Front Toward Enemy & Revelation 8; Lucifer's Teardrop & Enantiomorph Pre-Analysis

1. Front Toward Enemy & Revelation 8

In the latest single by Marilyn Manson, Front Toward Enemy, from his upcoming sequel comeback album One Assassination Under God Chapter Two the Antichrist Superstar sings a line which seemingly stands to have some explanation to, as opposed to the rest of the song: "You chiseled open the seventh seal, it's the reason I exist." Hypothetically on some level this could be a harkon back to Holy Wood, as in Biblical literature the Lamb of God is the one who is worthy of opening up seven seals detailed in the Book of Revelation. These seals in order being the onset of the Armageddon, end-times prophecy; where supposedly the four horseman of the apocalypse are unleashed onto the world, each with a respective horse ushering in the destruction of the Earth. Obviously, as with anything presented in the Bible there's a range of interpretation surrounding the specific text at hand. Some view Revelation and these events as having yet to occur while others see this prophecy as an ongoing process symbolically correspondent to eras of historical conflict and human struggle over the centuries. 

In order the seven seals in Revelation are the following:

1. Out comes a rider on a white horse, who conquers the lands and brings a false peace,

2. A rider on a red horse comes and rescinds that peace then levying war and bloodshed,

3. Riding on a black horse then with shortage of food and ushering economic collapse with widespread famine,

4. Coming on a pale horse and accompanied by Hades with brought about disease and mass mortality,

5. The souls of Christian martyrs and the faithful cry out to God for justice and vindication,

6. Mass geological and cosmic disasters occur, as the sun turns black and moon reddens,

7. A momentary silence lasting around half an hour before seven angels blow into their trumpets to signal further judgement to come

Revelation 8 is when the Lamb of God goes to unlock this seventh and final seal in the list, setting a brief pause in Heaven— the eye of the storm— wherein which seven angels go on to blare their instruments onsetting further cataclysm, in the first half that is. From there as the trumpets are sounding is where the already devastated world is engulfed in the typical image of the end times; in a hailstorm of fire, blood and darkness descending with each ringing out of the horns. Finishing off Revelation 8 is a declaration by an Eagle still somehow soaring overhead, saying, "Woe! Woe! Woe unto the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!"

Considering the titles of the proceeding yet to be released tracks listed on the album: All The Vilest Things, The Arsonist, None of the Suns and, Lucifer's Teardrop with possible exception to the first single this cycle Exit Wound and ending Enantiomorph; it seems like an interesting musical parallel and not out of the ordinary for Marilyn Manson to do. If One Assassination Under God Chapter One was concocted in Purgatory as he stated, this endless oblivion ending with the Sacrifice of the Mass; then similarly as announced with the release of this latest single that, "I outgrew purgatory and carved these songs into the skin of the world. As you listen I hope it forms a scar that you cannot forget," Chapter 2 may just be Hell unleashed on Earth. 

2. Lucifer's Teardrop

Of these next and still unreleased from the upcoming album and in spite of that fact is the seventh section in the Chapter, this being Lucifer's Teardrop. It's never been shied away from that the God of Fuck has an affinity towards the Angel With The Scabbed Wings, which is where the title of this track obviously derives from. Possibly specific in its point of reference is the Paradise Lost inspired 1847 oil painting of the Light Bearer/Bringer by Alexandre Cabanel called L'Angel Dechu. Depicting the prideful and rebellious Fallen Angel (as the French title translates to) with a smooth and near impeccable physique laying upon rocks, almost at ease whilst simultaneously poised to fire up at any moment before he is cast out of Paradise. Eyes full of wrath and rage, tears swelling silently before he falls to the Earth below.

3. Enantiomorph

Finale of the album from the aesthetic terrorist being the uniquely christened Enantiomorph. According to a 2008 article this word explores a visual concept of, "a pair of asymmetrical images that are mirror images of one another." Merriam-Webster further defines it as, "either a pair of chemical compounds whose molecular structures have a nonsuperimposable mirror-image relationship to another." Pointed out by a listener awaiting the release on a Marilyn Manson fan server on the Discord platform, this idea is intertwined with the idea of chirality; or, like Merriam-Webster's usage of the term, an object and its mirror image that are not identical to one another. This rings a bell to the cover art for the As Sick As The Secrets Within, which was the first released song of this whole two-album cycle, showing Manson holding a shard of a mirror that is characterised by the reflection of his face in his hand.