Portrait of an American Family

Portrait of an American Family Review

Every parent's nightmare and every teenager's dream band, Marilyn Manson take no prisoners on their blistering and brutal Trent Reznor-produced debut. Aiming to shock and rock simultaneously, Portrait scores high marks in both arenas. Manson and his grand grimoire take Alice Cooper's tongue-in-cheek mix of glam and death rock to the nth degree with their vision of youth gone wild, personified on cuts like "Cake and Sodomy" and "Lunchbox," a schoolyard revenge fantasy gone horribly awry. One of the most original, hardest rocking albums recorded in the '90s, Portrait of an American Family is a hallmark of the industrial/metal genre, but not for those who are easily offended. --Gail Worley