Marilyn Manson will reissue Antichrist Superstar for its thirtieth anniversary. Waxwork Records have it for 15 January, remastered, in gatefold, on vinyl and on cassette, with a twenty four page book of previously unreleased photographs, handwritten lyrics and sketches from the period.
The pressings are where the money is: a double album in midnight blue with an iridescent gold and green haze, an alternative in crystal clear with black smoke, and a replica of a shirt from the era. Waxwork built their business on exactly this kind of object, and a record that sold into seven figures in 1996 has an audience that buys them.
Manson's own statement is in the register the record was written in. "It's been 30 years since I carved open the American dream and pulled out Antichrist Superstar in all its vitriolic glory," he said, adding that it "became folklore for a culture that forgot what real danger sounded like".
Thirty years is also long enough that most of the people who will buy this were not there. The book is the part aimed at them.