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LIKE KORN, MANSON borrows his current hit from somebody else’s songbook. The lead single from Lest We Forget is a cover of Depeche Mode’s "Personal Jesus," which is such an obvious choice it’s amazing Manson waited this long to do it. He gives it the usual evil voice-over and a twitchy rhythm track, but he fails to make the song his own the way Korn do with "Word Up!" As is sometimes the case with Manson, the video is the main attraction. He flashes portraits of Bush and Hitler, he cradles a crying baby, he shows off the scars on his palms from being nailed to the cross. All striking images, but his ability to shock and awe has been dulled by familiarity.

That said, "Personal Jesus" is a goth-rock classic no matter who’s singing it, and Manson is still cool enough to do it justice. Check out the front cover of Lest We Forget for a watercolor self-portrait of the star with devil horns; on the back, there’s a freaky photo of him with eyelash extensions and crystal "gills" on his face. These days, Manson’s band includes long-time members Madonna Wayne Gacy and Ginger Fish, along with current writing-and-production foil Tim Skold. For Manson’s show on November 26 at Avalon, in Boston, drummer Chris Vrenna (Nine Inch Nails) will sub for the injured Fish. And guitarist Mark Chaussee (Rob Halford) is filling in for John 5, who just finished a five-year stint with the band (and who has a solo album in progress).

Lest We Forget separates the songs from the spectacle, and the music does a pretty good job of standing on its own — just don’t believe Spin magazine’s preposterous recent claim that he "has at least as many top-shelf songs as Aerosmith." Manson gives the disc a haphazard sequence, sometimes making it feel more like a studio album than a greatest-hits collection. Considering the long list of collaborators he has had over the years, that’s no small feat. Chief among those is Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor, who got Manson a recording contract back when he was just another Florida scenester, and who produced his first handful of releases.

Looking back on his career, it’s hard not to think Manson said it all in the chorus of his 1994 single "Lunchbox": "I want to grow up/Want to be/A big rock and roll star," followed by, "I want to grow up/I want to be/So no one fucks with me, yeah." On that track, the band’s funk-rock bluster has more in common with Jane’s Addiction than NIN, but that was about to change. After infiltrating radio with a cover of the Eurythmics’ "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)," Manson vaulted to stardom with Antichrist Superstar and the cyberpunk rager "The Beautiful People." Reznor has not joined him in the studio since, but their partnership has left its mark.

Manson gave credence to Korn’s Beinhorn theory on his first number-one album, Mechanical Animals. On that disc, he and bassist Twiggy Ramirez (now in A Perfect Circle) continued their hot streak as a writing team with the glam-rock anthems "The Dope Show" and "Rock Is Dead." But it’s the 2000 release Holy Wood, which places four songs on Lest We Forget, that appears to be Manson’s favorite. I agree: it’s his heaviest studio effort, and the explosive "The Fight Song" should have been a hit. Last year’s The Golden Age of Grotesque proved he wasn’t running out of compelling ideas, but replacing Ramirez with electro-whiz Skold took away some of his edge.

The two rarities on Lest We Forget are negligible: yet another hit cover (Soft Cell’s "Tainted Love") and a clunker from the Spawn soundtrack. But opening and closing the disc with a pair of deep cuts both confrontational ("The Love Song") and disturbing ("The Reflecting God") was a good idea. Manson may not be as shocking as he used to be, but that’s okay — while the media were busy feeding his lust for controversy, he managed to put together a strong body of work.

Korn perform on December 1 at Avalon, 15 Lansdowne Street, in Boston. Marilyn Manson performs at Avalon on November 26. Call (617) 262-2424 about both shows.