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.

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.

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.

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.

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 Richey James (MSP's main singer and songwriter, until he vanished) 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. While Richey James proudly shouts

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.