Nightmare Fuel / Manic Street Preachers

• A lot of The Holy Bible falls under this. "The Intense Humming of Evil" and "Archives Of Pain" in particular.
  • Someone decided to go and make this video for "Archives of Pain". Which contains photos from executions and quotes from some of the killers mentioned in the song. Have fun sleeping.
• It may have not been deliberate on the Manics' part, but there's some major Fridge Horror with the end of "The Intense Humming of Evil". Leaving aside the mechanical noise that repeats throughout the song, Sean Moore's drumming sounds like a moving train, and when the song slows down, it sounds like a train coming to a stop. Let that sink in for a minute.
  • On the US Mix of The Intense Humming Of Evil, a weird sample can be heard during the song's chorus which cannot be heard on the original mix which sounds either to be radio interference, strange mumbling into the microphone or a sample from the Nuremberg Trials documentary which was also used in the opening of the track. No one is really sure where this sample comes from or why it is only audible in the US Mix.
• The opening sample to "Archives of Pain", which is from the mother of one of serial killer Peter Sutcliffe's victims.
• "Mausoleum", a song about the Holocaust, describes the sky as having 'no birds' and being 'swollen black'.
• The faceless people in the music video to "If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next".
• The album covers to The Holy Bible and Journal For Plague Lovers.
• The '4 REAL' incident.^note To explain: When a reviewer asked Richey if he was serious about his art along with criticizing if the band's values within the punk scene, Richey carved the words "4 REAL" into his arm. A photo of himself holding his right arm completely cut and covered in blood was taken and issued in the NME. The NME's discussion about whether to release the image was put on the "song" 'Sleeping with the N.M.E'. Richey's haunting blank glare into the camera is shiver inducing
• Similarly to the "4 REAL" incident, the Bangkok incident. ^note  The Manics were a big deal in the Asian market and in early 1994, the band had a tour stop in Bangkok. Their presence wasn't too unfamiliar to the Beatles touching down in America. Mobs of fans met them at a meet and greet and would give them presents. Some presents were sent to a dressing room before a show. Most particularly, a box of ceremonial knives sent to Richey (famously known for his self harm) with a note from a fan saying 'Look at me when you do it'. Although pissed off at the request, Richey obliged and during the show's acoustic solo section he went backstage and slashed his chest◊. The band considered their Bangkok trip to be a bad omen to what would yet to come later in the year with Richey's suicide attempt, stay in The Priory, several breakdowns when touring The Holy Bible in Europe and finally, his disappearance in February 1995.
• The lyrics in "4st 7lb" are equally horrifying and heartbreaking, vividly describing a body decaying as a result of anorexia.
• The Point Break-esque Richard Nixon masks used in the music video and the promotional artwork◊ for for "The Love of Richard Nixon"◊. There's something just uncanny valley and hauntingly mocking about them.
• "Virginia State Epileptic Colony" is a very bleak song about the mistreatment of patients at The Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded in the early 1920s with most patients being sterilised and used for Eugenics based experimentation. The song has a Madness Mantra of "Pig, Pig, Piggy" being chanted mockingly through the song. This could be Richey suggesting the patients of the facility were treated little more than farmyard animals ready for the slaughter.
  • The hospital was the setting of the controversial case Buck V Bell in which the United States Supreme Court voted that forced sterilisation of people deemed mentally unfit for the supposed "goodness and wellbeing of the state" did not violate the US' fourteenth amendment of equal rights following the sterilisation of 18 year old patient Carrie Buck who was deemed a threat to society if she was to reproduce.

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