It would have interesting to mark the reactions of people who bought Forever Delayed. Pop bands, traditionally, are best viewed through their Greatest Hits packages. People who bought into the Manics after the songs mentioned above would not have been expecting glam-punk new-wave anthems Motown Junk and You Love Us. They would have been expecting even less a blistering punk song singing the virtues of starving yourself.
That song was Faster, The Holy Bible's only contribution to Forever Delayed. On that album, it sticks out like a sore thumb. Not surprising, really, given that as an album, The Holy Bible sticks out like a sore thumb too - not just in the catalogue of the Manics, but in music in a general. It's so bleak it makes In Utero, Korn's self-titled debut, and Angel Dust look like Westlife albums. It documents insanity and exposes it in a way not even Syd Barrett's albums do (though the comparison is somewhat unfair). It truly feels like the most 'punk' album ever, so comprehensively does it shock the listener and stand on its own in the annals of music. And, perhaps most strikingly, it made a star and a martyr out of Richey Edwards, an Axl Rose and Trent Reznor-worshipping skinny Welsh boy with a penchant for cutting himself, and probably the least talented guitar player ever to appear on a major label recording. The liners may well say that Richey played guitar on the Manics' early records - don't believe them. It was all Bradfield.
Richey Edwards is an inescapable presence in this album, because he looms so obviously over it. Almost every lyric is his, the only real input from anyone else coming from both Nicky Wire and James Dean Bradfield having to edit his prosaic ramblings into something singable. Truly, this album is his. The lyrics are what makes this album such a revelation, 10 years down the line, because Richey was visiting places nobody else dared to. Sure, you could say anyone could write about the characters presented on this album, but nobody else ever has with as much empathy for, and awe of, self-destruction. You can almost hear the pull of the knife across Richey's flesh in Bradfield's voice - thankfully, a voice with enough depth and versality to handle such weighty matters.
So what does Richey write about" The Holy Bible could easily be seen as a concept album, each one dealing with a new character, each as depraved and sadomasochistic, yet sympathetic and fatally damaged as the next. From the prostitute of Yes, to the anorexic on the album highlight, 4st 7lbs, to the righteous faster on the aptly-named Faster, to everyone involved in the Holocaust on The Intense Humming Of Evil. How about some choice quotes from each of these songs"
Tracklist for The Holy Bible:
1. Yes
2. Ifwhiteamericatoldthe
truthforoneday
it'sworldwouldfallapart
3. Of Walking Abortion
4. She Is Suffering
5. Archives Of Pain
6. Revol
7. 4st 7lbs
8. Mausoleum
9. Faster
10. This Is Yesterday
11. Die In The Summertime
12. The Intense Humming Of Evil
13. PCP
That song was Faster, The Holy Bible's only contribution to Forever Delayed. On that album, it sticks out like a sore thumb. Not surprising, really, given that as an album, The Holy Bible sticks out like a sore thumb too - not just in the catalogue of the Manics, but in music in a general. It's so bleak it makes In Utero, Korn's self-titled debut, and Angel Dust look like Westlife albums. It documents insanity and exposes it in a way not even Syd Barrett's albums do (though the comparison is somewhat unfair). It truly feels like the most 'punk' album ever, so comprehensively does it shock the listener and stand on its own in the annals of music. And, perhaps most strikingly, it made a star and a martyr out of Richey Edwards, an Axl Rose and Trent Reznor-worshipping skinny Welsh boy with a penchant for cutting himself, and probably the least talented guitar player ever to appear on a major label recording. The liners may well say that Richey played guitar on the Manics' early records - don't believe them. It was all Bradfield.
Richey Edwards is an inescapable presence in this album, because he looms so obviously over it. Almost every lyric is his, the only real input from anyone else coming from both Nicky Wire and James Dean Bradfield having to edit his prosaic ramblings into something singable. Truly, this album is his. The lyrics are what makes this album such a revelation, 10 years down the line, because Richey was visiting places nobody else dared to. Sure, you could say anyone could write about the characters presented on this album, but nobody else ever has with as much empathy for, and awe of, self-destruction. You can almost hear the pull of the knife across Richey's flesh in Bradfield's voice - thankfully, a voice with enough depth and versality to handle such weighty matters.
So what does Richey write about" The Holy Bible could easily be seen as a concept album, each one dealing with a new character, each as depraved and sadomasochistic, yet sympathetic and fatally damaged as the next. From the prostitute of Yes, to the anorexic on the album highlight, 4st 7lbs, to the righteous faster on the aptly-named Faster, to everyone involved in the Holocaust on The Intense Humming Of Evil. How about some choice quotes from each of these songs"
Tracklist for The Holy Bible:
1. Yes
2. Ifwhiteamericatoldthe
truthforoneday
it'sworldwouldfallapart
3. Of Walking Abortion
4. She Is Suffering
5. Archives Of Pain
6. Revol
7. 4st 7lbs
8. Mausoleum
9. Faster
10. This Is Yesterday
11. Die In The Summertime
12. The Intense Humming Of Evil
13. PCP