. As their first release following the success of their breakthrough album, 1996's Antichrist Superstar, Mechanical Animals themes primarily deals with the trappings of fame and drug abuse.
A rock opera and concept album, Mechanical Animals is the second installment in a trilogy which included Antichrist Superstar and 2000's Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death). After the release of Holy Wood, Manson said that the overarching story within the trilogy is presented in reverse chronological order; Mechanical Animals, therefore, acts as the bridge connecting the two narratives and remains constant whether the trilogy is viewed in reverse or not.
The album has been certified platinum in the United States, Canada, and New Zealand. It spawned the singles "The Dope Show", "Rock Is Dead", and "I Don't Like the Drugs (But the Drugs Like Me)" as well as the promotional single, "Coma White". The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, making it the first Marilyn Manson album to do so.
Recording and production
Aborted sessions with the Dust Brothers
Following the conclusion of their year-long Dead to the World Tour in September 1997, the band relocated from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Hollywood, California. Work on Mechanical Animals began soon after. By early December of that year, the singer began opening up on the then new and unnamed record's development, sitting down with MTV's "Year in Rock" special on December 12. Early on, it was reported the new album would be produced by the Los Angeles-based production team, the Dust Brothers. According to MTV News, "[They] have completed work on a few tracks on the next effort from Marilyn Manson..."
During this early development stage, the band recorded in Manson's home recording studio in the Hollywood Hills which the group had taken to calling "The White Room" after the vocalist painted the space white. Manson explained that the studio "looked out over Hollywood, which kind of represented space to us." Manson also intoned, "the theme of whiteness comes up a lot on the album, representing a void empty of color and feelings and emotions. We were trying to fill that void with the songs."
Billy Corgan involvement
Manson's friend, the Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan, served as an unofficial music consultant for the band. After playing a few of the early songs for him, Corgan advised that "This is definitely the right direction" but to "go all the way with it. Don't hint at it." Despite this, almost 20 years after the release of Mechanical Animals, keyboardist Madonna Wayne Gacy (who left the band in the intervening years) disputed "arrogant-yet-whiny ass" Corgan's involvement and claimed "the majority" of the album was "written long before Billy Corgan ever showed up." He went on to describe Corgan as pretentious and "thinks he's Brian Eno."
Sessions with Michael Beinhorn and Sean Beavan
The band subsequently employed Michael Beinhorn as principal producer, co-producing the record with Marilyn Manson. Sean Beavan was also brought in to supply additional production work. According to Manson, the bulk of the material was written and recorded at that house before Beinhorn came on board. "For the most part, I had a very specific vision of what I wanted to do and how to do it."
By May of that year, having completed his obligations for Hole's then-new album, Celebrity Skin, Beinhorn confirmed that the nascent Manson project was halfway complete and on course for a late summer or early fall release. Manson, for his part, spent the early part of the year on break from the studio to promote his autobiography, The Long Hard Road Out Of Hell.
During his February 24, 1998, interview on National Public Radio's Fresh Air radio talk show to promote the book, he divulged that having exhausted the topic of organized religion in the previous record, Mechanical Animals would see a major shift in focus: "Both sonically and lyrically it's about the depression of alienation, rather than the aggressiveness of it. It's about the emptiness." Guitarist Zim Zum divulged that in one instance the band recorded a song a day for two weeks straight during a particular spree of creativity.