Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death) (2013)

Yeah, Marilyn Manson's satanic mutant bogeyman shtick is as tired as the warmed-over sci-fi clichés on his putative concept album Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death), but that doesn't mean he doesn't have a trick or two tucked away in his codpiece. Here, he abandons the glammy slickness of '98's Mechanical Animals, upping the brute-force quotient to concoct a pulverizing metallic symphony that makes Rob Zombie sound like elevator music. Rejoice or weep as you see fit — this is the hateful huckster's most potent effort yet. B