You might expect a band calling itself Godhead to be more than willing to provoke and push society's buttons. Indeed, add the fact that Godhead happens to be the first band to be signed to Marilyn Manson's own Posthuman Records label, and you'd expect nothing less. And Godhead frontman Jason Miller aims to deliver -- even in this modern information age when provocation is no small task.

"What was totally unacceptable and immoral ten years ago is mild and totally acceptable today," Miller says. "The state of society, where the line of morality is concerned, is not only being sold to us in copious amounts of propaganda and advertising, but is constantly moving."

But with their Posthuman debut, 2000 Years of Human Error, Godhead prove that they're up to the task of keeping just far enough ahead of society's morality line to look back at it and pose the sort of questions says need to be asked. At the heart of the album -- Godhead's fourth -- is the notion that society has made the same mistakes over and over again for the last 2000 years, from the follies of organized religion to the shameless way in which life itself is marketed to the general populace in modern times. "Tell me your problems," Miller sings in a deep, hypnotic voice in "I Sell Society," "I've got just the thing to fix it/sell it to you for this bargain basement price."

"If you get this four bedroom house and have 2.5 kids, then you're supposed to be happy," says Miller. "It's the American dream, in this shiny, happy Britney Spears kind of way, and movies and TV will tell you exactly what you need to be happy. But there are so many people that are miserable."

Though Miller admits that religion, typically, does not factor into his lyric writing, the hard look the album takes at society as a whole demanded he address the matter. Thus, the album's title track, in which he likens organized religion to "a family of flies."

"The Bible is a group of stories that were written as examples of how people should live their lives," he says, adding that the fatal flaw as he sees it lies not in the judgement but in the judges themselves. "They have taken parts of the stories and used them to benefit themselves, for power or wealth, and they have thwarted and used the Bible as an excuse."

Such brash honesty -- laced with that unmistakable pungent scent of revolt -- was what no doubt attracted Marilyn Manson, rock's reigning dark lord. Hailing from the underground musical landscape in Washington, D.C., Godhead proved themselves within the industrial underworld through relentless touring with bands like Gwar and Christian Death. They had already released three independent albums -- 1994's Godhead, 1996's Nothingness and 1998's Power Tool Stigmata -- by the time Manson came calling. After signing the band, Manson worked as executive producer for 2000 Years, lent his vocals to the track "Break You Down" and took them on the road as part of his recent Guns, God and Government world tour.

Not surprisingly, the similarity in Godhead's menacing undertones and Manson's habitual cynicism is uncanny. On 2000 Years, Godhead bring the same darkness that Manson brought to their cover of "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" to the Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby." Godhead bassist/programmer the Method had recorded a version of the song that appeared on their last album; with Manson's help, they revisited the song again, and on the new album, the title character's loneliness becomes even more cloaked in mystery and macabre. Delivered in Miller's fittingly dark, baritone voice, it fits disturbingly well within the context of Godhead's brand of industrial-edged contemporary goth rock, rendered all the more chilling by the band's visual impact. Miller's intimidating visage brings to mind Hellraiser's Pinhead, his pale white face adorned by a thin black line that drips from the top of his bald head, down past his deep-set eyes and disappears under his chin. The rest of the band -- the Method, guitarist Mike Miller and drummer James O'Connor -- are only slightly less mysterious looking.

At the end of the day, however, it's the message, not the theatrics, that drives Godhead. "Manson opened the door for a lot of artists in the mainstream to be more outrageous," Miller says. Now, the challenge before Godhead is to not only infiltrate the mainstream in the wake of Manson, but to open up just as many doors for their audience on their own. "Rather than make bold statements and tell our listeners what they should do," Miller explains, "we put it out there for them as an observer, and then they can make their own decisions."

KERRY L. SMITH
(January 23, 2001)