(2004). Composition and style "Long Hard Road Out of Hell" was written by Marilyn Manson, Twiggy Ramirez, and produced by Manson with Sean Beavan. The track is an arena rock and gothic rock song with a length of four minutes and twenty-one seconds. The title of the song is a reference to John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost (1667), wherein Satan says: "long is the way/ And hard, that out of Hell leads up to light." The song's lyrics are about self-loathing. According to A.A. Dowd of The A.V. Club, "Long Hard Road Out of Hell" resembles the music of Marilyn Manson, particularly songs from Antichrist Superstar (1996), far more than the music of the Sneaker Pimps, though its "clicking beat" and background vocals do separate the track from Marilyn Manson's usual shock rock. Dowd also found the song reminiscent of the kind of music played at Ozzfest. Alec Chillingworth of Metal Hammer saw the track as similar to the singles from Antichrist Superstar only more subdued, in the vein of the band's subsequent album Mechanical Animals (1998). PopMatters Lance Teegarden felt that the tracks' "layered buzzsaw guitar riffs" and Manson's shout-like vocal performance on the chorus made "Long Hard Road Out of Hell" sound like "Rock Is Dead" (1998) and "The Love Song" (2000). Dowd also noted that the lyrics of the song could be seen as referring to the life of the film's title character – an assassin who is murdered, brought back to life, and given super-powers through a Faustian bargain – as Spawn's "road out of hell [was] long and hard". Dowd viewed the track as one of the few songs on the soundtrack which "feel[s] specifically catered...to the Spawn mythos." Critical reception In his review of Lest We Forget: The Best Of, The Chicago Maroon Matt Zakosek wrote that "every time you're ready to write him off as the obligatory recording artist of the moment to piss off the religious right, Manson comes out of left field with a surprisingly heartfelt, poetic track like 'The Reflecting God' or 'Long Hard Road Out of Hell.'" Jim Louvau of the Phoenix New Times deemed it one of his favorite songs by the band, alongside "Get Your Gunn" (1994). Chillingworth of Metal Hammer ranked the song sixth on his list of "The 10 most underrated Marilyn Manson songs", saying "'Long Hard Road Out Of Hell' is more than