Customer Reviews

Holy Bible

5 star:		(94)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have to confess that I avoided "The Holy Bible" for a long time. Sure, I enjoyed "Generation Terrorists" and the Manics' later albums (especially "This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours"), but everything I heard about "The Holy Bible" focused on how different it was - how it was so 'dark', 'bleak', 'disturbing', 'harrowing' and so on. Not to mention the famous disappearance of lyricist Richey James just months after the album was released. Even glancing at the titles to the tracks discouraged me: "Of Walking Abortion", "Archives of Pain", "The Intense Humming of Evil"... they sound more like Marilyn Manson than the Manic Street Preachers.

But when I finally did break down and get "The Holy Bible", I was completely blown away. Sure, the lyrics are dark, there's no getting around that. But the songs themselves are absolutely amazing, some of the best music I've ever heard. "The Holy Bible" starts off with a bang - two of them, in fact. "Yes" and "Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayitsworldwouldfallapart" (all one word, a famous phrase of Lenny Bruce) grab hold of the listener and don't let go. Once you've heard the chorus to "Yes", it is impossible to forget:

In these plagued streets of pity you can buy anything
For 200 anyone can conceive a god on video...

Most of the songs on the album have a political dimension - the Manics are well-known socialists and proud of it. Ifwhiteamerica... takes on the hypocrisy of Reagan's America (in which we are still living) and Thatcher's Britain - specifically the contrast between their self-images and reality. Behind the proud shouts of

Cool, groovey, mornin, fine
Tipper Gore was a friend of mine
I love a free country
The stars and stripes and an apple for mommy

quietly, in the background, you can hear the real refrain:

If white
America
told the truth
for one day...

Some of my other favorites from "The Holy Bible" are "Archives of Pain", with its call to "give them the respect they deserve"; "Mausoleum", about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; and "4st 7lb", a song about anorexia (translated into American units, 4st 7lb is 63 lb). The latter song has a beautiful, haunting refrain:

I want to walk in the snow
And not leave a footprint
I want to walk in the snow
And not spoil its purity

"The Intense Humming of Evil" is a very intense song about the Shoah, opening with a long, foreboding introduction played over a radio broadcast from the Nuremburg trials. It and "Mausoleum" are probably the most disturbing (and captivating) songs on "The Holy Bible". The album ends on a rousing note, P.C.P., a song denouncing the drug of political correctness, which lulls the well-meaning with a false sense of progress by effecting superficial change while ignoring systematic injustice and oppression (and at the same time creating a sort of PC thought-Police, another way to get the acronym). Remember, the Manics are socialists, not liberals:

Teacher starve your child: PC approved
As long as the right words are used.
Systemised atrocity ignored
As long as bilingual signs on view.
...
PCP - A PC Police Victory
PCP - A PC Pyrrhic Victory
When I was young, PC meant "Police Constable"
Nowadays I can't seem to tell the difference.

Of course, the other songs are excellent themselves, but I fear I've gone on far too long already. I'll conclude by agreeing with the many who have declared "The Holy Bible" the best album of the '90s. I cannot think of any other album from that decade that has amazed me as much as this one. For all its power, however, "The Holy Bible" remains relatively unknown, perhaps because of its reputation for dark, disturbing and horrifying songs. I strongly encourage you to check it out if you have not already, even if you're only willing to download it and give it a test listen. I hope that once you hear "The Holy Bible", you'll be as stunned as I was.

I should also note that a 10th anniversary box set edition of "The Holy Bible" has recently come out, containing both the British and American versions of the songs, as well as a DVD of live performances. Although I make it a rule not to buy re-releases of albums I already own, "The Holy Bible" is such an incredible album I may have to make an exception. If you don't already have the original version, you may just want to skip straight to the anniversary edition, which is reasonably priced for two CDs and a DVD.

This is the album par excellence. More people live their life by this piece of music than any other, yet was it intended as such ? When recorded, co-lyricist Richey James was going through mental illness, anorexia and alcoholism. Other lyricist Nicky Wire was on the verge of leaving. Both of their lyrics are stark and to the point with a severe lack of humour. Subjects range from concentrarion camps, to political correctness, to anorexia to American Imperialism ansd are treated in a manner that could not be described as anything except vicious and passionatte.

The music (co-written by drummer Sean Moore and singer/guitarist James Dean Bradfield) is as stark and brutal as the lyrical contect. Most songs begin with an uncredited sample followed by vicious, furious and sometimes tragic music that captures the essencs of the lyricists' vision.

On a personal level, the song "Faster" means most to me. It deals with the impossibility of the soul to stand up to, and oppose the modern world, or something like that. Set to a furious neo-punk backdrop, with Bradfields powerful voice and guitar shining through It ends with these brilliant lines repeated 4 times "So damn easy to cave in / Man kills everything".

Superior. Especially in light of what the manics hve turned into.

I just realized it's now been exactly five years since Richey James' disappearance, and what better time to write a review about a record that has been said is simply a portrayal of this "coolest person in the 90's".

Three quarters of the lyrics on the Holy Bible are by Richey, and as always, James and Sean have written the music. Prior to the album, the band said to have been listening to Joy Division, for example, and they visited death camps, among many other haunting locations.

And this can be heard. The Holy Bible simply gives me the creeps, and now even more than before. It was the first Manics record I ever laid my hands on, but now that I've heard the previous ones also and seen what they were like a couple of years before, I can't but say it frightens the hell out of me.

By handling issues all the way from death camps to anorexia to gun laws to serial killers to glorification of the past to political correctness, this record changed my way of thinking. In the same time I was reading ethical philosophy, met this great socialist fellow and heard this record, and I was forever moved away from such a selfish movement as capitalism.

Richey wrote great lyrics for this one (and I can't say that any of them are bad, so I have to give credit to the bassist Nicky also), and they are supported by great melodies and sounds, not a single track is less than excellent. The lead guitars are sometimes so terrific I'm speechless, not to mention some very fine riffs, bass ("Archives of Pain") or guitar ("Yes").

Some people have complained about how the album has been produced, it is too "full", but I think it's perfect. I couldn't ask for a more finely produced record. Can't say a single bad word.

No, I'm not through yet. You see, I really love the sleevenotes. Full of style, and they fit the theme of the album perfectly. And the band...damn, they look good...

Now you can go on and buy this. Five stars ain't enough.

One of the greatest recordings of the 1990's...this album affected me the same way the first Clash album did. EVERY song is a killer! However, this does not sound like the Clash, except it is influenced by them - it is much darker than the Clash - lyrically, more like Joy Division, VERY dark. And the JD comparisons don't end there. JD's lyricist, Ian Curtis, hung himself right after recording the band's epic, "Closer". MSP's co-lyricist (with Nicky Wire), Richey James Edwards, went missing and still hasn't been found (in fact, has been declared dead) after this album was released. Listening to the lyrics, it's not surprising. But the album is somehow uplifting, too, with James Dean Bradfield's powerful vocals and surging melodies. This album truly is a classic! Check it out! You'll probably wear it out.

So much has already been said about this cd, it's hard to add to it. Yes, this was the last cd featuring Richey James (although some of his lyrics made it on to Everything Must Go), and it has a sound of it's own.

Yes - A song about prostitution, with an upbeat sound. Strange and listenable, yet disturbing.

Ifwhiteamerica - Probably the reason this CD wasn't released in the US. One of their best, it charts the progress of America invading other countries to make them "better".

Of Walking Abortion - Richey's song which contains all of his insecurities about life. Shalom indeed.

She Is Suffering - One of my favourites, about the price of fake beauty.

Archives In Pain - The Death penalty. Summed up in a song, with one of the scariest bass lines ever.

Revol - The song the manics hate playing live, extreme punk about famous revolutionary leaders, and how their ideas were for their own benefit.

4st 7lb - Richey's (probably) anorexia diary. "I've finally come to understand life, through staring blankly at my navel".

Mausoleum - A haunting song about death and its meaning.

Faster - The most personal one to Richey and the current manics. "I know I believe in nothing, but it is my nothing."

This Is Yesterday - A longing for the simplicity of days past. Probably the closest on the cd to the manics current music (know your enemy excluded)

Die In The Summertime - another song about childhood.

The Intense Humming of Evil - The most disturbing song on the cd, to do with the Holocaust. Happy stuff indeed.

PCP - Another very punk song, to do with changing times.

That's my synopsis. It's very hard to explain without hearing the cd, but it manages to be disturbing and beautiful at the same time. a classic.

This is, as many Manics fans agree, their masterpiece. That one piece of work that an artist will produce in their life that they will never surpass.

this really is a work of lyrical and musical genius. I really can't express it any other way. This album represents all the disgust and anger that even Kurt Cobain couldn't express.

Beginning with Yes, a song about prostitution, ("in these plagued streets you can buy anything"), and a superb opening. The next song, IfWhiteAmericaToldTheTruthForOneDayIt'sWorldWouldFallApart, shows why it was never released in the USA, ("who shall we choose for our morality"). This is an angry rally against the 'culture' of the USA invading other countries to 'improve' them. Of Walking Abortion is as shiver-inducing as its' title suggests. This song is one of the most angry I've ever heard, ("hitler reprised in the worm of your soul... the massacred innocent blood stains us all"). She is Suffering is about the price of beauty, ("beauty she poisons unfaithfull all/stifled her touch is leprous and pale"). With a more gentle refrain that most of the songs on here. Archives Of Pain follows with its pro-death penalty view point, ("there is never redemption/any fool can regret yesterday") and it's chorus comprised of the names of various killers. The bassline on this song is the sound of pure evil. Revol takes it upon itself to destroy all revolutionary leaders, and to show the world their true nature. 4st 7lb is my favourite song on here. It is the most harrowing song I've ever heard. Written from the point of view of an anorexic girl, it is a lyrical masterpiece, possibly the best lyrics of the whole of the nineties. Mausoleum makes the skin crawl, with its sinister music and lyrics about concentration camps ("wherever you go I will be Carcass/ whatever you see will be rotting flesh"). faster is from the point of view of what appears to be a serial killer. This Is Yesterday is full of regret and a longing for a time when life was more innocent than it is now, perhaps through the eyes of a child. this is followed by Die In The Summertime, another song about the loss of innocence, and the wish to regain the way things once were, and the inability to live up to people's (and your own) expectations. The Intense Humming Of Evil is another song about the Nazi concentration camps, and like one of its lyrics is a "funeral march for agony's last edge". Even the introduction of this song makes the hairs on the back of my neck rise. Finally, P.C.P is an angry song about political correctness and its' ridiculousness when so much evil is taking place in the world.

This album is superb. I've never heard anything sound so ugly, and yet simultaneously so beautiful. The lyrics are the most honest I've ever heard, and the music and vocals complement them perfectly. Prepare for a journey into the darkest recesses of humanity, buy The Holy Bible.

....when I reviewed Suede's Dog Man Star and called it the bleakest British album of the 1990's. That album seems like a picnic in the park compared to this one. *THIS* truly is the bleakeast, most haunted, and downright disturbing (in both it's imagery and the music) I've heard. It's also supremely excellent. The music is aggressive, almost proto-metal, and James Dean Bradfield's vocals are delivered with a vicious snarl. The instrumental machinery is tight, taut, and explosive. But the scareist thing about this album are the lyrics, written by bassist Nicky Wire and the disturbed, mysterious, and vanished Richey James Edwards (he simply disappeared off the face of the earth shortly after this album was released). The lyrics range from musings on Richey's anorexia, his self-mutilation, and simulatanous exaltation and revulsion at the horrors of Communism and Fascism. Indeed, it's hard for me to determine if the band are ardent commies or not...they're wearing commie uniformas and pictures of Mao the Butcher on the back sleeve, and some of the lyrics bear this out, but other lyrics paint a picture of disillusionment with radical totalitarianism. This confusion also adds to the disturbing quality of this album. This is a quite a record, but not for the faint of heart...it just sounds downright evil!

I think that fans of The Holy Bible have to be masochists. I'm completely in love with this album though, so what's that say about me? I say this because The Holy Bible is physically painful to listen to, especially if you know the history behind the songs and the events surrounding it.

The entire album alternates between passionate anger and complete despair. There isn't a note of hope on it, as far as I can tell. Ranging in subject matter from prostitution (Yes) to anorexia (4st 7lb) to the Holocaust (Mausoleum and The Intense Humming of Evil), this album takes all that is dark in humanity and exposes it to the light of day. It allows the listener to see that yes, something is intensely wrong with us as people. The lyrics are truth. Richey James, lyricist (for the large majority of the album) and rhythm guitarist for the Preachers, was a deeply disturbed person, but in the way that makes people uncomfortable because they know what he is saying is true. Unfortunately, he is no longer around to express these truths - he disappeared shortly before the Preachers' American tour for this album and has never been found, which makes this album all the more powerful to listen to.

Lyrically, this album is only helped by the fact that Richey expresses his truths in such an existientially despairing poetic way, with lots of interesting intellectual references. (It helps to listen to this album with an encyclopedia or one of the many webpages dedicated to Preachers' references.)

For example, take the song "Of Walking Abortion." The title taken from a quote by uber-feminist Valerie Jean Solanas, this song describes how people are "walking abortions," or born emotionally deficient. Lines like "Recognized truth, acadia's blackest hole" are both wonderfully poetic and perfectly sum up Richey's disgust with people's constant apathy toward suffering. The rest of the songs are just as brutally honest. I think it says a lot about the album when a song about how one longs to return to childhood because their current life is so lacking hope ("This is Yesterday") is a relief from the pain.

Pitch-perfect instrumentals written by James Dean Bradfield and Sean Moore accompany these brilliant lyrics. The pounding layered guitars in "Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforoneday
it'sworldwouldfallapart" and the sparce electronic sounds of "The Intense Humming Of Evil" work particuarly well. In fact, "The Intense Humming of Evil" is probably the closest to evoking the horror of the Holocaust, excepting survivors' stories (and that the lyric "Six million screaming souls" is factually wrong - come on guys, do your research! And thanks for pointing that out to me, angrymofo). All of this is brought to musical near-perfection with James Dean Bradfields' passionate singing, alternating between shouting-singing and crazy/doubtful/desperate crooning.

In "Of Walking Abortion," the Preachers' ask "Who is responsible?" After listening to The Holy Bible, I have no other answer than the one they provide for us: "You...are."

This is the third release from Wales' finest band. In 1990, the Manics exploded onto the British music scene, spitting venomous political slogans and sporting spray-painted shirts. The Holy Bible alienates itself from its punk predecessors and is a bleak and powerful piece of work. The illness of the lyricist and guitarist Richey James is starkly reflected in the intensely morbid and poignant lyrics. 'Yes' explores prostitution of the self, in our society, everything can be bought. 'Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayitsworldwouldfallapart' is a pretty self-explanatory title, while 'Archives Of Pain' is a reaction to the glorification of serial killers. '4st7lbs' is the lyrical peak of this album and is the account of an anorexic. It is mainly autobiographical and is highly personal "I wanna be so skinny that I rot from view...I wanna walk in the snow and not soil its purity." The music ranges from being chilling and cold as in 'The Intense Humming Of Evil' to fast punk rock as in 'PCP' and 'Faster'. I can't rate this album highly enough and my praise is futile in expressing its magnificence.

Both listening to and reviewing. I find it difficult to rate The Holy Bible in terms of other rock albums as it seems to tower so far above them. Time and time again, this is the album I have come back to to see just what rock music can do. The first thing to note is that (as others have said) the album is reduced, almost obsolete without reference to the lyrics. I can honestly say that I believe no other lyricist has come close to what Richey Edwards achieved on this album. It gets to the point where my words are useless and all I can say is "just read the lyrics yourself".

Yes - this song is perhaps the most personal - "the only certain thing that is left about me/there's no part of my body that has not been used/Pity or pain, to show displeasure's shame/Everyone I've loved or hated seems to leave". Detailing Richey's thoughts on how he had almost prostituted himself previously.

Ifwhiteamerica - Politics has always loomed large on MSP horizons, never more so than here. A wonderfully sarcastic, military performance from James Dean Bradfield adds to the edge. Just lap up the acid disgust and sarcasm in "Cool - groovey - morning- fine/Tipper Gore was a friend of mine/I love a free country/The stars and stripes and an apple for mommy." Genius.

Of Walking Abortion - I feel this is the quintessential Holy Bible track. Anger, disgust, wretchedness, dismayare."

She Is Suffering - a ballad by MSP standards. Richey musing on religion, sex and desire, and his own uncomfortable feelings about them. Beautiful.

Archives Of Pain - Pretty harrowing. The Manics have always avoided easy answers and have never lapsed into cosy liberalism, and here is the perfect example. A hateful, judgemental rant about killers and humanity, with a fantastic instrumental rock-out.

Revol - Ace but still bloody weird. "Mr Stalin - bisexual epoch" etc. Richey seems to be commenting on the failure of political relationships and comparing that with the failure of personal ones - his cynicism regarding love was well-known (on the previous album he had declared "there is no true love/just a finely tuned jealousy")

4st7lbs - Where do I begin? Surely the greatest rock lyric ever written, as Richey analyses his own anorexia with a clarity and awareness that is stunning. "Choice is skeletal in everybody's life/I choose, my choice, I starve to frenzy/Hunger soon passes, and sickness soon tires..self worth scatters, self-esteems a bore/I long since moved to a higher plateau". The music begins caustic and biting, before shifting to a graceful, beautiful final third. Unbelievable.

Mausoleum - Harrowing. The Manic's experiences visiting Dachau and Belsen - "no birds, no birds - the sky is swollen black...holy mass of dead insect...the world lances youth's lamb-like winter."

Faster - Well. An anthem. I still really have no idea what it's about, but it's very complex and, I think, deals with society speeding up and links in with Richey's self-mutilation. Or something.

This Is Yesterday - A shaft of light (in MSP terms). Enough to bring a grown man to tears, as Bradfield gently lulls "I repent, I'm sorry, everything is falling apart."

Die In The Summertime - offers disturbing insights into Richey;s state of mind "scratch my leg with a rusty nail - sadly it heals". Difficult listening but great nonetheless.

The Intense Humming Of Evil - I take back my "harrowing" descriptions before. This is harrowing. Six minutes of intense, growling, sinister brooding on the Holocaust - "Six million screaming souls - maybe misery - maybe nothing at all". I find it hard to listen to all the way through, such is its power.

PCP - A great ending. Punk guitars, shouty vocals, a blur of lyrics on political correctness and the state of the world, and the cataclysmic ending, screaming - "Pass the prozac, designer amnesiac".

You will not be able to forget this once you have heard it. It will, I think, always be my favourite album. The complexity of emotions and words, the great rock music at is core make it a superlative-defying experience. Buy it. You will never look at music the same again.