Example Album: How To Destroy Angels
Location: UK
Years Active: 1982-2005
Style: Ambient industrial, noise, ritualistic
Where to begin? Coil are one of the most legendary bands to ever come out of the English industrial scene. Started by Johnn Balance in 1982, and then joined for his boyfriend and near-lifelong partner Peter Christopherson, himself a founding member of Throbbing Gristle. Both Johnn and Peter also played in Psychic TV before leaving to focus on Coil.
Coil's sound is probably one of the most diverse and hard to classify of any artist I've ever heard. They can never truly be pinned down, only thing you can say is they sound like Coil. Their early era, spearheaded by the two albums Scatology and Horse Rotorvator, clearly exemplifies their industrial sound at the time. Further on in their career you saw them mixing elements of acid house, harsh noise, drone, dreamlike electronica, and even elements of folk. Coil officially ended in 2005, after the release of The Ape Of Naples, following the death of Johnn Balance in 2004. However, Peter Christopherson continued to release unheard material, the last of which before his death was The New Backwards.
Coming out of the industrial scene, you can hear Coil experimenting with purely early industrial gestures in their early work, the highlight of which is their first ever release, How To Destroy Angels. Featured here is an ambient industrial piece made of semi-percussive sounds performed with gongs and other metal objects. The end result is a deeply ritualistic, hypnotic, and dark piece of music which washes over the listener. Totally enveloping. This album was later expanded and featured several remixes called How To Destroy Angels (Remixes and Rerecordings), produced with Steven Stapleton from Nurse With Wound. Highly recommend that album if you like the original.
As far as metal noises, machine samples, and general industrial sounds across the rest of Coil's discography, you'll find them scattered throughout their oeuvre. On Scatology, there are sounds like this littered throughout the album, on some songs more than others. There are standouts, however. The track "Aqua Regis" features some excellent haunted machine samples, as well as power tools. On the more clangorous end of things, "Solar Lodge," the track that comes right after also has scrap metal accents. On Horse Rotorvator, their second album, the track "The Anal Staircase" has some metal bashing samples as well.
On the harsher, noisier end of things, you'll find some metal noises on their split with Zos Kia, especially on the track "Silence & Secrecy." There are also some incredible metal noises on their three way split with The New Blockaders and Vortex Campaign, an album called The Melancholy Mad Tenant.
When they were performing under the name Black Light District, found on the album A Thousand Lights In A Darkened Room, you'll find some beautiful machine samples looped on the track Die Wölfe Kommen Zurück.
As far as their later era is concerned, there are some gorgeous metal objects played in a near-percussive way on the track "Copal" off of the Moon's Milk (In Four Phases) Bonus CD. This song reminds me a lot of How To Destroy Angels, though less harsh and featuring some spoken word of Johnn Balance talking about eating birds. On the album The Remote Viewer, specifically on the track "Remote Viewing 2," there are some excellent machine samples as well.
Outside of these examples listed here, there may be more; these are just listed off the top of my head, as someone who has listened to practically everything done by the band. Highly recommend to anyone who has an interest in experimental music to check project out.
