The Holy Bible (album)
1994 studio album by Manic Street Preachers
The Holy Bible is the third studio album by Welsh alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers, released on 29 August 1994 by Epic Records. While the album was being written and recorded, lyricist and rhythm guitarist Richey Edwards was struggling with severe depression, alcohol abuse, self-harm and anorexia nervosa, and its contents are considered by many sources to reflect his mental state. The songs focus on themes relating to politics and human suffering. The Holy Bible was the band's last album released before Edwards' disappearance on 1 February 1995, consequently becoming their last studio album as a four-piece band.
Although it reached number 6 in the UK Albums Chart, initially, global sales were disappointing compared to previous albums and the record did not chart in mainland Europe or North America. It was promoted with tours and festival appearances in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Portugal, the Netherlands and Thailand – in part without Edwards. The Holy Bible received widespread acclaim from critics and has sold over half a million copies worldwide as of 2014. It has frequently been featured and listed highly on lists of the best albums of all time by British music publications such as Melody Maker, NME and Q.
Recording
According to drummer Sean Moore, the band felt they had been "going a bit astray" with their previous album, 1993's Gold Against the Soul, and so the approach to the follow-up was for the band to go back to their "grass roots" and rediscover "a little bit of Britishness that we lacked". Singer and guitarist James Dean Bradfield recalls the band feeling they had become "a bit too rockist [...] we had lost our direction". After the band's first two albums had been dominated by influences such as Guns N' Roses and Alice in Chains, the band decided that the new material should be influenced by the artists that inspired them when they first formed, including Magazine, Wire, Skids, Public Image Ltd, Gang of Four, Joy Division, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and early Simple Minds.
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