March 22–29, 2001

disc quicks| rock/pop

Godhead

2000 Years of Human Error

(Posthuman Records)

Mainstream industrial-goth-rock, rooted in NIN’s Pretty Hate Machine and the Downward Spiral, has a lot of bastard offspring. Most of the better stuff is buried in independent obscurity, but leave it to Marilyn Manson to tap Godhead as the first band on his Posthuman label. Comparisons to the second generation godfather are inevitable; Manson produced the album and contributed vocal tracks to Godhead’s most accessible track to date, the Dracula 2000 cut "Break You Down." But the strongest material on 2000 Years, their fourth release, reaches back to Reznor, while packing one hell of a 1-2 industrial punch. Lead tracks "The Reckoning" and "I Sell Society" move from electro-indigant nihilism to an ax-grinding chorus so brain-sticky you probably shouldn’t sniff it. The album progresses further afield as it plays, so much so it seems written for an entirely different audience by the time you reach the Manson co-written title track. Despite surrendering control to a sub-label of a sub-group of a corporate media label, Godhead has a firm grasp on its own identity, even if it seems to mutate from track to track.

—Helen H. Thompson