Marilyn Manson Dropped From Label Interscope

Major record label Interscope have dropped Marilyn Manson due to disappointing album sales of his latest album, “The High End Of Low” after nearly six years on the Interscope roster.

Manson had this to say when interviewed by UK’s Metal Hammer magazine:

“We’ve just been released from our record contract with Interscope so I think a lot of the creative control on which my hands were tied on a lot of choices — the music videos — things like that,”

“And the first example is the newest video, they clearly wouldn’t have allowed me to make that video. So we started writing new songs on the road — a bit like [David Bowie's album] ‘Aladdin Sane’ — I think people can expect a new record a lot sooner than we [expected].”

When told that he doesn’t seem like someone who wouldn’t put his foot down with a label, Manson said, “You’d be surprised how much restraint my creativity had which ended up often times in my life, not want to make music because I was so restrained from the music that I wanted to make — what they would allow, they would put out, what ideas they would allow to be conveyed in these videos. At least half of my creative output has been squashed, so now I think people can expect a whole lot more.”

Before being signed to Interscope in 2004, Marilyn Manson was signed by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails to his label Nothing Records, a sub-label of Interscope in 1993. Nothing Records ceased to exist in 2004, which is how Marilyn Manson became signed to just Interscope.

“The High End Of Low” sold 49,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 4 on The Billboard 200 chart. It has shifted 121,000 units to date, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Marilyn Manson’s previous album, “Eat Me, Drink Me”, opened with 88,000 units to land at No. 8. This marked a significant drop from the 118,000 first-week tally registered by its predecessor, “The Golden Age Of Grotesque”, which entered the chart at No. 1 back in May 2003.

“The High End Of Low” was Marilyn Manson’s first album with bassist Twiggy Ramierz since 2000’s “Holy Wood”.

Produced by Manson, Vrenna and Twiggy, “The High End Of Low” was recorded in Manson’s Hollywood Hills studio. Manson said of the album, “I think my life definitely ended and began. The record sounds very final, but it’s almost optimistic — though that feels like a strange word to use. It’s a phoenix from the fire and a redemption resurrection.”