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Rating: “Scatology” appears today as a rough diamond; not everything works perfectly, there are negligible instrumental tracks, and the impression is that the sound is less refined compared to the following “Horse Rotorvator” (but this is a deliberate choice). However, the album contains a handful of masterpiece songs. The strong influence of surrealist artists (the shadow of Dalí looms over the entire album) on this enigmatic work becomes immediately evident. Each track is carefully explained in the liner notes. The opening track, "Ubu Noir," pays homage to the playwright Alfred Jarry (the title echoes his "Ubu Roi," a masterpiece of pataphysical art). The following, rhythmic and overwhelming "Panic" features a decisive presence of Foetus in what is a true anthem to the God Pan (one might even mention Arthur Machen considering their common British origins). "At The Heart Of It All" is instead an instrumental of rare desolation, perhaps somewhat self-serving. But the subsequent "Tenderness Of Wolves" is the second masterpiece of the album and features Fergusson on acoustic guitar and Gavin Friday of the Virgin Prunes on vocals. The atmosphere of this track is truly unsettling (the opening with the child's cry sends chills down your spine) and speaks to us of vampires and the infamous serial killer Fritz Haarman. The central part of the album loses some intensity with the lively and rhythmic "The Spoiler," the sparse "Restless," the short "Clap," and the industrial "Aqua Regis." But with "Solar Lodge," Coil hits the mark again and delivers another masterpiece: it’s a track full of dark esoteric references to the Black Sun and the Solar Lodge, as well as Charles Manson, a primitive and futuristic dance of rare evocative power with Balance possessed on vocals. After "The Sewage-Worker’s Birthday Party" (a sadomasochistic tale where, during a birthday party, the celebrant is used as a toilet by the guests), the album's finale is stunning: "Godhead ≈ Deathead" is dark and overwhelming in its gothic-industrial stride, while the grim "Cathedral In Flames" references the Marquis De Sade. It closes with the "vampirized" cover of "Tainted Love," which they turned into the symbol of sick love (it’s the period of the spread of the HIV virus, and the Coil were affected by it in their circle of friends. Their friend Marc Almond appears in the video). In a current period where it is difficult to listen to something new, revisiting “Scatology” is a real shot of vitality.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Panic ()
"Anything
Will be alright
If you come out
In the night"
With your life sewn open
Breath in
Put the bone back in
Buried under the skin
Murder in reverse
Out of time
Out of place
Out of spite
Swallow the spike
The only thing to fear
Is fear itself...
04 Tenderness of Wolves ()
(lyrics by Gavin Friday)
Was all in vain? Or did you cry?
No need to ask, my tears have run dry
This is the end of my pity
I await to die
You now the living, me now the dead
To prove that you loved me
Mere words could not have said
Bitting into skin, into flesh, into me
Taking all you could
Oh, I'd still give you blood
Just to paint your lips
If you should wish them red
My desires your kiss completed
But only now I can see
The vicious joy when you took delight
Behind each kiss your poison bite
And when my all was given
And you had taken
Oh dog-like Judas
You did disappear
Was all in vain? Or did you cry?
No need to ask
You now the living, me now the dead
05 The Spoiler ()
The Spoiler
follows you
In Spoiler's time
from place to place
Old man's eyes
In a young boy's face
Walking in
Another's skin
Secrets inside
The Spoiler
The Spoiler's catch
Boys who exist
In the stories of shadows
On our walls
Who take to the floor
Like a falling wall
To dance
with oblivion
Black Boxes
Black light
He works
At night
The Spoiler
If you're going to have any
The Spoiler
You've got to have enough
His Head
Resting
His feet
Continents
His heart
...Apart
07 Solar Lodge ()
See the Black Sun rise
In the Solar Lodge
See the Black Sun rise
From the Solar Lodge
Stop
Like a clock
Like a hole in the ground
Like a lock
Like a knife in the sound
From the Solar Lodge
See the Black Sun rise
From the Solar Lodge
10 Cathedral in Flames ()
Circle within Circle
And when that hour came
From words they passed to deeds
Spires, Spirals, and Stones rise
'And in the distance
A cathedral in flames'
Given a chance to recover his breath
And exposed
To the process once more
The youth squirmed
In a shower of gold
That etched on his skin the words:
'Paradise stands
In the shadow of Swords'
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Other reviews
By mementomori
The album is produced by Jim Thirlwell, one of the greatest minds in industrial music ever.
Coil’s music is no longer a mere metaphor for reality, but rather represents an escape from this reality.
