Holy Bible, The - Manic Street Preachers

Advantages: A Daring, Snarling Beast Of A Record
Disadvantages: Bleak And Angry - Not Easy Listening

Album: The Holy Bible Artist: Manic Street Preachers Label: Sony Released: 1994 Aside from the irony of the Manic St Preachers being on the huge corporate beast of a label that was Sony, 1994 saw them release their finest work to date. "The Holy Bible" is an angry and uncompromisingly bleak album; an arrow into the dark heart of humanity in many ways. Following hot on the heels of "Gold Against The Soul" (an inconsistent and sterile set of songs ...
...innovative and controversial. "The Holy Bible" opens with "Yes" - a scathing critique of overt capitalism and designer science; "In these plagued streets of pity You can buy anything, For $200 anyone can conceive a god on video" The first thing that strikes you (after the initial surprise of the fourth word of the album being the C word) is that the nominal chorus, is inaccesible and rushed. The hook of the song is the wonderfully sung bridge, ... Read review

Advantages: Deep lyrics, great lyrics good vocals
Disadvantages: a bit too deep, not easy listening,

MANIC STREET PREACHERS - THE HOLY BIBLE --------------------------------------- So my previous review was about the Manic Street Preacher's second album, gold against the soul, so I thought what better a time to tackle their next album, 1994's The Holy Bible. Most people will be familiar with the band due to a number of chart topping singles released over the last few years, the problem is that these don't really show how good this band was in ...
...that really shows what the Manics were about. The four members of the band grew up close to each other in a small mining town in Wales The band all had a love of rock music, especially groups like 'The Clash' and 'Guns and Roses', they were also very intelligent and interested in politics etc. The band formed in the late 1980's and released a single, Suicide Alley, which was recorded by scraping all of their dole cheques together. A couple more ... Read review

Advantages: Great lyrics, work of art
Disadvantages: Too dark for some

...the line up. ‘The Holy Bible’ was released in 1994, the Welsh bands third album under the Sony label. The most amazing thing about the album is the lyrics. They are the expressions of someone who was deeply troubled, but is a true artist. The quality comes across in the words, and you have to read all the words off the album to get the full impact. With his depression comes a fairly obvious dark tone to the album. This is especially obvious ...
...in ‘Die in the Summertime’ are intently dark. It is not the sort of thing to play to get upbeat, but the true genius behind this has to be seen. With Richey gone the Manics have still made records, ‘Everything Must Go’ is also excellent and another album of the 90s. They will never re-create what goes on in this album though. 1. Yes - The opening track is a fine example of this album, saying what they think is wrong with the ... Read review

Advantages: Best album ever
Disadvantages: its not a party record!!

...Street Preachers 3rd album The Holy Bible. The Album The Holy Bible is probably one of the gloomiest and darkest records to be produced with its bleak nihilistic songs of pure vitriol. Richey, the bands enigmatic songwriter wrote this album during the deepest parts of his depression so this was not going to be any happy album. Topics that are covered in this album range from prostitution, anorexia and self-abuse to the Nazi holocaust and Hiroshima. ...
...of them and Nicky writing a few of them along side Richey. The album was dedicated to their manager Philip Hall who died of cancer 6 months before this album was released Richey the "face" of the band suffered with depression most of his life and was a person who "practised" self abuse such as cutting himself up and starvation. During this period in the Manics careers Richey Edwards was at most bleak period in his life and a few months after this ... Read review

Advantages: The best album of all time
Disadvantages: But only in my opinion

The Holy Bible is possibly the darkest LP you’ll ever hear if you ever listen to it (unless you’re a goth or something and then it’s the happiest CD you’ll ever hear). It was released in 1994, the same year that Take That were at their peak and Blur released the catalyst for Britpop, Parklife, but it’s safe to say that this is far removed from the sound of the charts. Richey Edwards, the band’s enigmatic “poet ...
...had dropped most of the Holy Bible songs from their set when I went to see them). The band and most others regard Revol as the worst on the album. You might note that it spells lover backwards, but it is obscure in the extreme as far as theme goes. It seems to be about Homo-erotic fantasies and dictators, but after that I’m baffled. It’s the closest the band get to in terms of their earliest sound on the album, but the lyrics were probably ... Read review

Advantages: One of the greatest albums ever
Disadvantages: Its took 10 years for most people to realise it

...Moore, he rose from the sleepy Welsh colliery town of Blackwood, to become one of the most important bands of the 1990's, and in my mind, ever. The reissue of this landmark album is not just a reminder of how good the band were/are, it is an epitaph, a constant tattoo on the conscience that the Manic Street Preachers made music that mattered. On its first release, the Holy Bible was described by Sean as 'not the kind of album you would play at a party'. The Holy Bible was dark, deep, almost malignant evil, with lyrics of such power that they were sung through gritted angry teeth over a breathtaking rollercoaster ride of a soundtrack. It gets the respect it deserves with this edition, which is beautifully packaged and includes many new features, it's 3 discs including the much awaited US release of the album, and also some rare... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: This is simply a beautiful album with no weak links
Disadvantages: You will buy other CC albums and be left a little dissapointed

...August and everything After sits comfortably in my top five favourite albums of all time. For your own interest and to show the quality of this superb album, my list reads: 1) OK Computer, Radiohead 2) Counting Crows: August and everything After 3) The bends, Radiohead 4) Manic Street Preachers: The holy bible 5) Defnitely Maybe: Oasis This album is immense and actually the only album other than OK computer which I don't skip a song. So why is it so good? Well its perfect in everyway. They always say the key to a good album is a good entrance, if thats true, Round Here (Song 1) fulfills every criteria This song is faultless, the moody introduction of the Hammond organ sets a stunning resonance to which an uncomplicated but beautiful guitar line comes in, your left hanging for a few seconds until the distinctive Adam Duritz... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: great singles
Disadvantages: melachonic at times

...This is my truth tell me yours is the latest manic street preachers album and Continues there penchant for extremely long names (not long in comparison to the The Holy bible track If white America told the truth for one day it?s world would fall apart!). The album like all the others shows a maturing in the manics (theya are quickly becomin old men ) but they still wish to explore historical themes in the song If you tolerate this then your children will be next, the whole album is of a similar excellent standard.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful