Progarchives, the progressive rock ultimate discography
Coil - Constant Shallowness Leads To Evil CD (album) cover

CONSTANT SHALLOWNESS LEADS TO EVIL

Coil

 

Progressive Electronic

2.31 | 10 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

siLLy puPPy
Special Collaborator
PSIKE, JRF/Canterbury, P Metal, Eclectic
2 stars CONSTANT SHALLOWNESS LEADS TO EVIL is the companion album to "Queens Of The Circulating Library" which were both released in those pretty pink and see through clam shell CD case. Like "Queens" this is a highly experimental and mostly drone oriented ambient release only this one is even weirder bordering on the truly insane and nearly devoid of any recognizable instruments or recognizable musical patterns with scant few exceptions.

Basically about half the album sounds like a mosquito buzzing around you at night when you're trying to go to sleep except this mosquito sounds like some bizarre electric razor. It is a steady craziness for a while but then it really goes gangbuster and revs up its aggressiveness. It calms down again for several minutes and you get a little vocal and keyboard action for a tiny bit and then the mosquito comes back for a long, looooooooong time. Once you are ready to jettison the disc it ends and then the buzz comes back only this time it sounds like a deranged chainsaw with a backing tortured cat that morphs into a hawk and then back again.

The tempo is generally steady and then bursts into frenetic, slows down again and repeats. Eventrually somewhere on the "Tunnel Of Goats" part of the album which to be honest i cannot really distinguish from the rest comes the buzz saw electronica again only this time is joined by Gregorian chants. I actually like this part for it is surreal beyond all measure but it ends all too soon and the buzz saw is unaccompanied once again. After many minutes more of the noise getting faster and faster and more frenetic it ends. Silence ensues and then you hear a few seconds of laughter and i presume it's because you may have just wasted an hour of your life listening to this.

I am a huge COIL fan and love even their weirdest of weird but this one like "Queens" is the truest test of patience one could ever be presented with. If this was a 20 minute EP of some sort it would be ok-ish but an hour of this is just waaaaaay too long and the novelty wears off too soon if you find it to be a novelty in the first place. COIL is known for its experimental mind-blowing music but here it is really just boring. If there were lots of different sounds evolving like a fractal then i could hang with this but it simply a very hard piece to sit through. Even COIL themselves have better ambient and glitch drone under their alias ELpH. Unless you're a completest don't waste your money on the pink clam shelled ones. You will most likely be disappointed.

siLLy puPPy | 2/5 |

MEMBERS LOGIN ZONE

As a registered member (register here if not), you can post rating/reviews (& edit later), comments reviews and submit new albums.

You are not logged, please complete authentication before continuing (use forum credentials).

Forum user
Forum password

Share this COIL review

Social review comments () BETA







Review related links

Copyright Prog Archives, All rights reserved. | Legal Notice | Privacy Policy | Advertise | RSS + syndications

Other sites in the MAC network: JazzMusicArchives.com — jazz music reviews and archives | MetalMusicArchives.com — metal music reviews and archives

Donate monthly and keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.