Manic Street Preachers Plan New LP

Welsh rock heroes Manic Street Preachers have revealed that they have already begun planning their new album.

One of the best loved bands in British rock music, Manic Street Preachers formed in the small Welsh town of Blackwood. The group blended a love of filthy rock with some of their mother's clothes and a ferociously intelligent lyrical stance.

The band's visual and to some extent verbal lynch pin was their guitarist Richey Edwards. The troubled icon battled depression for much of his life, entering rehab on several occasions after the release of the group's second album 'Gold Against The Soul'.

When he re-emerged, Richey Edwards began work on the disturbing lyrics which make up the bulk of the Manics next album - cult classic 'The Holy Bible'.

Soon after the release of that record Edwards' health deteriorated and the guitarist went missing, with his car being found near the Severn Bridge. Last year the troubled icon's family had him declared dead, and soon after Manic Street Preachers began work on new material using his left over notebooks.

Recalling 'The Holy Bible' new album 'Journal For Plague Lovers' is dark and dense, with Steve Albini providing some typically claustrophobic production. Now it seems that the band are already sketching out their next album, which will reportedly be less "intense".

In a new interview singer James Dean Bradfield told Bang Media International that "I think we're going to try and create an experience that brings a bit more joy".

Manic Street Preachers followed 'The Holy Bible' with commercial breakthrough 'Everything Must Go'. Containing some of the group's most euphoric material to date it spawned the era defining single 'A Design For Life'.

Elaborating on the band's decision, Bradfield said "I think we've always reacted against ourselves. When we made 'This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours' it was our biggest-selling record in the world and then we made a clattery experimental punk album in 'Know Your Enemy'."

For more on the band's post-Richey career just click HERE!

Manic Street Preachers new remix EP of tracks from 'Journal From Plague Lovers' is available now.