Manic Street Preachers have been working on their upcoming 11th album in the Berlin studio where David Bowie recorded the legendary 1977 epic ‘Heroes’.
Breaking a long Twitter silence, the band took to their account (@ManicsPostcards) to say: “M.S.P were in the great Hansa Studios in January with Alex Silva (who recorded the Holy Bible with us) - berlin was inspirational xx”
The Holy Bible is seen by many as the band’s masterpiece due to its dark imagery, sharp post-punk sound and historical and literary references. It was recorded in 1994 and was the last full LP the band worked on with guitarist and key lyricist Richey Edwards before he disappeared in 1995.
Nick Wire previously joked that the album could be titled ’70 Songs of Hatred and Failure’.
Speaking to Lauren Laverne on BBC 6 Music’s Greatest Hits special several weeks ago, frontman James Dean Bradfield said the album would feature a “kraut-rock” side as well as “electronic ideas”, “trumpets” and a lot of tracks written by bassist and lyricist Nicky Wire.
James said: “We’ve been in Berlin for two weeks and we’re well over 20 tracks now. It just feels like there are two halves to the record – it feels like there’s more of a caustic side and an acoustic side.”
He continued: “It feels like we’ve been doing it for quite a long time. For over a year we’d just been working on it at our studio in Cardiff and it just feels like we’ve indulged ourselves whilst being too overblown about it and not going into too many dark corners that people won’t understand.
“It feels like it could be (released at) the start of next year – but you never know, it could be the end of this year.”
Manic Street Preachers tease a new studio album - which would be their eleventh
Prior to their sold-out ‘National Treasures’ gig at London’s O2 Arena in December 2011, the Manics said that it would be last UK gig for two year – but Nicky Wire’s tweets suggest we may see the band on stage sooner than we thought: “Desperate to do a show in the UK again - feels like an eternity since the amazing O2 gig. We might have to break our two year curfew by a few months x”
Watch a crowd-sourced composition video of the band playing Motorcycle Emptiness at their O2 Arena National Treasures gig below:
Photos: Manic Street Preachers Meet Fans In Manchester
