your standard Manson banger. It served as a weird body of water in which Manson tested some of his tricks". Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic praised the song for being "a good bridge between the goth-industrial Antichrist Superstar and the electronically tweaked glam of Mechanical Animals." MetalSucks' Axl Rosenberg said that "Long Hard Road Out of Hell" is "fine" and "basically sounds like Antichrist Superstar-era Manson with female backing vocals." Rosenberg found the track superior to other cuts from Spawn: The Album such as the DJ Spooky remix of Metallica's "For Whom the Bell Tolls" (1985) and "Satan" (1998) by Kirk Hammett and Orbital. Dowd of The A.V. Club said that, while he initially cared for the song, it "is basically just a Manson anthem with some very casual bells and whistles attached". Teegarden of PopMatters said that the track "adhere[s] to standard-issue, industrial shock-rock formulas" and fails to distinguish itself from other Marilyn Manson songs. Thrillist's Dan Jackson did not see "Long Hard Road Out of Hell" as one of Spawn: The Album "standout tracks". Music video MTV News reported in 1997 that the Sneaker Pimps would not be involved in the song's music video. Manson initially approached Jonathan Glazer to direct the video and asked him to watch David Lynch's Lost Highway (1997) for inspiration. Glazer watched the film's opening credits, which feature images of a "road rushing beneath the camera" before falling asleep. As the film's opening credits had entered his mind, Glazer proposed that the video center on a man being chased down a dark, desolate road by an old car. Manson was unimpressed by this idea and decided not to use it; Glazer would use his rejected concept for his video for "Karma Police" (1997) by Radiohead. Upon seeing the "Karma Police" video for the first time, Manson was reportedly upset. The music video for the song was directed by Matthew Rolston, and was filmed at the site of Robert F. Kennedy's assassination, the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. The video features examples of tableaux vivants, images composed of people holding poses. It also features perverted Christian iconography, with the Virgin Mary depicted as being soaked in blood. In the clip, Manson is androgynous, and is shown wearing a dress and posing like a pin-up model. A group of models who strike sexualized poses in the clip initially appear to be female, but are revealed