Marilyn Manson hopes people "feel something" when listening to his new album, Born Villain.

The rocker - notorious for his explicit lyrics and dark sound - admits the record has been a "challenge," but loved getting his teeth into a new project.

"If everything is happy, then who gives a s**t, or if it's just a straight line, I won't give a s**t either. If it's down, which is sometimes where I was more often than up, it's not inspiring. So I just wanted to make something that would make people feel something. I was playing it to people that were my friends. Some of them never heard my music before, never liked my music, whatever the situation was, but it's a challenge and I love a challenge. I had forgotten how much I love a challenge."

Marilyn, 43, admitted he went back to his old style of writing music compared to his last two albums, Eat Me, Drink Me, and The High End of Low.

"I feel like I did get to a point on my previous two records - not that I'm discrediting the music that I did or hating it or anything of that nature - I just feel that I started to change the way I wrote because I wanted to open up. Sometimes you don't know how the f**k to be yourself," said Marilyn, whose real name is Brian Warner.