Battle of the Bands:
Marilyn Manson vs. Orgy
By Michael Hovsepian

Note: There was a section of the article, as well as several pictures, concerning Manson, but I didn't bother to type it up.

ORGY

Most bands who have made it big will tell you things like, "We fought tooth and nail to get here. We toured for ten years, our guitarist over-dosed, and then finally we met a record exec at his funeral and got signed." This isn't the case with Orgy. If there is 'over night success,' Orgy is it.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, an unknown guy named Ryan Shuck helped co-write a song called "Blind" with an equally unknown guy named Jonathan Davis, and eventually the song would attain greatness when Davis' band, Korn, exposed it to the work on their first record.
Later on, in california, Ryan Shuck and his buddy Jay Gordon conceptualized their own band. They got together with producer Josh Abraham ("the sixth member of Orgy") and immediately started writing songs in a garage. "We just started throwing some rough shit together, ad the next thing you know, we're recording an album and making plans to tour with Korn," says Gordon.
Along the way, vocalist Gordon, guitarist Shuck, and producer Abraham picked up g-synth player (a fancy name for a guitarist who uses a synth processor) Amir Derakh, v-drummer (an equally fancy name for a drummer who uses electronic drum pads) Bobby Hewitt, and a bassist (just a plain old bassist?) Paige Haley... And they cranked out some material. "There's an innovative, futuristic feel to the music," says Ryan.
It took six months between the time when Jay and Ryan conceptualized Orgy and the time when Orgy was signed. Like Marilyn Manson, who were signed to Trent Reznor's Nothing Records at the time when Nine Inch Nails was at the height of it's popularity, Orgy was signed to Elementree, run by their pals in Korn at a time when Korn was at the height of their popularity.
"It's something fresh and new - that's what turns me on," says Korn frontman Davis, "I think they'll appeal to kids, [and] a lot of different people. They're fashionable pretty dudes, so all the chicks will dig 'em. And, they're real heavy, so hopefully our friends will like them too."
Orgy decided to record the album in Lake Tahoe. "We didn't want to be influenced by anyone who doing, or who seemed to be doing their records at the time," says Shuck. Gordon says, "We recorded on a snow-capped mountain in Tahoe, in a huge cabin. It was along the lines of 'The Shining.' Cabin-fever set in after about 15 minutes, right after the truck left back for Los Angeles." When they reached the cabin, the band settled in, and began recording. Soon they had completed their debut.
The record, called Candyass after the moniker of a drag queen that Gordon met in a Los Angeles club, was released, and despite it's heavy lyrics, Gordon says, "It's pretty much just all bullshit, we conjured up a bunch of lies and fairy tales." Orgy went on the road supporting Korn, and hopped on the Family Values tour-wagon shortly afterwards, sharing the stage with Korn, Limp Bizkit, Rammstein, Ice Cube, and countless others.
Orgy was content laying low for a while, but soon a single (and video) for Orgy's cover of a New Order tune called "Blue Monday" has the rock world bleeding at the seams. Orgy's style of music, which they refer to as death pop, gave people something new (and dare i say unique) to listen to. Encompassing good old rock, 80's new wave, and industrial music and tying it in with an almost over the top science fiction influenced fashion sense, Orgy won fans over with little difficulty. They followed up with a single (and video) for "Stitches" featuring the band performing in some kind of hydraulic bubble. Orgy spent the year touring with bands like The Living End, Smashmouth, Videodrone, and Lit. They wrapped up their last tour in September. So should we expect a new album. Well, Candyass is almost a year old, but as of right now there is no talk of the band returning to the studio. Don't despair though, we're almost positive there will be another Orgy record soon enough.

Orgy was the winner!!
They won with 68% of the votes, where as Manson only received 32%.