The Holy Bible

The Holy Bible was the third studio album by the Welsh rock band Manic Street Preachers. It was released on August 30, 1994 by Epic Records, a subsidiary of Sony Records, unlike their two previous albums which had been released on the Columbia Records imprint. It peaked at number 6 on the UK Albums Chart. In August 2005 it topped Newsnight Review’s ‘Quintessential Newsnight Viewer’ top 5 favourite albums poll, pushing Radiohead’s OK Computer (a much bigger seller) into second place. It is listed on the list of 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. In 2001 Q magazine named it as one of the 50 Heaviest Albums Of All Time.

It was the band’s final album recorded before the disappearance of their lyricist Richey James Edwards on February 1, 1995. It is considered to be the band’s best work by many, although some critics prefer the band’s next album, Everything Must Go, the latter demonstrating a different musical style and production outlook, reflecting the absence of the creative direction of Edwards.

The first single from the album, “Faster”, was released on June 6 and peaked at #16 on the British singles chart. The single marked a new chapter for the band as the material was both lyrically and sonically different than their previous release, the Life Becoming A Landslide EP.

Whereas lyric duties on the two previous albums were split fairly evenly between Edwards and the band’s bass player Nicky Wire, Wire has said in interviews that Edwards wrote about 70-75% of the lyrics on The Holy Bible, which may explain why the lyrical themes were much darker than on later albums following Edwards’ disappearance.