Marilyn Manson: Antichrist Superstar (Interscope UND 90086)

IT'S COMPLACENT bands such as Hootie and Counting Crows that almost make one sympathise with the likes of Marilyn Manson, trash-thrash riff-mongers whose taste for sleaze would beggar even a Tory MP or Catholic bishop's best efforts. Naming themselves after notorious murderers — a big hand, please, for Madonna Wayne Gacy on keyboards — they reflect the seemingly limitless fascination for amoral debauch that has made murder virtually a spectator-sport in America.