Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	60/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Alternative Press
BBC Music	Favorable
Drowned in Sound	7/10
Entertainment Weekly	B−
The Guardian
Mojo
PopMatters	3/10
Q
Rolling Stone

The Golden Age of Grotesque is the fifth studio album by American rock band Marilyn Manson, released on May 7, 2003 by Nothing and Interscope Records. It was the band's last album recorded as a five-piece before John 5 left the group in 2004. The album is marked by a thematic preoccupation with degenerate art (Entartete Kunst). Limited edition units included a DVD titled Doppelherz, a surrealist short film directed by frontman Marilyn Manson.

It was revealed in a 2007 edition of the British rock magazine Kerrang! that The Golden Age of Grotesque was intended to be Marilyn Manson's departure from music. The album received mixed to positive reviews from mainstream music critics; positive reviews praised the album's production, while critics focused on its lack of originality.

The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, while also topping the charts in Austria, Canada, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. It spawned two singles: "This Is the New Shit" and "Mobscene". The band supported the album with the Grotesk Burlesk Tour.

In a November 2001 post on MarilynManson.com's message board, Manson stated that the band's fifth studio album would be "very much guitar driven", in spite of previous claims that it would be beat-oriented. He also revealed that he had been working on a remix of "The Fight Song" with Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison, and that he was collaborating with Tim Sköld on an original score for the forthcoming Resident Evil movie. On May 29, 2002, Sköld became an official band member when Twiggy Ramirez amicably left the group, citing creative differences.

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Wikipedia