What better way to ruin the 2000th birthday of Jesus and cap off a decade of globe-straddling notoriety than an album with all the apocalyptic portent of The Last Tour On Earth? Stoking the fires of controversy in the arenas of America, this really should have been the live album that finally saw Manson exposed as the accomplished satirist that he comes across as in interviews. Without visuals, though, we're denied a vital element of the Marilyn Manson circus--and besides, Manson's sly, mocking humour is crushed like a butterfly under the brutal opening assault of "The Reflecting God". By the time "The Beautiful People" rumbles into life, there's no doubts that The Last Tour On Earth is a thoroughly vicious, dumb success. But you want brains? Well, let's just say that getting your audience to chant "I hate love, I love hate" is hardly a revolutionary slogan that Nietzsche would long dwell on. --Louis Pattison