Mischa Pearlman

In 1996, the release of Antichrist Superstar turned Marilyn Manson—both the band and the man behind it—into a household name. As infamous for his nihilistic, hedonistic brand of pop satanism and black metal meets mall-goth visual aesthetic as for his campily bombastic industrial rawk, the Trent Reznor protégé (real name: Brian Warner) thrived on giving hell to the Christian right and provoking a mainstream still dominated by MTV. But in recent years, Manson has mellowed. Last year, for example, the once-unshockable 46-year-old quickly dissociated himself with a leaked Eli Roth featuring his music and depicting the staged rape of Lana Del Rey by the filmmaker. And by Manson’s own admission, his more recent music had lost some of its bite. But now he’s back with The Pale Emperor, his glitter-rock-ish best album in years, and the Hell Not Hallelujah tour, which brings a bit of creepiness to the barren January NYC concert calendar when it hits Terminal 5 January 29.What does The Pale Emperor represent for you at this stage of your career?It represents a return to form. Being that I used the metaphor of Faust on the record a lot, I think this record is me paying back the devils—whether they’re my own devils or the people that I sold my soul to, to be who I am. How much of the characters within the songs are you, autobiographically, and how much of them are caricature and exaggeration?I think any story that’s being sung can’t be viewed as anything other than one part of the person