Pages

Jun 23, 2012

Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible (1994)


Sometimes known as the heaviest album of all time or the darkest album of all time or the scariest album of all time- lyrically focussing on suffering of all kinds (spiritual, mental, physical), with the Guns N Roses obsessed Welsh britpoppers focussing more on the machine-like atmospherics of a band like Joy Division or PiL, than trying to go filter yelpy pop choruses through glam metal. The non-personal sources for these exercises in suffering are often history (concentration camps in Dachau and Belsen), politics, and literature. For all that it's easy to snigger and recall one's own teenage angst (I remember thinking this really spoke to me when I picked it up in a bargain bin 8 years ago), or the ironic right-wing perspective of that girl you knew that read Sylvia Plath, Nietzsche, and Camus in high school, the fact remains that Edwards was assured enough in his beliefs to not only write this shit, but (SURELY) kill himself in 1995. As a stand-alone work in the same mysterious vacuum that Bryan Loren found himself in, the lyrics don't fit most of the songs and vocalist Bradfield sounds like he's having a real shitty time squeezing all those syllables into every line, no matter how quickly he yelps. It's also really long. Like, play the record, think this goes on a while!, walk to the dairy, come back and it's still playing long. But that mysterious vacuum isn't real! Acknowledging Edwards' beliefs and persona, The Holy Bible is a sick, dark, nasty album, self-obsessed and completely misanthropic. But it's gripping because it's so sincere. And I like it! Maybe it's 'cause I first heard it when that kind of shit meant a lot to me, but that's probably not the case 'cause a lot of people much older and wiser than me circle-jerk over it all the time

My favourite's Yes 'cause I dig the riff and Die in the Summertime 'cause it's the best example of HOLY SHIT DEPRESSING lyrics over Wire-esque poppy punk rock yelp choruses

A

buy
spotify

2 comments:

  1. One of my favourite records of all-time. Not only is it as dark as it gets, but it is also brutally and beautifully honest. Richie meant this shit.

    ReplyDelete