I adored Golden Age. I've been a fan since i was in middle school and i'm pushing close to 40 nowadays.. so the triptych is what i hold most dear.
But i got so wrapped up in Golden Age. He used to write these totally whacked out blogs on myspace at the time, and he really inspired me to learn all about the source material that influenced that album such as burlesque's deep history, the dada art movement, and ever since then i've been enamored with golden age hollywood, and Marlene Dietrich in particular.
Eat Me Drink Me turned me off immediately and i kinda threw in the towel and just assumed he was out of steam. I hated that album at the time.
HIgh End of Low, on my first listen had some ok songs but i didn't connect with it.
I got really excited for Born Villain but it too fell short.
But sometime during the year Born Villain came out, i kept revisiting High End of Low, Eat Me Drink Me and eventually Born Villian again too and i don't know why they all took so long to connect with me, but they finally did.
I think EMDM is one of his most inconsistent albums, that being said, i think he has some of the best one-off songs on there out of all his albums. Evidence is one of the sexiest songs ever written.
Devour and Into the Fire on HEOL are fantastic.
And outside of Children of Cain, I've grown to really really like Born Villain.
Pale Emperor even put me off eventually. I thought it was too repetitive. I thought his voice changing so drastically due to age and drinking had totally done him in, but the more i lived with that album... i found the repetition gave what he wnated to say weight without having to be so overly verbose. And the way the stripped down, bluesy industrial take on his sound by Tyler Bates just worked with those harsh vocals so well. The acoustic renditions are really nice too. In fact, up until this point, i found most acoustic versions of his songs to not be strong - his cover of Working Class People, or acoustic versions of Coma White or Nobodies. His voice never quite fit. Now it does in a really raw way.
At this point, there's been ups and downs in how i connect to the material but suffice to say i'm a life long fan.