Portrait of an American Family
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,Portraitscores 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 Familyis a hallmark of the industrial/metal genre, but not for those who are easily offended.--Gail Worley