Is anybody old enough to remember a time when the Manics sounded less like Oasis and more like Guns N’ Roses? Or when they dressed like the Clash, instead of donning sports casual wear from the Gap? I wasn’t, but I was fascinated to learn that this was the band responsible for 1996’s commercial Everything Must Go and 1998’s This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours.
A far cry from the Brit-Pop movement, Generation Terrorists spawned the the air metal anthems like ‘Slash n’ Burn’ and ‘You Love Us,’ and – excuse the expression ‘power ballad’ – but songs like ‘Motorcycle Emptiness’ proved James Dean Bradfield to be a excellent singer and technically gifted guitarist. Generation Terrorists proved that the punk rock ‘fuck you’ attitude was alive and well in Wales during the early nineties thanks to the Manic Street Preachers.