Marilyn Manson recently released his new album, Pale Emperor and it was actually pretty damn good. A little bit of goth rock, a little bit of industrial and bam! You've got yourself everything you wanted in the late 90's with an added pinch of goodness. So why the hell was the album printed on a Playstation disc? Here is what it looks like:
You'd think this would've been done then and not now, considering he controversy over heavy music and video games back in the day… but nope. Now.
So why? According to Kill Screen Daily, it looks sweet and it protects from illegal copying.
There were two reasons for this black ink finish as revealed by this mini-documentary on the production process of the CDs: it gave the discs the "distinctive, cool PlayStation-only look," and also helped to "protect the CD from illegal copying."
I totally agree on the firts point, but is illegal copying even a problem anymore? Outside ripping the disc and uploading it, I feel like illegal copying might not be a huge problem… but correct me if I'm wrong! Oh, and when you play it, it changes color according to Hassan Rahim, one of the two art directors for the album.
"When you open the CD it's pitch black, but we also added a thermal texture on top—after it gets hot during playback, the disc comes out all white," Rahim revealed. As the disc cools down the black returns, appearing to consume the hot white layer and turning it into a wisp that fades over time. The PlayStation disc was chosen with this effect in mind as its pitch black sheen enhances the difference between dark and light, hot and cold. Further, the Deluxe Edition came with an 8-panel digipak that has a sandpaper-like grit texture on the outside and high gloss on the inside. "The contrasting textures definitely speak for themselves when you hold the piece," Rahim said.
So how many of you own the disc and saw this sweet color change? I picked it up digitally but I might need to go get it physically.
