The Holy Bible (1994)
At a time when Oasis was singing ‘Cigarettes and Alcohol’, Suede was singing ‘New Generations’ and Blur had a jovial Phil Daniels talking about the London suburbs, Manic Street Preachers released an album so horribly depressing that even Robert Smith would have wept. listening to it. , releasing it a year before Radiohead released their miserable masterpiece, ‘The Bends’.
Where his previous two albums had failed in their attempts to produce gigantic-sounding albums, ‘Bible’ stripped him of everything but the basics; Nicky Wire, their bassist and most vocal member, declared that the band did not need to use everything they had at their disposal, favoring a low-rent studio in Cardiff, in their home country. Rhythm guitarist Richie Edwards presided over the recordings, but alcoholic priorities meant he didn’t play on the album, leaving James Dean Bradfield to record the spiral riffs. He was never the best musician (he only played on a handful of Manic tracks), he proved to be an invaluable member in another area.
Where ‘Gold Against The Soul’ featured Wire and Richie Edwards ‘joint lyrical partnership (Edwards’ the Lennon to Wire’s McCartney, if you will), ‘Bible’ turned out to be Edwards’s work primarily, as it attacked anything worthy of a attack. . Wire’s songs ‘ifwhiteamericatoldtheverutforundayit’sworldwouldtallapart’ and ‘This Is Yesterday’ proved, however, that quality was more than a match for quantity.
The other letters were purely Edwards. “Scratch my leg with a rusty nail / sadly it heals” opened ‘Die In The Summertime’, a phrase that shocked the other members and gave an idea of the tormented mind of its author. ‘Faster’ was even more scathing, as singer James Dean Bradfield spoke of art seen as carnage. A controversial appearance on ‘Top of The Pops’, with Bradfield sporting a ski mask, generated the most complaints from the show and placed the song as Edwards’ masterpiece.
Quick to play guitar, loud in his shouts, ‘Bible’ was anything but subtle. No album since The Sex Pistols’ debut sounded so terrifying and so loud, particularly ‘Revol’, where their guitars sounded more like sirens than melodies. ‘Yes’ lured listeners into a pop structure, before scaring them off with prostitution lyrics and Bradfield’s sincerity on the subject. ‘Of Walking Abortion’ turned out to be even more disgusting, a monster of profanity and guitar riffs. The title of ‘The Intense Humming Of Evil’ said it all.
‘She Is Suffering’ turned out to be the album’s only respite, a sweet song for the pop masses, albeit written from the perspective of a victimized love. A serious piece of beatlesque pop, the song gave Welsh rockers an unlikely 25th UK hit.
The album’s themes may have seemed daring and artistic, but for Edwwards, many proved to be a reality that he could hardly cope with. Hospitalized in August 1994, the band announced their disappearance in February 1995. Although physically absent, their shadow never really left them. The other three went on without him for fifteen years, before finding themselves on an artistic retreat. Retreating to a scrapbook of unused Edwards lyrics, the band released ‘Journal for Plague Lovers’ in 2009, an album that claimed’ the glory of the Bible and its most satisfying record in a decade.