HOW TO DESTROY ANGELS (REMIXES AND RE-RECORDINGS)

COIL's ambitious recording work ethic led to many tracks being rerecorded, remixed or completely reinterpreted over the years and one of the first of these collections of new inspirations emerged with the 1992 version of HOW TO DESTROY ANGELS only with the tagged on subtitle "(New Remixes and Recordings)" to distinguish it from the 1984 EP of the same name.

While the original EP only consisted of the 17 minute title track and the one second of silence at the end titled "Absolute Elsewhere," this remix album contains six tracks that reimagine the same track in various different ways. This album was the collaborative effort of COIL itself meaning John Balance and Peter Christopherson along with Steven Stapleton of Nurse With Wound.

Balance remixed "The Sleeper," "The Sleeper II" and "Tectonic Plates," Christopherson remixed "Remotely" and "Dismal Orb" and Stapleton remixed "How To Destroy Angels II." "Absolute Elsewhere" remained the same unmixed silence as on the original EP :D Generally speaking the tracks are so radically different from one another that's it's almost impossible to tell that they are indeed spawned from the same source.

HOW TO DESTROY ANGELS Remixes is an extremely dark and bleak journey through the deep darkened harshness that evokes the chilling sounds of some terrifying underworld. While it may be difficult to even call this music due to the incessant industrial droning effect and the wild and unpredictable synthesized sounds that simulate everything from beastly breathing to hydraulic systems having a very bad day, this collection of reinterpretations does hit the spot if you are seeking some of the most sadistic sounds possible.

This 1992 Remix album is almost always one of the lowest rated and under appreciated COIL releases when you gaze upon the lengthy canon list that spans four decades of releases and i can totally understand the reason for this. Firstly, there's relatively little to grasp on to and much less to relate to in any sense of musical structures or patterns. This one is all about freaky unnerving sounds that are designed to terrify.

For that it works quite well but even though COIL is one of my favorite artists of all time, i have to admit that i rarely play this one but when i do i am utterly in awe as this instantly makes me feel as if i'd been transported into a virtual reality set of an H.R. Giger scene from Necronomicon and although my desire to go there often rarely occurs, when i do have the urge to experience the bleakest existence possible in terms of sound then an album like HOW TO DESTROY ANGELS is exactly what Dr Evil ordered.

3.5 rounded down