Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death) is the fourth studio album by American rock band Marilyn Manson, released in November 2000 by Nothing and Interscope Records. A rock opera concept album, it is the final installment of a triptych that included Antichrist Superstar (1996), marking a return to the band's industrial metal style. The album was released to generally positive reviews; some praised it as the band's finest work, and multiple publications ranked it as one of the best albums of 2000. British rock magazine Kerrang! later included it on its list of the best albums of the decade. Holy Wood was not as commercially successful in the US as the band's preceding records, debuting at number 13 on the Billboard 200, but it became their most successful album internationally, and made the top twenty of numerous national charts. It was certified gold in several countries, including Canada, Japan, Switzerland and the UK. Three singles were released from the record: "Disposable Teens", "The Fight Song" and "The Nobodies". The album was covered on the band's worldwide Guns, God and Government Tour. Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Wood_(In_the_Shadow_of_the_Valley_of_Death)> _______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 1675: Franco-Dutch War: The French Army fought against the armies of Austria and Brandenburg. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Turckheim> 1925: Nellie Tayloe Ross was inaugurated as Governor of Wyoming, the first woman to serve as governor of a U.S. state. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellie_Tayloe_Ross> 1941: Second World War: Australian and British troops defeated Italian forces in Bardia, Libya, the first battle of the war in which an Australian Army formation took part. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bardia> 1968: Alexander Dubček came to power in Czechoslovakia, beginning a period of political liberalization known as the Prague Spring that ended with a military intervention by the Warsaw Pact nations to halt reform. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_Spring> 2008: Mikheil Saakashvili was decisively re-elected as President of Georgia in "the first genuinely competitive presidential election" in the history of the country. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgian_presidential_election,_2008> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: volition: 1. A conscious choice or decision. 2. The mental power or ability of choosing; the will. 3. (linguistics) A concept that distinguishes whether or not the subject or agent intended something. <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/volition> ___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:   How should we deal with intrusions of fiction into life, now that we have seen the historical impact that this phenomenon can have? … Reflecting on these complex relationships between reader and story, fiction and life, can constitute a form of therapy against the sleep of reason, which generates monsters.   --Umberto Eco <https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Umberto_Eco>