GOLD IS THE METAL

Although technically GOLD IS THE METAL WITH THE BROADEST SHOULDERS is the 3rd studio release by the highly experimental electronic band COIL, it is in fact a compilation of outtakes and demos from the sessions that generated "Scatology," "Horse Rotorvator" and the "Hellraiser Soundtrack." Despite not being a "real" album I find it hangs together quite well and I also find these kind of leftovers packages by COIL to be amongst my favorite releases. The "Unnatural History" series (I, II & III) are packed full of COIL's unique take on transmogrifying simple jingles into the most ominous and dread laden musical pieces. Brooding melancholy is seeping out of every note on this one accented by COIL's uncanny talent for sewing together samples of music, sound effects and occasional diologue.

Despite the compilation label, GOLD is the first album that takes on their sound that would become their signature demented take on industrial, dark wave and electronic composition. These kind of tracks were on the previous albums but starting here they moved on from the danceable vocal tracks that sounded a little too much like Depeche Mode or New Order at times. I like to think of COIL's music as a sort of demented musical collages since they usually take a sample of something or create their own riff of some sort and then pile on heaps of different sound efffects and strange time signatures. The first track "Last Rites Of Spring" actually samples Stravinsky so it is the perfect example as to how they can obscure the originating source. For a bunch of disjointed tracks, I think that they threw it all together in an interesting way and the diverse range of sounds keeps the album exciting. For me there are no bad or throwaway tracks.