text: Lest We Forget: The Best Of received mostly positive reviews from music critics, several of whom complimented its track listing. The compilation's commercial performance exceeded expectations in the United States, where it sold over 78,000 copies in its first week of release and had sold over a million copies as of late 2010. It was also successful internationally, peaking within the top 10 of national record charts in Austria, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The band promoted the album with their "Against All Gods Tour".
  Background and release
  The band's eponymous vocalist conceived Lest We Forget: The Best Of as a "farewell compilation", but not a greatest hits album, as "I was never really a top-40 artist." Nevertheless, multiple critics classified the record as a greatest hits album. Prior to the album's release, Manson said that he was going to abandon music in favor of becoming a visual artist and pursuing other non-musical careers; this did not happen. Explaining his frame of mind when he made the album, Manson said, "You get frustrated sometimes when you know that your heart is really buried in your art, and you know more success equals being more mediocre. So you have to redefine success, and you can't compete with people who don't do what you do."