The album was the last to feature band member Tim Sköld, and spawned two singles ("Heart-Shaped Glasses (When the Heart Guides the Hand)" and "Putting Holes in Happiness").

Manson began his recording sessions on the album in November 2005 but was focused on his film Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll, the process of opening an art gallery and personal troubles relating to his marriage.

Although I can't relate to the relationship those two had, I found the story very compelling in a romantic way.It has been stated that there were originally around 20 embryonic songs, all written by Sköld, two of which (that did not make the album) Manson considered complete with lyrics and vocals.

"Manson probably needed something to shake up his music, which started to become comfortably predictable in the wake of his popular/creative peak of Mechanical Animals, but the stab at soul-baring on Eat Me might not have been the way to do it.

On a sonic level, this is a bit of "Manson-by-numbers", but it feels as if his usual murky menace has lifted, with the music sounding clearer, less affected, and obtuse, while still retaining much of its gothic romanticism and churning heaviness.

If anything, Eat Me is a bit too transparent, as its clean arena rock production makes the album sound safe, a bit too close to Manson cabaret for comfort, especially when he's penning songs whose very titles feel like unwitting self-parodies such as "If I Was Your Vampire", "You and Me and the Devil Makes 3" and "They Said That Hell's Not Hot", or when he lazily spews out profanity as the chorus to "Mutilation Is the Most Sincere Form of Flattery."

Aside from the obvious Lewis Carroll and Jesus Christ references, Manson says the album's title was also inspired by the story of Armin Meiwes, who placed an ad online for a person consenting to be eaten.

[8] In 2007, Eat Me, Drink Me brought with it, for the first time in nearly over ten years, a symbol Manson adopted to represent himself with that did not have an immediate and apparent deeper connotation to the occult, mock-fascism or an artistic movement.

[9] Though not particularly esoteric or heavy in symbolism, the primary Eat Me, Drink Me Marilyn Manson logo were two blood dripping fang-like M's to represent the initials of the band.

Fairly self-explanatory in representation, and included here for the sake of being all-inclusive, the dripping red M's are nonetheless an iconic logo in themselves and work effectively in illustrating the many vampiric themes of the album.

"[11] The lyrical auto-erotica that begins in the lead-off track ("Drive me off the mountain/ You'll burn, I'll eat your ashes/ Impossible wheels seducing our corpse") continues with the wailing "Just a Car Crash Away" and the stand-out "Are You the Rabbit?

In what can only be seen as a way to maintain a buzz with the generation behind, his very public attachment to Evan Rachel Wood is flaunted throughout the peripheral of this release, from his personal artwork to the song and video for the Lolita-inspired first single, "Heart-Shaped Glasses (When the Heart Guides the Hand)".

[11] The song itself is a piece of militant drum cadence mixed with raw adolescent sexuality in both Manson's lyrics and delivery: "She'll never cover up what we did with her dress.

"[11] The blustery guitar of "You and Me and the Devil Makes 3" revels in the repetition of the title alongside the menacing delivery of "There's not a word for what I want to do to you", but it's hard to take any song too seriously when it contains a "Murdercute happyrape" lyrical chorus.

[12] Rumors also circulated for some time that Marilyn Manson wrote the song "Mutilation Is the Most Sincere Form of Flattery" as an attack on the band My Chemical Romance, for his Eat Me, Drink Me release (which he later denied, saying that it was aimed at people in general seeking to imitate him).

Further promotional oddities were to be found in the UK where boxes were distributed containing chocolates marked "Eat Me" and mini bottles of Tequila with "Drink Me" on the back.

The title of the painting however evokes the much deeper and intricate reference of Charles Baudelaire's 1857 incendiary poetic collection during the era of Romanticism, Les Fleurs Du Mal (English: The Flowers of Evil).

[3] The album's artwork was wrapped up in early February 2007 thus bringing an end to the creative process in preparation for the imminent promotion and publication of details.

[24][25] Other publications to include original content with Manson have been the April issue of UK magazine Rock Sound, the May issue of Revolver, an interview with French RockMag, an MTV online piece focusing on Manson's suicidal ideation,[26] a longer, more in-depth interview in Rock Sound, a long, very descriptive and open piece in The Observer Magazine (The Life and Loves of a He-Devil),[27] a partial transcript of a friendly chat with Alejandro Jodorowsky, an interview in Germany's lifestyle monthly BlondMag, the cover story of June's Spin magazine stretched out over eight pages entitled "The Last Rock Star?

",[28] an article in Rolling Stone from Austin Scaggs who spends a fair amount of time with Manson judging by the five pieces in four months he has contributed, The Sun newspaper's Something For The Weekend section.

[32] The limited edition CD featured bonus tracks with acoustic version of "Putting Holes in Happiness" and three other remixes of the single "Heart-Shaped Glasses".

On April 27, 2007, Marilyn Manson released a clip featuring the last 34 seconds of the then upcoming music video for "Heart-Shaped Glasses (When the Heart Guides the Hand)" on YouTube,[35] and later on the official website.

[37] The video contains a 2:47 introduction featuring Manson and then-girlfriend Evan Rachel Wood kissing while having simulated sex and scenes of her being covered in blood, overdubbed with an instrumental of the Eat Me, Drink Me track "Evidence".

To make matters more confusing, in an MTV interview with Manson, he did not confirm or deny the authenticity of the depictions, at one point dismissing it: There were two crews there: one that was mine and one that hated me.

They considered it to be pornographic, because they thought there may or may not have been too much realism to what was being filmed.And at another point implying the possibility that the sex was in fact real: And Manson admits the scenes — in which Wood moans like a banshee, at times — seem very realistic but wouldn't confirm fans' suspicions one way or the other.

"[42] The music video, directed by French filmmaker Philippe Grandrieux, is a simple performance by the band in an unknown, seemingly outdoor area.

Previous Manson guitarists will envy the solo space allotted Sköld; a number of exceptional ax workouts perfectly reflect moods that range from mounting pride to roiling anguish to moaning abjection."

"[11] Slant Magazine gave the album a favorable review and praised "'Putting Holes in Happiness' [as] the best of the autobiographical tracks, with a melancholic guitar riff that matches the song's appropriately plodding arrangement.

"[12] Rolling Stone magazine gave the album a three out of five stars and said that Manson "hasn't exactly overhauled his identity, but with Eat Me, Drink Me, he's at least tweaked his approach a bit.

Initially, Manson took to the stage wearing a leather jacket with cut off gloves and a black, long-sleeved shirt to perform the opener, "If I Was Your Vampire" and the follow-up, "Disposable Teens".