The only Holy Bible I'll ever need (The Holy Bible - Manic Street Preachers)

Member Name: Mildew82

Product:	The Holy Bible - Manic Street Preachers
Date:	31/05/09 (151 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Extremely thought provoking, fantastic lyrics and amazing instrumentals

Disadvantages: Very shocking themes - not suitable for children or people of a sensitive nature

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Background
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Manic Street Preachers, from humble beginnings in Blackwood in Wales, have been making music for over 20 years (formed in 1986 under the original name of Betty Blue). Originally they were a quartet with lead vocalist and lead guitarist James Dean Bradfield, lyricist and bassist Nicky Wire, drummer Sean Moore and the lyricist and rhythm guitarist Richey Edwards. All music was written by Bradfield and Moore.

The band had to deal with major upheaval with the shocking disappearance of Richey Edwards on 1st February 1995 (he was declared presumed deceased in November 2008) but decided to continue on without him as a trio and overall have so far had great success with 8 top ten albums.

Whilst their first album Generation Terrorists showcased their raw talent, especially through the masterpiece song that was Motorcycle Emptiness and their second album Gold Against the Soul showed a much more mature and more cohesive sound, The Holy Bible is quite simply - there's no way around it - a genius album.

The Holy Bible is a culmination of some fantastically composed music with a very intense quality to it ranging from pure anger to extreme moroseness, overwhelmingly stunning lyrics clearly originating from what can only be described as the tortured and disturbed mind of Richey Edwards and the genuine passion the band exudes for every second of this album.

Whilst no one particular theme is employed through The Holy Bible, the message is clear - the Manics were expressing seemingly every single one of their moralistic views possible into each crafted song with attacks on many elements of the decaying modern society from brutal attacks on politicians and dictators and the act of genocide to the incredibly disturbing aspects of human nature including to name but a few, anorexia, suicide, prostitution, murder.

This album quite frankly has no boundaries and no fear - it is about freedom of speech and the Manics have a lot to say. It's like their views were just so strong and overpowering that there was an atomic explosion and from the mushroom cloud and nuclear fallout came the creation that is The Holy Bible. With the use of many profanities, horrendously emotive and sometimes distressing imagery and the use of recorded excerpts from famous interviews or important historic events this album is not suitable for children or the faint hearted, but for me it is one of the most thought provoking and influential albums I have ever heard.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Songs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

--------------------
Yes
--------------------

Upon hearing this song you will either be disgusted beyond belief or simply blown away by the intensity and strong moral implications.

The underlying theme is one of prostitution in the form of selling out from a band's perspective. I believe the title comes from changing the Lloyds TSB slogan "The Bank That Likes To Say Yes" to "The Band That Likes To Say Yes" and through the grotesquely graphic lyrics the Manics portray how in the quest for success it is possible to lower yourself to doing just about anything.

As most of the songs on this album, this is a heavily guitar driven song, but is quite melodic with a fairly catchy if not disgusting chorus and very richly packed lyrics sung at great speed which just emphasises how much the Manics truly have to say. James Dean Bradfield's voice is suited unbelievably well to this type of music. He punctuates the message with the right levels of anger and required sombre emotion which will just leave you completely dumbstruck.

A fantastic opening which leaves you very excited and more than just a little nervous about what is in store for you from the rest if the album. 10/10.

--------------------
Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayitsworldwouldf allapart
--------------------

The very bizarre title is a quote from Lenny Bruce, a stand-up comedian, writer and satirist form the 1950s and 1960s who was convicted of obscenity (based upon the use of such profanities as "cocksucker" or the using the insulting Yiddish word "schmuck") in 1964 and sentenced to four months in a workhouse (seems like a very scary conviction by today's standards). Sadly he died during an appeal and this conviction was overturned posthumously in 1970.

Damn the Manics are obscure in their uncovering of injustices!

The theme on this track is inherently about racism in America - focussing especially on the US gun laws which the Manics deemed to give unfair rights to white people allowing them to own guns and preventing most black people from obtaining licenses.

Once again this is a heavily guitar driven song, again with a very catchy chorus and the political messages less than subtly being voiced with strong lyrical rhetoric which was perhaps a bit more disjointed than Yes but by no means less effective. Once again Bradfield's vocals are strong and his undertones of anger merely emphasise the fundamentals of the song and you are left in no doubt of the Manics' unwavering beliefs. 9/10

--------------------
Of Walking Abortion
--------------------

The inspiration for the title of this track comes from Valerie Solanos - the founder of the Society for Cutting Up Men (SCUM) and who famously shot Andy Warhol - as a description for the human male. Lovely.

The theme for this track is how the weakness of mankind ties in with the rise of fascism - therefore how the weakness of man allows abhorrent atrocities to occur due to the flaws in our nature. The song starts with a fitting excerpt from an interview with Hubert Selby, Jr. - an American writer famed for the depraved themes in his novels from gang rape to other human depravities with his best known work being Last Exit to Brooklyn and Requiem for a Dream, both made into films.

As in the first two tracks, the heavy guitars and passionately angry voice of Bradfield make for a truly stunning song, but there is something much darker about this one compared with the first two with the blackest look into the human soul being vividly laid out before you with nowhere to hide.

It's some seriously scary and intense stuff that will leave you once again mesmerised by the sheer force of it all. 10/10.

--------------------
She is Suffering
--------------------

Released as a single, this song is a much gentler but much more solemn song where "She" is actually desire with the overall message in this song being one of how the only way to be happy is to rid yourself of desire. It is apparent that Richey is not happy but is at war with the sexual desires of his own body - the first non-political based song on the album, but still a powerful and thought provoking perspective of an uncontrollable human trait leading to potential moralistic issues.

This track is of a much slower tempo with the heavier guitar riffs replaced by a more melodic and beautiful air, and with Bradfield taking on a much more emotional and smoother tone which creates to me the most beautiful track on the album.

By this stage it would be very difficult not to be feeling a little moved or even just simply slightly unsettled by the ideas touched upon with such abandon - you feel like you've been on an emotional rollercoaster and you're not even half way through the album yet. 10/10.

--------------------
Archives of Pain
--------------------

This track starts with an excerpt from an interview of a mother of one of the Yorkshire Ripper's victims a very uncomfortable opening which gives you the clue to the theme of the song. Not as you'd expect the propensity for man to kill, but more about that same act of violence being turned around on the perpetrator of the crime and the thin line between justice and revenge.

This song sees the return of the much angrier and heavier guitar riffs which are accentuated again by Bradfield's powerful vocals and the strongly vivid and upsetting imagery created by the poetic and passionate lyrics.

Again you are left quite breathless at the pure pace and intensity of the song with such a strong moral implication that really leaves you pondering on the ways of mankind. 10/10.

--------------------
Revol
--------------------

Revol - derived from simply reversing the word Lover is probably my least favourite song on the album. To me it just seems to be an attack on all the most crucial political leaders of the twentieth century which whilst acts as a great vessel for the Manics to express all their political outrage the song lacks the potency that the other songs have all so far had and as a result has much lesser impact.

This slightly less frenetic song could be attributed to the fact it was released as a single - the commercial properties on this track are immediately noticeable with the less complicated and easier to listen to lyrics and repetition of the word Revol for the chorus and very catchy guitar riffs replacing the slightly darker ones from earlier tracks.

However, this song does allow you to catch your breath after the turbulent first five songs. 7/10.

--------------------
4st 7lbs
--------------------

Just when you thought maybe, just maybe the album may be taking a slightly less intense and devastating route after Revol along comes 4st 71bs. This is easily the most disturbing song on the album (in fact probably that I've ever heard) and is quite clearly an autobiographical retelling of Richey's own experiences with anorexia.

The disturbing element from this song is not only the subject, but the fact that it is almost beautified. The chillingly dark music begins with an unnerving quote from who I can only assume is an anorexia sufferer:

"I eat too much to die, but not enough to stay alive. I'm just sitting in the middle waiting."

There are many contradictions in this song, with horrific portrayals of the effects on the body by anorexia contrasted with the perception of beauty and peace experienced by the sufferer the more skinny they become. The song begins very darkly be still fairly energetically, but as the end approaches the power of Bradfield's voice becomes so much more emotional tying in with the downshift from the heavy riff to the much more heart-rending tones.

This tempo changes throughout this song could be perceived as the changes in emotions experienced through a disease like anorexia, starting with the confused but energetic tones at the beginning moving towards the more peaceful but tragic feelings as the target of 4st 7lbs is finally reached.

This song always makes me feel like crying! 10/10.

--------------------
Mausoleum
--------------------

Moving away from the highly depressing concept of self mutilation through starvation, the next track is one delving into the incomprehensible cause and effects of the Holocaust. It seems that no respite is possible on this album.

This is again a fast tempo, breathless song - I'm not sure that Bradfield takes a breath in the chorus and through string vocals, heavy and chilling music alongside a very dark mood set by the image of "No birds" and "a mass of dead insects" in their place this is yet again another incredibly powerful song given the subject matter and again provokes unwanted thoughts into the nature of man.

This song leaves you wondering what avenues there are left for the Manics to explore in the darkest recesses of human nature. 9/10

--------------------
Faster
--------------------

Released as a single, Faster again has a speedy tempo, with some amazing guitar riffs, another stellar performance from Bradfield with just the right mix of anger and outrage and once again a very strong message - I'm not sure on this one but it has been suggested that this is Richey's attempts to defend his self-mutilation, but it is definitely a defence of something! Or maybe it's another straightforward social attack:

"So damn easy to cave in. Man kills everything."

There is also a great quote from 1984 to start things off:

"I hate purity. Hate goodness. I don't want virtue to exist anywhere. I want everyone corrupt"

Perhaps this is just another outlet to express some of the main beliefs and moral views shared by the Manics by trying to cram as many different concepts into one song as possible - I guess it's all open to interpretation, but whatever you may take from this song it is once again thought provoking without perhaps the overwhelmingly nakedly honest onslaught most of the other songs opted for. 9/10.

--------------------
This is Yesterday
--------------------

Similar to She is Suffering, This is Yesterday shakes off the shackles of the relentlessly angry and punishing preceding songs and creates a very beautiful yet deeply melancholy mood with I suspect a very simple theme of lamenting the past.

The lyrics and vocals are beautiful, and this song is just in the right place to soften the album and add yet again another dimension to an already unbelievable album. The turbulent ride continues as this song will bring your mood right back down from the indignant and outraged to a more morose and disquieted state of mind. 10/10

--------------------
Die in the Summertime
--------------------

This song begins very hauntingly and disturbingly with an excellent guitar
intro, then Bradfield's vocals take full flight and give the dark lyrics full justice. Whilst This is Yesterday was extremely morose, this song takes a much more up-tempo stance on a similar theme - this time about looking back on the happier times in life whilst accepting the approaching imminence of death - preferably to occur in the summertime.

Once again, the poetic edge to the lyrics gives it a beautiful quality, they are a lot less cluttered than previous songs, which also makes this song a little easier to listen to but in no way detracting from the tragedy of the story. 10/10

--------------------
The Intense Humming of Evil
--------------------

This is the second song on the album to address the Holocaust but this is a much more distressing and chilling song than Mausoleum.

The song begins with a seriously unnerving death march as the back ground to a bitter insight into the Holocaust:

The court has come.
The court of the Nations and into the courtroom will come
the martyrs of Majdanek and Oswiecim.
From the ditch of Kerch the dead will rise,
they will arise from the graves,
they will arise from flames bringing with them the acrid smoke
and the deathly odour of scorched and martyred Europe.
And the children they too will come, stern and merciless.
The butchers had no pity on them.
Now the victims will judge the butchers.
Today the tear of the child is the judge.
The grief of the mother is the prosecutor.


This is quite possibly the most harrowing song on the album, with the Holocaust brought vividly and brutally to life with unflinching lyrics and fantastic vocals from Bradfield - yet again a truly uncomfortable topic dealt with as openly an unashamedly as all the previous songs on the album.

This will leave you chilled to the bone 10/10.

--------------------
PCP
--------------------

Also released as a single this is yet again another extremely fast paced and metaphorically drug fuelled song which is just as relentless as the majority of the whole album. A slightly more generic attack on political injustices, this song touches upon the stupidity of political correctness which serves at best to make only superficial changes to society and never gets close to dealing with the real issues.

A good way to finish the album, almost like warming down from a marathon despite the frenetic pace to the song, the lower level of emotional intensity to the song gives way to a thoroughly enjoyable song. 9/10.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Conclusion
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Holy Bible is a fearlessly unflinching album delving into the deepest darkest recesses of the human soul and really forcing you to think about the world we live in and really be unable to look at it in any other way but disgust and disdain. The breadth of politically inspired material and sources used to argue the socialist views the Manics so obviously hold is astounding - their obscure references has given me every desire to learn about all these events I was so oblivious to before.

With sometimes disjointed, but always amazingly intelligent and emotive lyrics from the obviously tortured Richey Edwards, and a huge depth of emotion that this album inspires - from the downright angry, to outrage, to the severely harrowing to the extremely depressing this is by far one of the most creative and stunning works of art ever created.

It will not be suited to everyone due to the shocking nature of the majority of the album, but if you can handle the realities of the dark side this album will absolutely blow you away (quite possibly off the face of the earth).

I think you would have to write a whole PhD to do this album justice, but I hope I have managed to give it a thorough write up. 10/10.

Summary: A truly genius album with an unrelenting and unflinchingly honest yet dark portrayal of human nature