Heaven Upside Down

Heaven Upside Down cover
  • Release date: October 6, 2017
  • Genre: Rock
  • Length: 47:29
  • Label: Loma Vista
  • Written by: Marilyn Manson, Tyler Bates

Track List

LyricsMusic
Marilyn MansonTyler Bates
Revelation #12XX
Tattooed In ReverseXX
WE KNOW WHERE YOU FUCKING LIVEXX
SAY10XX
KILL4MEXX
SaturnaliaXX
JE$U$ CRI$I$XX
Blood HoneyXX
Heaven Upside DownXX
Threats of RomanceXX

Introduction

It's very much about me saying: I'm going to take on the world, fuck you, I feel strong enough to do that, and then meeting somebody, and realizing that I need that person, but I need that person to be dedicated enough to stand against the world as well, and then when you're facing the world it becomes "guess what, there's no out plan here, we're in this deep", and then it becomes the same story that everyone knows in life where every story ends the same way, every romantic story ends the same way.

Unlike Manson's previous albums, Heaven Upside Down doesn't have a well-defined concept behind it, and it seems like Manson had a bit of a challenge deciding what the album should become:

The album was originally scheduled to be released on February 14th, 2017, but then it got delayed because Manson wasn't satisfied with it. He later supplemented the album with 3 additional songs: Revelation #12, Heaven Upside Down, and Saturnalia, telling Loudwire that:

Those are the three of the most key songs that really tell the story [...] Those three songs, they take place as if it were a film. The three acts - it's the opening, it's the middle and then it's the ending. Then there's the song after 'Heaven Upside Down,' it's sort of the end title credits where it's really surmising the story of the record, which is to be interpreted by the listener.

So ultimately, once the album was done, Manson had decided that it tells a story, but as the above admission indicates, this wasn't a story that was there from the start, but rather something Manson was searching for for most of the creative process.

Story inspirations

The story is a failed love story, inspired by Manson's tumultuous experience with love. He has written many songs, and even entire records (see Eat Me Drink Me, and The High End of Low) about the turmoil of failed relationships, and the narrative of the album follows the same pessimism that characterizes those records: how relationships just tend to fail, again and again, no matter what you do. That is why, in the NME interview quoted above, he described it as "the same story that everybody knows in life where every story ends the same way, every romantic story ends the same way".

Donald Trump
Donald Trump

There are also indications that the chaos of the 2016 elections had an influence on the record. The 2016 elections were unique because the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, was possibly the most polarizing candidate in American history. Narcissistic, unqualified for the position (by his own admission to Pierce Morgan), old fashioned, he seemed like the guy who would break everything if he were elected into office, and pat himself on the back while doing that. Liberal voters were acting like the world was coming to an end as they watched his popularity rising. Even Manson got caught up in the controversy: despite having very little interest in politics (in fact he hasn't even voted until 2009), he released a video on election day featuring a decapitated man in a suit that looked a lot like Donald Trump. Manson since denied in interviews that the beheaded person was supposed to be Trump, saying that it could be any person in a suit and that it was up to the viewer to assign identity to this person. However, the video was released on the day of the 2016 elections, so it definitely was intended to be a statement on the elections.

Some of the sentiments on this album, like the idea of society choosing its own disaster in the song Revelation #12, the good vs evil and "which side are you going to choose?" theme on SAY10, the biting sarcasm on Tattooed In Reverse (You can't play this game, you've lost all the pieces, I'm sure someone else will pay for your sins), all mirror that conflict of the 2016 elections, where people were voting for a candidate that many feared would be disastrous.

Story overview

In another interview Manson gave an outline for how he sees the narrative role of some of the songs:

Well, if you're watching a movie there's a particular scene that has to happen right there. That's after like "Saturnalia", the romantic scene where the whole love affair is established and then the next scene is the action scene and that's JE$U$ Cri$i$. And then it gets to the sensitive part and then the part where the person you really like in the movie dies and then the part where you decide how it goes. It's sort of a basic love story that has a tragic or happy ending depending on how you're looking at it.

To expand upon Manson's characterization of the album, here's how I think the songs tell the story:

Revelation #12Introducing the setting: a world heading for disaster.
Tattooed In ReverseIntroducing the main character. The badass with a swagger and an edge.
WE KNOW WHERE YOU FUCKING LIVEAn action scene. Our protagonist, who knows some dangerous people, participates in a raid.
SAY10Realizing he can take on the world. "I'm the new devil now".
KILL4MEProtagonist meets love interest.
SaturnaliaThe romantic scene where the whole love affair is established.
JE$U$ CRI$I$Action scene.
Blood HoneyThe sensitive part. The relationship goes horribly wrong.
Heaven Upside DownThe relationship is over. The part where the person you really like in the movie dies.
Threats of RomanceThe part where you decide how it goes. Protagonist reaffirms his belief that he breaks every relationship he has, and that happiness isn't for him.

Final comments

  • The album was originally going to be called Say10, possibly in recognition of it being Manson's 10th album, but was later changed to Heaven Upside Down because Manson felt it better represented the album. SAY10 was a phrase that Manson coined in 12th grade, and rediscovered while rummaging through his childhood keepsakes.
  • Although Manson's father died near the end of the recording, Manson said in an interview that his death did not influence the content of the album. This is in great part because Manson did not realize the degree to which his dad was ill, and so his death came to him as a surprise. He did say that he considers the album to have his father's spirit in it.
  • The album features a lot of biblical references. You might want to familiarize yourself with the following stories: the Book of Revelation (especially chapter 12), Cain and Able, Tower of Babel, The Flood.

Song Analysis

Revelation #12

In today's age of Twitter, it might be worth starting by pointing out that the song name is "Revelation number 12", not "Revelation hashtag 12". Manson certainly seems to think it's worth clarifying, having said in an interview for Loudwire that:

The record takes a cycle and it's the beginning of the idea that "Revelation #12"... which when you mention that, technically it would be "Revelations 12". I wanted to put what people call a hashtag there because it's a pound sign. It'll always be the pound sign on your phone, so I wanted to bring that back. It was also a nod to The Beatles' "Revolution #9".

Also in that interview, Manson confirmed the tempting association with the Book of Revelation:

It was definitely a reference to Revelations 12, with the great red dragon.

In other interviews, Manson identified it as one of the three songs that define the album, saying that its role is the opening act of the story.

This is a pessimistic and apocalyptic song, painting the picture of a society whose self-destructive tendencies are about to culminate into something catastrophic. The apocalyptic theme ties in with the reference to the Book of Revelation, which describes the events that would unfurl at the end of the world. It is also my belief that the song was inspired by the tumultuous 2016 elections, because of the following:

  • As discussed in the introduction, we've seen indications that Manson, who normally ignores the elections, clearly had an artistic interest in the 2016 election, thanks to the album promo that he released on election day featuring a Trump-like character.
  • The song was written in close proximity to the 2016 elections (the song was written in 2017, and the elections happened at the end of 2016).
  • The "society headed for disaster" theme of the song, as well as the "society choosing its own disaster" theme, fits the way Donald Trump, the Republican candidate in the 2016 elections, was gaining in popularity, despite appearing to be someone who will cause great ruin if elected.
  • A key detail of chapter 12 of the Book of Revelation is the appearance of a great red dragon, who is also identified as the devil and Satan. Like the dragon, Trump also appeared suddenly in the political scene, and considering how he was received by the liberals, he might as well have been a red orange dragon who's synonymous with Satan himself.
  • The lyric "this is the time for US!" is written in an unusual manner: the word 'us' is capitalized. This could be just for emphasis, but it might also be a subtle hint towards the United States, since US is a common shorthand acronym for the United States of America.

Samples

"Bands of kids running up and down the street, just beating people and throwing bottles at them. Playing god..."

Source unknown, though personally it reminds me of a snippet from a news broadcast.

LyricsCommentary
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Revelations come in 12
I'll say it again
Manson begins his 10th album by... counting to 10.

If revelations come in 12, and we've already counted up to 10, it means we're really close to the revelations.
And
You will burn in a town with no firemen
Just playing with matches and praying to ashes.
Too stupid to call themselves evil
Too stupid to call themselves evil
So they call themselves heroes.
This paints the picture of a clueless society with destructive tendencies. Playing with matches is an idiom for doing something dangerous either cluelessly or carelessly; when disaster (a fire) will break out, it will be by their hand, and there will be no one to help them (town has no firemen).
Not only are these people acting dangerously, they also worship the product of their ill-advised exploits (pray to ashes).

If you look at this objectively, you might even conclude that they are evil, but they are too stupid to understand it, thinking they are doing great things. It's no wonder the apocalypse is just around the corner...
[Booklet version]
This is the time for US!
[Recorded version]
Is it the devil or us?
In this part of the song, what Manson actually sings doesn't match with what's written in the lyrics booklet. In such cases I tend to consider the recorded version as the canonic version, and the misprint as a hint for the artistic intent, since it's likely to be an old version of the lyrics that wasn't properly updated before release.

As stated in the introduction, I believe that the booklet version of the lyric might be a subtle hint that Manson was thinking about the turmoil of the United States elections when writing this song. The actually-sung version emphasize the degree to which this society is sabotaging itself, so much that you can't help but wonder if it's really the devil that's behind this.
We'll paint the town red
We'll paint the town red
With the blood of the tourists
"Paint the town red" is a phrase that means to "go out and enjoy oneself flamboyantly". Here Manson uses one of his favorite tricks of converting idioms to imagery, transforming it into actual painting with blood. A tourist is an outsider that comes to visit, so the idea seems to be that they will destroy anyone who comes in contact with them, and will party while doing so. This is a similar sentiment to the playing with matches theme in the verse, expressing that they are destructive with abandon.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Revelations come in 12
I'll say it again
Traitors and betrayers:
This fucking game has no fucking players.
Personally, "Traitors and betrayers" sounds like a play on the game "chutes and ladders", although that interpretation might be stretching it.

More importantly, the point of this lyric is that there are no traitors and betrayers, which connects to the theme of the song that this is a destruction we brought upon ourselves. We weren't betrayed, everyone who worked towards making the apocalypse happen was on our team.
So, "You got something to say now?"Towards the end of the song, Manson brings out some sarcasm. "Well, what do you have to say for yourself, now that you fucked up so badly?"
[Booklet version]
This is the time for US!
[Recorded version]
Is it the devil or us?
We'll paint the town red
We'll paint the town red
With the blood of the tourists

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Revelations come in 12
I'll say it again
You're welcome
You're welcome
You're welcome
You're fucking welcome.
...and some more sarcasm. "You're welcome" for what? You can make it out to be from whatever perspective you like; "Thanks for fucking up. You're welcome", or "Here's me telling you how much you fucked up, you're welcome". Either way, it's clear that the sentiment is not sincere, but rather disappointed.

Tattooed In Reverse

When you reverse a video of someone getting a tattoo, what you'll see is something that looks a lot like a person getting a tattoo, except that the needle erases the ink, rather than adding ink. In other words, you see someone "unmarked", using a process of "marking". This is a metaphor for becoming a rebel through trying experiences. A mark is a sign of ownership, but it's also a metaphor for something that leaves a lasting impression on you. So to be "unmarked by marking" can mean "to become owned by no one through experiences that leave a lasting impression on you", and indeed, in this song the narrator describes himself as a wild horse that cannot be tamed, and claims that he spent time in great hardship, and that made him dangerous (there ain't nothing in my hourglass, just sand from a dead sea, and I made it my weapon).

This is a song of attitude. The narrator alternates between describing himself as a wild horse that cannot be tamed in the chorus, and being very critical of those around him, criticizing their religious belief and for being destructive failures. There doesn't seem to be an overarching point in the content of the criticism, like an idea that is being developed across verses, so it's not about making a point as much as it is about making attitude, and therefore it's best to view this song as a character study, and I think that if this album were a movie, this would be the scene where we meet our protagonist.

Samples

"Martyr" and "another great" at around 2:50. Source unknown.

LyricsCommentary
So fuck your bible and your Babel
I made this psalm into my dirty bomb
So dance motherfucker, dance
Racing to a red light.
So fuck your bible and your Babel
Babel refers to the Tower of Babel, a short story from the Old Testament. In that story, all of humanity speaks the same language, and they team up to try to erect a tower that will reach heaven itself. In retaliation, God divides them into different languages, so that they are no longer able to communicate and work together, and the project fails. The word "babel" means "confusion". It also sounds like the modern word "babble", so in other words: fuck your bible and your nonsense.

I made this psalm into my dirty bomb
The Book of Psalms is a book in the Old Testament that contains sacred songs. A dirty bomb is a mixture of explosives and radioactive powder. It's a bomb that is designed to contaminate an area with radioactivity (unlike an atom bomb, which also causes radioactive contamination, but as a side effect, rather than as the main effect). He is turning their material against them.

dance motherfucker, dance
This is a reference to Bullet Dancing, a trope from Western movies in which a person is tormenting another person by shooting near their feet to make them jump around trying to avoid the bullets. This is often accompanied with a phrase like "let's see you dance".

Racing to a red light
Racing towards disaster.

Taken together, this is a statement of disdain, accompanied by some mean-spirited tormenting. Fuck your bible and nonsense, you self-destructive failure, I'm going to turn your shit against you, now let's see you dance motherfucker.
I'm un-stabled
I'm not a show horse
I can't be bridled, of course.
I'm un-scabbed and un-regretted
I got tattooed in reverse.
He is a wild horse. Can't be stabled, can't be bridled. He has no regrets, and he is unmarked.
You can't play this game.
You've lost all the pieces,
so hold your breath and just wait...
(I'm sure) someone else will pay for your sins.
But, I'm not convinced by your costume.
This ain't by goddamn cup of tears.
Another statement of criticism and disdain: you ruined this, but someone else will pay for your failures... shame on you twice.

But, I'm not convinced by your costume
But you don't fool me, I see you for who you are.

This ain't my goddamn cup of tears
This is a play on the phrase "not my cup of tea", which means "not something I enjoy". In other words, he has no sympathy for their misery.
I'm un-stabled
I'm not a show horse
I can't be bridled, of course.
I'm un-scabbed and un-regretted
I got tattooed in reverse.
Your confession means nothing.
So fuck your attrition.
There ain't nothing in my hourglass,
Just sand from a dead sea,
and I made it my weapon.
The Sacrament of Reconciliation, also known as the confession of sins, is part of the Catholic tradition. Its intent is to reconcile with God by expressing remorse for one's sins. However, not all remorse is created equal. Christianity distinguishes between two types of remorse: contrition and attrition. Contrition is remorse that is motivated by love of God, while attrition is remorse that is motivated by fear of punishment. Attrition is considered to be a lower quality form of remorse because it's based on self-interest, rather than investment in the ideal of God. So, in this verse, Manson bites twice: "your confession is meaningless, and you're also doing it for the wrong reasons anyway".

Sand in an hourglass represents time, and the Dead Sea, which is located in Israel, is known as the "lowest point on Earth", reaching a whooping 430.5 meters below sea level. In other words, "sand from a dead sea" means "time spent in the lowest point on Earth", which is idiomatic for "time spent in terrible hardships". He's basically saying that he had to endure a difficult period in his life. Why is it his weapon? Because once you survive the worst, you become resilient to the worst, and nothing can threaten you anymore.
So fuck your bible and your Babel
I made your psalm into my dirty bomb
So dance motherfucker, dance
Racing to a red light.

I'm un-stabled
I'm not a show horse
I can't be bridled, of course.
I'm un-scabbed and un-regretted
I got tattooed in reverse.

WE KNOW WHERE YOU FUCKING LIVE

That song [WE KNOW WHERE YOU FUCKING LIVE] I'm not sure what the beginning of it came from, I think it was more about the idea that people had this anonymity on the internet, and... a lot of people think it's political, but I think it was more about people saying things that they think they can get away with, and me being someone who is... friendly with very dangerous people and saying: you can say that, but you know what? Freedom of speech does not come with a dental plan, so say what you want, but we know where you fucking live.

LyricsCommentary
Let's make something clear,
We're all recording this as it happens.
My biggest influence, on the whole, would be Salvador Dali, who was not afraid to embrace everything as art and everything as a movie. When people say, "Life's not a movie", he'd say, "Well, why can't it be? Half the time you're being filmed". And that's why I start off "We Know Where You F***ing Live" with the line: "Let's make something clear. We're all recording this as it happens".
[booklet version]
No diamond-bullet storefront-blood-bank,
splinters and stained glass.
[recorded version]
Those diamond-bullet storefront-blood-bank,
splinters and stained glass.
I think this is a convoluted way of implying a drive-by shooting. The recorded version differs a little from the booklet lyrics, in a way that actually simplifies analysis, but both versions are mostly similar.

A bullet diamond is a type of diamond cut that resembles a bullet. You might find them in the storefront display of a jewelry store. A blood bank is a station where people donate blood, sometimes they operate in vans that park near places that have a lot of pedestrian traffic, such as shopping areas.
booklet version
But in this song's storefront scene, the bullets we have aren't diamond-bullets, they're real bullets, and all the blood on the scene isn't because a blood bank is parked in front of the store, it's because of a shooting. As a final hint, we have glass splinters and blood-stained glass to complete the image.
recorded version
The diamond bullets are the splinters of glass from the destroyed storefront, the blood bank is all the blood that stains the glass.
We don't need to move a single prayer bone
Dodge/burn so loud and sub-low
We don't need to move a single prayer bone
Hi-def is still life.
Prayer bones are knees (the bones you stand on during prayer). Saying that they don't need to move their prayer bones, implies that they have no need for walking. This is because they live through their computers. For them, viewing the world in Hi-Def resolution, is as good as living life in the real world.

Dodging and burning are techniques from photography printing. When printing a photograph from film, dodging is a technique that makes some parts of the image lighter, while burning is a technique that makes parts of the image darker. Both are achieved by modifying light exposure on the printing surface. "So loud and sub-low" might be in reference to their settings, meaning image where the light parts are really bright, and dark parts are really dark. Since this verse is about people participating in life through computers, this might be an allusion to how the automatic image adjustments of webcams often creates such poorly calibrated images.
"So what's a nice place like this, doing 'round people like us?"This is a play on the clichéd pickup line "what's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?", originally coined by a 1963 short film of the same name. By calling the other person "place", he is implying that he identifies the person he is interacting with by their place of residence, or in other words: he knows where they live.
WE KNOW WHERE YOU FUCKING LIVE
WE KNOW WHERE YOU FUCKING LIVE
We'll burn it down, burn it down.
They won't even recognize your corpse.
The world was stripped of its superficial surfaces.
We don't intend to just eat the street,
The asphalt is the good meat.
And we will sleep on the skin of its nightmares
We will sleep on the skin of its nightmares
"It's time to just kill this crowd, and scream as fucking loud..."
The world was stripped of its superficial surfaces
I think this is analogous to saying that a person was stripped of their clothes. That person is now exposed, which implies vulnerability, lack of protection, lack of cover. To this gang, the whole world is exposed like that.

We don't intend to just eat the street,
The asphalt is the good meat

"Eat the street" might be a reference to curb stomp, a form of assault also known as "biting the curb", in which the victim is forced to place their open mouth on the edge of a curb, and then stomped from behind, causing severe injuries and sometimes death. This form of assault requires cooperation from the victim, so it can be seen as a form of surrender, and therefore "we don't intend to just eat the street" could mean "we're not going to surrender".

Another way of looking at this line is: what's the opposite of "just" eating something? It's eating and savoring it. That's why the asphalt is the "good meat". So, they're going to devour the world with delight. The two interpretations can be combined, with the first line implying that "we're not going to surrender", and the second line twisting the original meaning to say, "in fact, we're going to enjoy biting into the street because we're the monsters here."

And we will sleep on the skin of its nightmares
To be on someone's skin is to be as close as possible to that person, so being close and intimate with it's nightmares means "we're going to be all the things you're afraid of."
WE KNOW WHERE YOU FUCKING LIVE
WE KNOW WHERE YOU FUCKING LIVE
We'll burn it down, burn it down.
They won't even recognize your corpse.

Fire fire fire fire fire away

I love the sound of shells hitting the ground, man

Fire fire fire fire fire away

WE KNOW WHERE YOU FUCKING LIVE
WE KNOW WHERE YOU FUCKING LIVE
We'll burn it down, burn it down.
They won't even recognize your corpse.

"So what's a nice place like this, doing 'round people like us?"

SAY10

This song describes adversity between two sides, like a good vs evil kind of conflict, except that it also states that Manson isn't playing by the rules of the other person's game. You can see it most clearly in the chorus: "you say god, and I say say10". Obviously, "say10" sounds like the name "Satan", so Manson is drawing a good vs evil contrast between himself and the other person, but at the same time, he isn't using the language of good vs evil to make that point. It's not "you say god, I say Satan", it's "I say say10". A similar twist can be seen in other parts of the song. For example, instead of "Cain and Able", the hostile brothers from the Old Testament, it's "cocaine and Able". At the same time, there is definite kinship between the side Manson attributes to himself, and the side of the devil. This can be seen in the second verse, where he describes himself as having goat horns, just like the devil. So, I think that the overall concept of the song is that he is a new type of antagonist, birthed out of the side of the devil, the original antagonist. This is similar to what happens in Revelation 13, which describes the appearance of a beast who got its power from the great red dragon that appeared before it in chapter 12: "And the dragon [Satan] gave him [the beast] his power, and his seat, and great authority". In other words, the sentiment in the song seems to be "I'm the new devil now".

There is also some cause to consider this song in the context of the 2016 elections. Although the song doesn't have obvious references to the elections, it speaks of two opposing sides, and it asks which side you will choose to believe in. Even the idea that Manson is putting himself "out of the game of good vs evil" can be connected to the elections, since Manson was quoted as saying that he won't be voting in the elections considering his choices are between "cat shit and dog shit". Finally, there's the album promo that Manson released on the day of the 2016 elections. The video used SAY10 as the soundtrack, and depicted a beheaded man who looked a lot like Donald Trump.

LyricsCommentary
Devil's got a cut
like a slit in a cattle's calf
dollar-sign snakes
I'm all in the damn
god-less fearless of the flood
or the blood of the coming Spring.
Devil's got a cut
"Got a cut" is a phrase that means "to receive a portion of the profits". The "devil's cut" is also a term from the world of alcohol distillation, referring to parts of the liquid that are lost during the aging process due to absorption into the wood of the barrel. However, given the multiple references to money in this song, Manson probably wasn't trying to tie it in to the subject of alcohol, and was instead talking about receiving profits.

like a slit in a cattle's calf
I think this is alluding to animal sacrifice, meaning that the devil's cut is as evil as a sacrifice of a young calf.

dollar-sign snakes
A snake is an ancient symbol for evil, so dollar sign snakes either means evil money or evil people who are focused on money.

I'm all in the damn
The word "damn" also sounds like "dam", which is connected to the flood imagery later in the verse. He is "in the damn" meaning "in damnation" because he's God-less, and he's also "in the dam", hence he is fearless of the flood. The flood is of course a reference to the biblical story of the flood, although flood myths aren't unique to the Old Testament, but are in fact common across cultures.

The flood myth is an apocalyptic story in which a higher power destroys civilization, usually in punishment for straying from the right way. The flood represents cleansing in the name of a new start.

Our speaker is also fearless of the "blood of the coming spring". A "spring" is often used as a metaphor for a new beginning. A somewhat recent example of this is the "Arab Spring", which referred to a series of anti-government protests and rebellions that spread in the Arab world in the early 2010s. "Blood of the coming spring" implies a massacre, or violent conflict, and I think it's meant to be the devil's version of the flood. God cleanses humanity with a flood, the devil does so with bloodshed and conflict.
Something is shedding its scales
crying from the heat of the light
or the empty shell on the stage...
"And cash is the poor man's money".
The main idea of this stanza is that there's a new kind of evil that's about to emerge.

The stanza begins with serpentine imagery. Snakes shed their skin, and they usually do so in hiding because they are more vulnerable when that happens. Snakes are an ancient symbol for evil, and skin shedding is a symbol of transformation. An evil thing is lurking, transforming itself, and is about to emerge.
Further hint that this is a thing of evil is found in the second line, "crying from the heat of the light". This thing can't stand the light, a symbol for goodness.

What kind of evil thing is this? It's a new, never seen before type of evil. First, the lyrics themselves can't describe what this thing is (it's an unknown "something"). Second, this thing seems to reject the ways of the old evil. This is expressed in the phrase "cash is the poor man's money", which the music accentuates like a punchline. This line is in quotes, as if said by the lurking evil, and it seems to be in opposition to the beginning of the verse. In the beginning of the verse, we had dollar sign snakes, and a devil who "got his cut". But now this new something is saying that there are things that are a more valuable currency than money (for example, reputation can be a valuable social "currency"). Money, the force of corruption wielded by the old evil, is of no use to this new evil.

Who or what is the empty shell on the stage? The song doesn't really provide enough context, but if we consider the political connections of this song, perhaps this is the only line in the song that actually alludes to the elections, with the empty shells being the politicians that appear on the stage to promote themselves. Just like with the light, our lurking evil cannot tolerate them either.

"And cash is the poor man's money".
There are multiple possible sources for this line.
It might be inspired by Marshall McLuhan's quote "Money is just the poor man's credit card", taken from the subtitle of chapter 14 in Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Marshall McLuhan is a famous media analyst, and Manson is known to be a fan of his work. Alternatively, there's an Indian bedtime story called The Poor Man's Wealth, in which a rich but anxious man takes pity on a poor (but contented) man, and decides to gift him a box of money. This turns the poor man anxious, weary of being robbed, and he decided to give the gift back, having realized he prefers his piece of mind more than having money. It could also be inspired by W. C. Fields, who said "a rich man is nothing but a poor man with money".
So you say "God", and I say, "SAY10"
Say say say 10
As discussed in the introduction, they say God, he says the opposite, except that he isn't really saying "Satan", but his own version of opposition.
Open your mouth, love
like a gutted church
my goat horns are napalm trees,
and a crown of thorns is hard to swallow.
You should pray now,
Is it above or is it below?
A gutted building is a building that withstood extensive damage. Often this happens as a result of a fire. I think that the "gutted church" imagery Manson was going for is an image of a church that had its front doors destroyed, creating a gaping mouth, maybe with some windows on each side for eyes.

What is she supposed to open her mouth for? I think that the religious context of the verse, as well as the sequence of events (open mouth ... and now pray) implies receiving communion. The Eucharist, or Holy Communion, is a Christian rite that mirrors the last supper in the New Testament, in which Jesus feeds his disciples and says that the bread is his body, and the wine is the blood of his covenant. In the Holy Communion, the participants open their mouth to receive a soda cracker that represents the bread, and this is followed by a prayer.

In this verse, the person is provided two sides to choose from (who are you going to pray for? Is it above or below?). Both sides have something on their head; he, the (new) devil has horns like napalm trees (a play on "palm trees"), while Jesus has a crown of thorns. I think that both sides are supposed to be somewhat unappealing. "Hard to swallow" means hard to accept, so a "crown of thorns is hard to swallow" suggests that the Christian mythos of martyrdom is something that's difficult to accept. This is an idea that Manson used in the past, particularly in the song The Long Hard Road Out of Hell, where he speaks about how martyrdom as an ideal to look up to is emotionally difficult to live with. Alternatively, the devil's horns are made from napalm. Given that a fire is a common reason for a building to be gutted, maybe this person's proximity to the new devil, who speaks directly to her in the verse, is the reason why she's like a gutted church.

"Is it above or is it below" sounds like a reference to "as above, so below", a phrase originating from the Emerald Tablet, an ancient Hermetic text. It is often used in occult contexts, and it represents the connection between the divine and the mortal (as is in the skies, so it is here on earth). In this song, Manson merely uses it to contrast heaven and hell.
So you say "God", and I say, "SAY10"
Say say say 10
Cocaine and Abel
I don't baptize whores
I'm a legend I'm not a fable.
Cocaine and Able
The story of Cain and Able is a story from the Old Testament. Cain is jealous of his brother Able for his success, and murders him in response to how unfair it is (in his opinion) that his brother has so much and he Cain has so little. The brothers epitomize the contrast between good and bad, and just like in the chorus, Manson uses them to invoke the contrast between good and bad, but twists the side of evil into his own version (instead of Cain, it's Cocaine).

I don't baptize whores
This is a reference to Jesus. Although Jesus did not baptize anyone in the standard sense of the word, he did baptize them spiritually. In Matthew 3:11, John says:

"I will baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

Jesus was also known for his love for sinners, including prostitutes.

I'm a legend I'm not a fable.
A legend is a folk tale that's based on a historic event or person. Fables are like fairytales with a moral, often featuring animals as protagonists (for example, The Hare and Tortoise). So, Manson is saying that he's larger than life, and for real.
You should pray now,
Is it above or is it below?

You say "God", and I say, "SAY10"
Say say say 10

KILL4ME

We were trying to find the point in the record where there was going to be a story - that [kill4me] was the point when the story began. It's very romantic - I wrote the lyrics almost as a poem. I just simply said, 'Would you kill for me?' It was almost trying to make fun of the fact that I hate songs where people are whining and saying 'I'd die for you'. I don't like it when people ask questions in songs because they sound like pussies.

This is the point when the story takes a turn. Our protagonist meets his love interest.

LyricsCommentary
Let's grab our gold switchblade
and make us a blood pact, babe
to love and to fuck and to only see ourselves
And remember this...
But the lyrics in the first verse ["Let's grab a gold switchblade and make us a blood pact, babe"] - that is something I had actually said in life.
--Marilyn Manson, Yahoo! Music interview
Your hotel-heart won't be so vacant
And I can tell that you ain't faking,
because I take death threats
like the best of them.
Your hotel-heart won't be so vacant
A hotel is a place where people stay temporarily, and then leave. If her heart is like a hotel, it means she never has permanent relationships, only short flings and one-night stands. In between, there's loneliness, but now our protagonist is saying her heart doesn't have to be empty anymore, because he's not going to leave.

And I can tell that you ain't faking
This woman is a badass like him. Having experienced many death threats in his life, he knows which ones are real and which ones are bluffing, or don't have the guts to go through with it. Hence when she threatens him, he can tell that she is for real.
Would you kill kill kill for me?
I love you enough, to ask you again...
Would you kill kill kill for me?
You won't be kissing me, unless you kill for me.
Kill kill kill for me?
Instead of "would you die for me", he's asking "will you kill for me?" As stated in an interview for Loudwire, this is an ultimatum:

Some might say 'Would you kill for me?' is a question. It's more of a veiled threat than a question. It's an ultimatum, I think.
--Marilyn Manson, Loudwire interview

She has to be all-in.
Bloody noses are just like roses
but what happens when we are betrayed?
Would you drag them to the shed and unload six rounds in their fucking face?
This is our sacrifice...
Bloody noses are just like roses
If she beats someone up for him, giving them bloody noses, it's as nice a gesture as giving someone flowers.

but what happens when we are betrayed?
But beating someone up is easy, what happens if we are betrayed and you have to kill the betrayer? Will you be able to do that?
Your hotel-heart won't be so vacant
And I can tell that you ain't faking,
because I take death threats
like the best of them.
Would you kill kill kill for me?
I love you enough, to ask you again...
Would you kill kill kill for me?
You won't be kissing me, unless you kill for me.
Sideways for attention
Longways for results.
Who are you going to cross?
Sideways for attention, Longways for results.
This line is about attempting suicide by slitting your own wrists. If you cut across the width of the wrist (sideways), the wound will not be big enough to bleed you to death before it seals itself. This is why such attempts are considered to be aiming for attention, not actual death. It's what you do to freak out the people around you. If you cut along the wrist though, then the wound will be big enough to kill you, so if you want your attempt to give actual results, this is the way to do it.

Who are you going to cross?
Of course, what's applicable for killing yourself, is also applicable for killing someone else, so when he is asking "who are you going to cross?", it means: either you're going to cross me, by cutting someone sideways (a half-hearted attempt, not really willing to kill), or you're going to cross the other person, by cutting longways.
Would you kill kill kill for me?
I love you enough, to ask you again...
Would you kill kill kill for me?
You won't be kissing me, unless you kill for me.
Kill kill kill for me?
Sideways for attention
Longways for results.
Who are you going to cross?

Saturnalia

Saturn was a Roman god of time, wealth, agriculture, renewal, and liberation. According to Roman mythology, he reigned over the region of Latium in a period that was characterized by great abundance, and was thus referred to as a golden age. Saturn was also identified with the Greek god Cronus, and therefore myths that were originally associated with Cronus, for example the idea that he devours his own children to prevent the prophesy that his children will one day overthrow him, was associated with Saturn too.

Saturnalia was an ancient Roman festival and holiday that celebrated Saturn. It happened a few days before the winter solstice, and would last for about a week of non-stop celebrations. The Saturnalia celebrations were characterized by role reversal. Masters would serve food to their slaves, gambling was allowed, women were allowed into male-only spaces, and poor people were elected to serve as "kings of Saturnalia".

In an interview for Vice, Manson called Saturnalia "the romantic scene where the love affair is established", and in an interview with Yahoo! Music, said it "takes it into the story, the real heart of the record". In this song, the protagonist is described as Saturnus, his love interest as the Winter Solstice, and their love as the Saturnalia festival, a celebration that turns everything upside down.

LyricsCommentary
Ailanrutas si siht
When all your demons die
even if just one survives
I will still be here to hold you
No matter how cold you are.
No matter how cold you are.
This is an expression of devotion to his partner, one of multiple such verses in this song.

When all your demons die
even if just one survives

This describes a cataclysmic event in the woman's life. The word "demons" might seem like a weird choice in this context. Usually someone's demons are the negative spirits that impacts their life, and ridding oneself of your inner demons is not a cataclysm, but rather a step towards a better mental health. However, I think it's clear from the second verse that this is a troubled woman, and of course, if you follow the album's story, you'll eventually encounter lyrics like "I like you damaged", which mirrors Manson's proclamation that he is like flypaper for damaged women. When a person is sufficiently damaged, then their inner self is nothing but demons, and in that case, getting rid of your demons means breaking apart (there's nothing left of you). So when he says "even if just one survives" it means that "as long as you're still here, even barely, I'll be with you".
no matter how cold you are
This song compares the protagonist to Saturnus, and her to the Winter Solstice, hence the coldness metaphors. The cold also represents her inner turmoil. In this verse, he is willing to hold her no matter how much turmoil she is going through. In the next verse, she will let that turmoil burst out, and he will share her turmoil by sitting in its snowfall.
I see the terror in your teardrop
Take your belief
Make it snow, let go
And wait together until we thaw.
She is haunted by beliefs that terrorize her. He tells her to let go of those beliefs, and allow them to come out in the form of snow. Sitting with her, covered in her snow, means sharing her burdens, and through that process, all of her problems will eventually melt away.
I don't want to be another bullet hole in the exit sign of your road.I don't want to be another person you shoot out of your life.
Just smile like a rifle
Hot metal in the setting sun
Just smile like a rifle
Hot metal in the setting sun
I was invited to eat the young
I was invited to eat the young
Just smile like a rifle
This reminds me of the phrase "she wore a smile like a loaded gun". It's a smile that makes you feel like a loaded gun is pointed at you. Anyone who can smile like that is dangerous, confident, powerful.

I was invited to eat the young
He is the god Saturn.
A stunning possession of symbolic firearms,
in the bottomless celebrity scar.
Both of these lines are from the Eat Me, Drink Me era. "bottomless celebrity scar" appeared as a lyric in the song The Red Carpet Grave, while "stunning possession of symbolic firearms" appeared in the Eat Me, Drink Me CD booklet as background text (on the page with the lyrics to the song Just A Car Crash Away).

I think the idea here is that a lot of inner power (symbolic firearms) can come out of adversity (bottomless celebrity scar). This connects to the idea of "smile like a rifle" from the chorus. When you smile like that, you're pointing your symbolic, inner gun at someone. Overall, this can be seen as encouragement for his troubled love interest ("your hardships are really strengths"), perhaps based on his own experience as a celeberity who was scarred by it, and developed an arsenal through that experience.
I don't want to be another bullet hole
in the exit sign of your road.
So just smile like a rifle
Hot metal in the setting sun
Just smile like a rifle
Hot metal in the setting sun
I was invited to eat the young
I was invited to eat the young
By the roadside, all the bones picked clean
No gas in our machine
I will still be here to hold you
No matter how cold you are
No matter how cold we are
Another description of his commitment to stand by her, this time as they are stranded in a desert.
Can't stop now, no flowers to smell
The Earth ate up the Son
Can't even load my gun
It seems like Saturnalia
Sat sat sat sat Saturnalia
Can't stop now no flowers to smell
This is of course the reverse of the phrase "stop and smell the flowers".

The Earth ate up the Son
According to myth, Saturn eats his children. That's the standard course of events. In this line, a different planet (Earth- notice the capitalization) is eating the son instead.

Can't even load my gun
Clearly, he expects to be able to load his gun. This is evident from how the line is phrased, but also if you follow the narrative of the album, you know that this character isn't a stranger to firearms. The gun isn't necessarily literal. It could also mean that he feels disarmed for the first time.

It seems like Saturnalia
Can't stop? Natural order of things changed? He feels disarmed? Seems like Saturnalia is going on, the non-stop festival where everything is upside down. Their love is intense and turns his world upside down.
There's no exit plan here
No emergency room in this tomb
And this door only opens one way
Sat sat sat sat Saturnalia
This is the kind of romance you don't walk away from, it's all-in or nothing. The door only opens one way: in.

no emergency room in this tomb
Why is it a tomb? Manson really likes romance that's characterized by sharing hardships. They chose to be damned together, hence they are in a tomb.
Blinded by blackness,
we're just empty shells
In the deafening void
of our last sunset.
The ending of the song is like a fade to black in a movie. Blindness, deafness, blackness, a sunset (which leads to blackness) ... It's all senses shutting down. But this is more than simply the end of a scene, it's also the end of them as well, because it's not just a sunset, it's their last sunset. The next time we revisit these lovers, it's going to be in the song Blood Honey, where the relationship goes horribly wrong.

This verse also reminds me of this quote by Manson:

I was going to call the record SAY10, but I didn't feel that that defined the album. I had the lyrics written for the song 'Heaven Upside Down', and I thought that defined the record more so because of the idea of time as a flat circle, constellations being defined by the negative space—the blackness; the idea of looking at something from an opposite point of view.
--Marilyn Manson, Bloody Disgusting interview

It's possible that the imagery of this verse is inspired by imagining the two lovers as stars in space. After all, he is Saturn, an actual planet, and she, being the winter solstice, is identified by the relationship between the Earth and the sun, so both of them can be imagined as celestial objects floating in the black void of space. It fits with the idea that the void is "deafening" since sound isn't transmitted in space.

JE$U$ CRI$I$

...after that, it goes into my résumé on a song like "Je$u$ Chri$is", that's my résumé: "I write songs to fight and to fuck to/If you wanna fight, then I'll fight you/If you wanna fuck, I will fuck you". It's basically something I would say with a shrug when someone asked me, "What do you do?" "Well, I write songs to fight and fuck to".

LyricsCommentary
I write songs to fight and to fuck to
If you wanna fuck then I'll fuck you
If you wanna fight then I'll fight you
Make up your mind or I'll make it up for you.
As stated in the introduction, this is him describing his own music.
The present is too fast.
Anticipation is killing us.
Cutting up rails.
Eating our own tales.
The present is too fast.
The present is fleeting, making living in the moment hard.

Anticipation is killing us.
Living for the future is also painful.

Cutting up rails.
This is slang for dividing a heap of coke into lines to snort.

Eating our own tales.
Lying to ourselves. This phrase is a play on "eating our own tails", like an ouroboros.
So we're sucking up Snow White's powder
White powder Snow White powder
High as a tower and ready to fall to the street
Like a Viper.
So, to cope with the above they're doing drugs, and that makes them able to take on the world (they become dangerous like a viper).
I write songs to fight and to fuck to
If you wanna fuck then I'll fuck you
If you wanna fight then I'll fight you
Make up your mind or I'll make it up for you.
Sucking up Snow White powder
White powder Snow White powder
High as a tower fall to the street
Like a Viper.
I'm like a JE$U$ CRI$I$
JE$U$ CRI$I$
And I made it up for you
Made it up for you
I'm like a JE$U$ CRI$I$
JE$U$ CRI$I$
And I made up for you
JE$U$ CRI$I$
JE$U$ CRI$I$
JE$U$ CRI$I$
JE$U$ CRI$I$
One way to interpret "Jesus Crisis" is that his art evokes a crisis of faith in those who listen to him. Another angle can be found in some of Manson's interview quotes:

Jesus was the first rock star.
--Marilyn Manson, an essay published for Roling Stone

I'm here to fuck shit up. That's my job. I'm a tornado and you can sit back and watch it.
--Marilyn Manson, Dazed magazine

So he is a rock star, but not like Jesus, he's the kind of rock star that fucks shit up. The play on the name Jesus Christ is therefore meant to communicate the difference.

And I made up for you
This is in reference to the chorus "make up your mind or I'll make it up for you". He decided to make it up for you.
I write songs to fight and to fuck to
If you wanna fuck then I'll fuck you
If you wanna fight then I'll fight you
Make up your mind or I'll make it up for you.
(Fight, Fuck) Made it up for you.
(Fight, Fuck) Make it up for you.

Blood Honey

This is the song in which the relationship goes horribly wrong. Having realized that his relationship is predicated on him being powerless, the protagonist, in his deranged, drugged-out state, abducts his lover in order to flip the power imbalance. It's unclear from the lyrics what the finale of this scene is, so you are free to imagine them going their separate ways after the madness subsides, but reading Manson's interviews from the era suggests to me that he imagined an end result in which the protagonist kills his lover. The clue to this can be found in the Vice interview that is quoted in the introduction section where Manson described this part of the album as: "and then it gets to the sensitive part and then the part where the person you really like in the movie dies".

LyricsCommentary
You only say that you want me
when I'm upside down, upside down.
To be upside down is to be in a state of chaos/confusion/disorder, and that makes you powerless. This is an experience Manson is all too familiar with, having written two albums from that point of view (Eat Me Drink Me, and The High End of Low).
Being powerless against love was responsible for some of Manson's worst emotional states, so when the protagonist laments that his love interest only wants him when he's upside down, he isn't complaining about her being attracted to broody guys, or wanting someone to fix, or being in love with drama... It's specifically about "you only want me when I'm powerless". That is why in this song, he fights back by making her powerless instead using a kidnapping:
I've got you tied up and I love it.
Tied up and I love it
Now, why should I set you free?
Now you're tied up, you love it.
No lies now and I love it.
I'm not being mean, I'm just being me.
I've seen some people try to interpret this song as a consensual BDSM song because of the line "you're tied up, you love it", but this isn't what the subtext of the song suggests. In this chorus, he is celebrating the fact that he finally has the power. She's tied up, he loves it, and he isn't relinquishing this power (setting her free). From that vantage point, he can't be manipulated anymore (hence "no lies now"), and he can unleash his negative feelings (hence his excuse of "I'm not being mean"), but he also realizes that what he's doing is crazy. When he says "now you're tied up, you love it" it's an attempt to reassure himself that the situation isn't completely out of control. "You're loving this right?" He says as he ties her up. "Don't lie to me, I know you're loving this..." To the same end, he also tries to excuse how he's behaving (I'm not being mean, I'm just being me).
[Booklet version]
I've got some feelings
but I try to hide when I'm healing.
[Recorded version]
I've got some feelings
but I try to hide what I reel in.
This part has multiple differences between the recorded and the written version of the lyrics, and as usual I'm going to consider the recorded version to be the correct one, and the booklet version as the work-in-progress one that is superseded by the recorded version.

Here the protagonist is reflecting on how broken he is as a person. He has human needs like everybody else (I've got some feelings), but:

I try to hide what I reel in
This is building on the famous metaphor comparing relationship searching to fishing ("there's plenty of fish in the sea" and all that...).
He tries to fulfill his emotional needs using relationships, but he can only catch highly dysfunctional relationships, and that reveals a deep dysfunction within himself. In other words, the only way for him to try to fulfill his needs is to do something that reveals how incapable he is of fulfilling his needs, and the only way out of this catch-22 is to be in somewhat of a denial about exactly how broken his relationships are. When he's talking about hiding what he reels in, it's said in the sense of "I try to hide the truth of what I reel in". But he still knows perfectly well what this truth is:
I fuck every broken-crazy-girl, instead of hanging from the ceiling.

The subject of him lying to himself continues further down the verse. He "keeps his life a lie", and also "keeps his head loose", which means keeping himself vague. Being vague about yourself is a defense mechanism that protects you against the pain of failure. For example, if you can't define what you want, then you also can't tell when you're not getting it, which prevents you from facing your own failure.

And if we humor the booklet version of the lyrics for a moment:
I try to hide when I'm healing
This can be interpreted as him not wanting to show vulnerability (the fact he is healing means he is injured, and he doesn't want to be seen in that state).

Finally, we get to the blood honey section. He is bleeding from his nose, and the blood runs down to his mouth. This is why in the booklet lyrics he's first "dripping blood", and then "drinking blood". In the recorded version Manson never actually says "drinking blood", it's just "dripping" everywhere. Him bleeding from his nose might suggest that he is drugged out, which adds to the deranged state we see him in. Also notice the punctuation:

First, it's "I'm dripping blood <comma> honey", as in "look honey, I'm dripping blood", and then it's "I'm dripping blood honey", no comma. If we consider the dead lover angle for this song, we can say that there are two types of bleeding in this song. "I'm dripping blood honey" is a definite reference to him bleeding from his beehive nose, but "I'm dripping blood, honey" might actually refer to her blood.
I fuck every broken-crazy-girl,
instead of hanging from the ceiling.
So I keep my life a lie
I keep my head loose.
But nose is like beehive.
[Booklet version]
I'm dripping blood, honey.
I'm drinking blood honey.
Yeah.
[Recorded version]
I'm dripping blood, honey.
I'm dripping blood honey.
Yeah.
I've got you tied up and I love it.
Tied up and I love it
Now, why should I set you free?
Now you're tied up, you love it.
No lies now and I love it.
I'm not being mean, I'm just being me.
You only say that you want me
when I'm upside down, upside down.
[Booklet version]
I'm dripping blood, honey.
I'm drinking blood honey.
Yeah.
[Recorded version]
I'm dripping blood, honey.
I'm dripping blood honey.
Yeah.
You only say that you want me
when I'm upside down, upside down.

Heaven Upside Down

This song is in the aftermath of the dramatic events of the story. It provides a resolution to all the different threads of the story:

  • The up-and-coming apocalypse that Manson talks about in Revelation #12 arrives.
  • He finally sees that he is the cause of his relationships always failing (I attract what I am).
  • He sees his relationship from a point of clarity. He understands that it was like holding hands and spinning around.
  • He sees his ex-lover for who she was/is (I ended up looking through you).

In an interview for Dazed Manson said this about the song:

What I have is electricity problems. I will walk into a room and electricity will go bad, things will just stop working, so I don't know if I'm haunted. That's what the song 'Heaven Upside Down' is about - everyone says it's about someone else, but this is about me. Maybe I'm the ghost and I just don't know it.

At first reading you might think that it means the chorus (I tried to look inside you, I ended up looking through you, now you're trying to tell me you're not a ghost) is about Manson, not the ex-lover, but that is not the case. In the above quote, Manson is discussing the song as a whole. The song as a whole is absolutely about him, because it's about him realizing after a long streak of crazy girlfriends that actually, maybe he's the crazy one, but the ghost in the chorus is still the ex-girlfriend, another example of this pattern.

LyricsCommentary
I can hear the scream of trumpets,
smell the ash and sulfur.
Talons of battalions scratch at the sky
like black feathers and scorpion eyes.
This imagery is straight from the Book of Revelation. Some of the end-of-the-world events that are described in the Book of Revelation include:

  • The sounding of 7 trumpets
  • 3 plagues of fire, smoke, and sulfur.
  • Grand scale war (the mention of battalions).
Black feathers and scorpion eyes is a description of cherubs: in Revelation 4, John visits God's throne in heaven, and the throne is surrounded by 4 beasts, each having 6 wings and covered with eyes. One of the beasts is in the shape of an eagle, a black feathered bird.

So, in conclusion, we're at the end of things.
I don't attract what I want.
I attract what I am.
As dead as the bees,
buzzing inside my head.
Looking back at what transpired, our protagonist realizes some deep truths about himself. The bees buzzing in his head represent his insanity, the noise that's constantly going on in his mind.
Hold my hand and spin around.
Hold my hand and spin around.
Hold my hand and spin around.
This is heaven upside down.
This is a pretty good description of what his romance was like. When you hold someone's hand and spin around, you create a fast, intense experience, but also a precarious one, because you can't let go of one another or else you'll both fly away and crash. This was his upside-down heaven.
And I tried to look inside you,
I ended up looking through you.
Now you try to tell me you're not a ghost.
"Look inside you" means get to know you.
"See through you" means realizing what this person is really like, usually said in a negative connotation.
...and now you're trying to tell me "I'm not like that" (you didn't see through me, I'm not a ghost).
I don't attract what I want.
I attract what I am.
As dead as the bees,
buzzing inside my head.
And I tried to look inside you,
I ended up looking through you.
Now you try to tell me you're not a ghost.
Not a ghost... Not a ghost...
Hold my hand and spin around.
Hold my hand and spin around.
Hold my hand and spin around.
THIS IS HEAVEN UPSIDE DOWN.
And I tried to look inside you,
I ended up looking through you.
Now you try to tell me you're not a ghost.
Not a ghost?

Threats of Romance

Anything that can cause pain can be used as a threat, and a romance can absolutely end in a lot of suffering and pain, or if you're the story's protagonist, then a romance definitely ends in such a way. That is why, for him, the prospect of romance is a threat.

In the Vice interview quoted in the introduction, Manson described this as the end credits song.

LyricsCommentary
A girl is a man's sickness,
we all know the way it ends.
No matter how many times we film it,
the audience thinks they've seen it for the first time...
A girl is a man's sickness,
we all know the way it ends

Relationships drive him crazy and ultimately fail.

No matter how many times we film it,
The audience thinks they've seen it for the first time

This is a story that repeats itself. It's a story that you get sucked into again and again.
And things that are pretty, are always kept behind glass.
And someone like me, someone like me can't make it last.
Quite annoyingly, Manson seems to be singing "can make it last" on the record, but this doesn't make sense in the context of the lyrics, so I'm going to assume "can't" is the intended word.

The pretty things, the ones you really want, are kept out of reach, and when he does manage to get someone, he can never make it work.
I like you damaged,
But I need something left.
Something for me.
Something for me to wreck.

Someone for me to wreck.
He's attracted to damaged women, and only ever manages to make things worse.
You are my sickness,
we all know the way it ends.
No matter how we film it,
the audience thinks that they saw it for the first time.

Things that are pretty, are always kept behind glass.
And someone like me, someone like me
can't make it last.

I like you damaged,
But I need something left.
Something for me.
Something for me to wreck.

Someone for me to wreck.
My seed would have made good fruit
and you could have been a tree.
I could have cut you down or just let you be.
This is what could've been had he done things differently. They could've started a family, or he could have just left her alone, or he could've just got rid of her right away, instead of attaching himself to her and going through this extended saga of suffering.
Because, things that are pretty,
are always kept behind glass.
And someone like me,
Someone like me can't make it last.

I like you damaged...

Artwork

Illustrations

The album booklet features these two illustrations:

Faust Illustrations

Both are illustrations from different editions of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's play Faust. The illustration of the woman (Margaret, Faust's love interest) is from an edition illustrated by Engelbert Seibertz, and appears in chapter 18 of the play. It depicts the following text from the play:

In a niche of the wall a shrine, with an image of the Mater Dolorosa. Pots of flowers before it.

The illustration of the devil (or rather, Mephistopheles) is from Faust 2, illustrated by Franz Strassen.

The two images draw parallels between the story of Heaven Upside Down, and the story of Faust. In the original play, Faust is a scholar that's deeply dissatisfied by life. He meets Mephistopheles, the devil, and makes a pact with him: Mephistopheles will be Faust's servant, and strive to help him reach true satisfaction. Once that happens, Faust is to die and become Mephistopheles' slave in the afterlife. As part of their adventures, Faust meets and falls in love with Margaret, so Mephistopheles intervenes to get them together. However, this plan ends up bringing ruin upon Margaret. Heaven Upside Down is like what would happen if the play did not involve Faust. Instead, our Margaret falls in love with the devil himself, and that brings her ruin. Either way, when you get involve with the devil, it brings you ruin.

Symbols

Sigil of Lucifer
The Sigil of Lucifer. Left: Manson's version, right: original.
Inverted Cross of Lorraine

This symbol is Manson's variation on the Cross of Lorraine, a symbol which he adopted for himself many years ago. Manson used this symbol to represent the Celebriterian Corporation, his self-proclaimed art movement which never really took off, and also in various pieces of visual art, such as: Eat Me Drink Me era photoshoots, flash animation on his website during The High End of Low era, The Pale Emperor live set, merchandise, his unreleased Holy Wood novel (the way the text and guns are organized), and many other examples.

Cross of Lorraine variations

The name "Cross of Lorraine" actually came to represent multiple variations of the "double cross", three of which can be seen here. In the most common version (left), the top horizontal line is shorter than the bottom one. A less common variant is the fully symmetrical one (middle), which is the version Manson uses. Thus, the version we see in the Heaven Upside Down artwork can be considered an extended version of the cross, designed to break the symmetry and thus make it possible for the cross to be upside down. You can also consider it a variation of the Patriarchal Cross (right), also turned upside down, but that is a moot distinction because it too falls under the umbrella of the Cross of Lorraine.

Spiraling Hexagram

This is a spiraling hexagram. I think the idea behind this symbol is related to the fact that the word hexagram is often shortened to just "hex", which also happens to mean "curse". So, this is a spiraling hex, or spiraling curse, which is appropriate for an album that claims to be telling a recurring story about how love always fails, like a curse that keeps on repeating itself.

Beyond The Record

The Heaven Upside Down era yielded six 5 singles, 6 music videos (+a promotional clip), four 3 B-Sides, and 1 promotional website. The 6th single (and 4th B-Side) was a cover of The End by The Doors, but it was unpublished after The Doors objected to the cover on the grounds that it deviated too much from the original. The remaining B-Sides were all covers of other bands: Stigmata by Ministry, Cry Little Sister by Gerard McMahon, and God's Gonna Cut You Down by Johnny Cash.

WE KNOW WHERE YOU FUCKING LIVE Promotion Campaign

To promote the album, the website weknowwhereyoufuckinglive.com was created. It featured a signup form where people could provide their email and address. People who signed up received a promotional email announcing the new record and first single (WE KNOW WHERE YOU FUCKING LIVE), were entered into a contest to win tickets, and also received a personalized video that featured satellite images of their home address (or whatever address they put in the form). This was the announcement:

We Know Where You Fucking Live promotional email

Lee Martin, who executed the project of creating and emailing the personalized videos, shared some details of the project on his Twitter.

SAY10 Album Promo

On election day, Manson released a short video which used the SAY10 song as soundtrack. The video included Manson tearing up the bible (specifically, he has it open in the first Samuel book), and an image of a decapitated man who looked a lot like Republican candidate Donald Trump. In an interview with The Daily Beast that accompanied the video release, Manson said:

As an artist my duty is to ask the questions. The viewer must answer them. [...] Either way tomorrow goes, the visuals are meant to create contemplation. Because it's obviously bigger than just tomorrow. It's about the desperate acts of people who believe something that is preached by an unbeliever.

The unbeliever in this case is played by Manson, who sits on a throne (commands authority) and tears up the bible (is an unbeliever).

In an interview with NME, Manson denied that the man in the video was supposed to be Trump, saying that his identity is up to the viewer to determine:

The only thing it had to do with politics was what people wanted to make it. It could be a preacher, it could just be a businessman. It could be anything, but in no way does it say it is Trump. But of course when you release it on election day, it makes a statement.

He further explained that the video was not a representation of his own opinion, but rather something designed to stir conversation:

I did not have an agenda against anyone in particular, I just wanted to make people think. I just wanted to throw something out there and put their mind askew and maybe stir up their thoughts and not talk about my opinion.

Music videos

WE KNOW WHERE YOU FUCKING LIVE

Manson and a group of armed nuns terrorize a neighborhood during an eclipse, and assault a family in their home. Concept came from the director Bill Yukich.

SAY10

The release of the SAY10 music video was accompanied by a press statement from Manson, which read as follows:

After the balloons have all shriveled up and are swallowed in the puddles of puke and idealism, don't look to Me for sympathy. I am here to be all that I am accused of not being. And to be blamed for what you made Me. The shots you will hear are from a mouth disguised as a gun. Don't call this art. This is a hard cock in a room full of vampires and the music, man. The music is My foul blood on your faces.

The music video co-stars Johnny Depp, Manson's close friend, and is divided into two storylines. Storyline one features Johnny and Manson playing the biblical brothers Cain and Able (respectively), according to a press release. The two share a sex dungeon and seem at odds with one another. Towards the end of the video, some of the women from the sex dungeon recreate the photo Raising The Flag On Iwo Jima, and Able is killed over bloody money.

Raising The Flag On Iwo Jima
Raising The Flag On Iwo Jima. Left original, right Manson's version.

Raising The Flag On Iwo Jima is one of the most iconic photographs from the second world war. It was taken at the end of the Battle of Iwo Jima in the final stages of the Pacific War, and was widely reproduced in thousands of publications, even winning the Pulitzer Prize for Photography. In the music video, it's Cain's women who reenact this symbol of victory, and soon after Able is killed, so I think that the reenactment represents Cain's victory over Able.

In the other storyline a woman who seems to be doing nothing but masturbate all day finds a haunted book dropped at her doorstep, and makes the mistake of reading it. She is then haunted by a spirit that sexually gropes her, and eventually tries to kill her in a dream. This part of the music video pays homage to A Nightmare On Elm Street, Johnny Depp's first acting role. In Nightmare On Elm Steet, Freddy Krueger is an evil spirit that murders people in their nightmares. References to the movie include:

The evil spirit protruding through the walls:

Evil spirit coming out of walls

The evil spirit groping the woman is similar to how Freddy Krueger is able to physically interact with his victims once they fall asleep:

Evil spirit interacting with sleepers

The scene where the evil spirit is chasing the woman with a knife inside of a tunnel is similar to Krueger chasing people in their dreams. This scene is best interpreted as a dream scene because it's completely divorced from the setting of the music video.

Evil spirit dream chasing

KILL4ME

The music video takes place in an upscale brothel. Johnny Depp is spying on one of the prostitutes from a secret room connected to spy cameras, and appears to be documenting the happenings. He starts to become obsessed with the prostitute, visiting her at night when she's sleeping, but one day he enters her room and realizes that this is a different woman. Meanwhile, Manson, dressed as one of the prostitutes, discovers the spy room. Realizing that something's wrong, Johnny begins to suspect that he might be watched himself. Eventually, he receives a message directing him to a hidden section of the brothel, and participates in an orgy.

Tattooed In Reverse

This music video is heavily inspired by the American Horror Story: Cult trailer, with some scenes pretty much lifted from the trailer. The medical torture scenes are reminiscent of American Horror Story: Asylum, with the dark operations room, the bald doctor, the sex with the patients, and the dark corridors.

American Horror Story AsylumTattooed In Reverse

It's possible that the intent of the medical procedures is to cure Manson and the woman patient of their sex addiction, since they exhibit highly promiscuous behavior throughout the video. In American Horror Story: Asylum, two of the patients actually face sterilization as punishment for having sex.

Finally, Manson's appearance in the video resembles Alex DeLarge from the film A Clockwork Orange. This is another film in which a person with degenerate tendencies (Alex DeLarge) undergoes a treatment that's akin to torture in order to be cured of his degeneracy.

Manson vs Alex DeLarge

Cry Little Sister

God's Gonna Cut You Down

God's Gonna Cut You Down Crow Creature

In this music video, Manson plays multiple characters: the outlaw on the run, the murder victim, the preacher that will be there when the outlaw is hanged, and also a strange character wearing a crown of thorns made of needles and covered in black feathers. Ravens often represent ill omens, and are associated with loss. The crown of thorns is associated with Jesus Christ. Together, we get a religious omen of loss, or in other words, a message that says God's gonna cut you down.

Another interesting detail is the snakeskin jacket Manson is wearing in some of the shots. This jacket is similar to the one Nicolas Cage wears in the David Lynch movie Wild At Heart, which Manson previously referenced in the Portrait of An American Family song Lunchbox (and also the music video). Wild At Heart is a story about two lovers on the run. Sailor, the male character, is a guy with an edge. At the beginning of the movie, he serves jail time for killing a man (in self-defense), and after his release from jail, the two decide to run away together, thus breaking Sailor's parole. Sailor refers to the jacket as "a symbol of my individuality and my belief in personal freedom". We can see Manson imitating Sailor's look below, and fanboying with Nick Cage in the same jacket:

God's Gonna Cut You Down snake jacket vs Wild At Heart