Metal

MARILYN MANSON LIVE : "The last tour on Earth"  (Nothing) True to the gigantic tours and superb live shows of the Mechanical Animal in all his toxic splendor, "The last tour en earth" perfectly renders the energy of this totally controlled sonic orgy, day after day, gig after gig, despite the many on- and backstage excesses, the encores of a delirious audience, always hungry for more. Sound and vision, style, energy, sex, drugs and rock'n'roll, all the necessary ingredients are there, whether the Angra, Céline Dion and Top of the Pops fans like it or not. So are the vultures anxiously expecting his fall, those who already wanted to crush down Ziggy Stardust and the young Iggy Pop, Alice and his constrictor, Zappa and his maniacs, and many others, mercilessly crucified on the Golgotha of rock by the narrow-minded, Bible-wielding bigots, now deified and worshipped when their corpses make more and more money or their life doesn't disturb anyone anymore. Marilyn Manson is the last member of this species and that seems to create envy. The fans joyfully ask for more: new home video, new single, a movie, a new album expected for 2000. In the meantime, don't miss the limited edition, with 2 studio cover versions: Dr Hook's "Get my rocks off" and John Loudermilk's "A rose and a baby Ruth", and don't stop playing this awesome live album, glam and trash, swing and groovy, ended by a new song: "Astonishing panorama of the endtimes". "The last tour en earth" is rather good news: where the hell will Marilyn take us next time? Anyway, "Rock is dead" rather sounds like a joke, don't you think? Jean-Paul "Spooky kid" Coillard

Nine Inch Nails - "The fragile" (Interscope) On the reznor's edge We had heard a lot about this album: it would be released, hopefully, in 1999, 5 years after the brilliant "Downward spiral". It would be a double album. It would be different from the others, without being totally different. In fact, we didn't know much. Then came "The fragile", an enormous 22-tracks epic, somewhere between "The wall", "Electric ladyland" and the Beatles' white album. Let's not forget that, in the meantime, the allegedly "lazy" Reznor produced Marilyn Manson's "Antechrist superstar", supervised a few stunning film soundtracks, collaborated on a single with Bowie, released "The perfect drug" and its superb video, worked on "Herehear" by Wink and produced Two's debut album, Rob Halford's new band. He also obviously spent a considerable amount of time in the studio to produce "The fragile", an ironical title for such a powerful and gigantic work, hesitating between rock songs and beautiful instrumentals, such as "The frail" and its wonderful piano. Sweet songs, the snake under the rock ("The wretched", "The fragile"), tribute to the great elders (the very Floyd-like "Pilgrimage"), industrial tracks full of self-contained hatred ("We're in this together"), furious rock tunes ("Starfuckers inc"), lyrics written by someone who had to pay the price for love, fame, becoming a symbol. "Too fucked up to care anymore..." but also capable of... love (the brilliant "La mer", "The fragile", "The great below"). If the wait enhances pleasure, the resulting orgasm is all the more violent. With "The fragile", an enormous piece of work which needs to be listened to with care and several times to show all its qualities, Reznor shows he is still undoubtedly the best. Studio wizard, goth/indus icon, excessive artist without self-parody, he is still, first and foremost, a man. Reznor is back and he managed to release the actual last great record of the century, so strong yet so fragile. But is that so important? As Churchill once said: "Once your statue has been erected, you don't look at pigeons the same way." Jean-Paul Coillard