Nostalgic for those black CDs that used to hold your old PlayStation games? Just pick up the new Marilyn Manson album.

As Kill Screen reveals in a deep dive into the packaging of The Pale Emperor, Manson's art directors wanted a dark, distinctive look for the CD and thought of the black discs used on the original PlayStation game console. The discs looked cool, but PlayStation also used them because they're difficult to copy. (Remember when CD burners were the primary threat to the entertainment industry?)

So the Manson team reached out to Sony and had The Pale Emperor pressed at the same factory where they made Resident Evil and Gran Turismo.

The discs hearken back to Manson's late-90s heyday, when his gothic look had teenagers dying their hair black and parents checking their backpacks for his CDs. But the black disc is just the beginning. "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," said art director Hassan Rahim. That's right – the CD changes colors from black to white. Pretty cool.

As CD sales continue to plummet, it makes sense that record labels are stretching to find new ways to get listeners to fork over a premium for them. And it's especially cool to see Manson and his team get creative -- not to mention a little nostalgic.

Marilyn Manson – "Deep Six" Official Music Video (NSFW)

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