Search - Coil :: How to Destroy Angels

Absolutely Horrifying

Steve Bernard | Rochester, NY USA | 03/20/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Quite frankly, I dont know whether to encourage you to rush out and buy this CD or to stay the hell away from it. I listened to this CD, along with some other Coil, one late college night, alone and in the dark, and it was easily the most horrifying listening experience of my life. The sounds these guys have created are quite maddening. In fact, if I were a religious man (which I'm not), I'd be willing to believe that How To Destroy Angels was created for doing just that. The sounds on this CD are not of this world; you'll be tempted to believe you are actually listening to a recording of Hell. Just make sure to have something suitably un-scary on hand after you get done listening so as not to slip into insanity forever =) I used Abbey Road.- Steve"

"Almost 48 hours have passed now without me eating anyone."

Steve Bernard | 07/03/1999

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This album contains new interpretations of the 1984 Coil Ep, How to Destroy Angels: ritual music for the accumulation of male sexual energy. This is hardly my favorite Coil album. That being said, it's still Coil and it's still impressive, to say the least."The Sleeper" is a short piece driven by a sound which to me resembles the engine of a car that's stuck in a ditch or something, excelerating and decelerating over a 4 sec period. This also apears in various places and various forms thru out the album. Very werid stuff."Remotely" is a 17 min track containing some creaking noises (a la "Her Friends the Wolves..."), scattered percussion and a soft vocal-like synth toward the end."The Sleeper II" contains some sounds which are more of less absent from track 1, including some really haunting synth, which I love.Humans atempting to recreate the sound of "Tectonic Plates" colliding and grinding up against one another with instruments. By far the most choatic track."Dismal Orb" is esentially a shorter version of "Remotely" with less creaking and more synth."How to Destroy Angels II" is 17 mins of fluctuating tones and percussion, possibaly taken directly from the original Ep.Taken from the original release "Absolute Elsewhere" is 1 sec of silence. According to Coil it exists in full, somewhere in some form. Much as "Absolute Elsewhere" is unplayable, for me Coil albums are essentially unratable. But this is my atempt. Where "A Thousand Lights in a Darkened Room" and "Stolen and Contaminated Songs" are like a 4.5 or a 5 and all non-Coil material is 0, "How to Destroy Angels" is a 2.5 or a 3.You might think that Coil were holding back on this album even though it's only a minor release. That maybe, but I believe the absence of extravagant Synth is what gives this album such a unique, organic quality. It's totally alien and empty (but in a good way). If you like experimental noise, or you are a long time fan buy this album. Not for beginners."

Sound Textures Not Of This Earth

Ulfster | 07/06/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Unlike claimed in the editorial review, this is NOT a re-release of the one-sided 12" EP released on L.A.Y.L.A.H. records in 1984. It is a reworked and expanded edition that brings the aforementioned piece of art to new heights. Consisting of 7 tracks, it is a very dark sound collage that paved the way for the ambient droning Coil later did with "Time Machines" and the like, but is far more chaotic than their later works.The first 5 tracks are new material, although some fragments are easily recognizable as being reworked snippets of older releases. Still, the result is both new music (?) and a very different atmosphere. You must be most familiar with the original release to notice its differences to the reworked version "How To Destroy Angels 2", but if you listen closely, and this is a must for this album in general, as it is not considered to be "background music", you'll find the additions and variations, which are very fitting and, in a manner of speaking, quite potent. The last track, "Absolute Elsewhere", is taken from the flip side of the aforementioned 1-sided LP - i.e. the backside of HTDA's vinyl edition was unplayable (empty), whilst the CD "version" of it is 1 second of silence. (If you think Coil were pulling your leg here, you have not understood the alchemy of their music.)All in all, this is a very mental record - with every possible linguistic interpretation of this word included."