Gold Is the Metal with the Broadest Shoulders was the third album released by Coil

Coil (band)

Coil were an English cross-genre, experimental music group formed in 1982 by John Balance—later credited as "Jhonn Balance"—and his partner Peter Christopherson, aka "Sleazy". The duo worked together on a series of releases before Balance chose the name Coil, which he claimed to be...

 in the year 1987. It is not a proper follow-up to 1986's Horse Rotorvator

Horse Rotorvator

Horse Rotorvator is the second LP released by the British industrial group Coil. It was named one of the Top 100 Albums of the 1980s by Pitchfork Media who ranked it 73rd.-Editions:...

, but more a collection of outtakes and demos from the Scatology

Scatology (album)

Scatology is the first LP and a second album produced by Coil.Scatology was released in three different formats with two different covers...

, Horse Rotorvator and Hellraiser soundtrack sessions. Some obviously correspond to earlier and later released material ("Golden Hole" to "Penetralia", "...Of Free Enterprise" to "Herald", etc.), while others ("Boy In a Suitcase") do not appear anywhere else. "The Last Rites Of Spring" includes a sample by Stravinsky, also used extensively in The Anal Staircase

The Anal Staircase

The Anal Staircase is a 12" single by the British group Coil, released in 1986. The single introduced Stephen Thrower as part of Coil. Thrower would then return for the album Horse Rotorvator and would remain a member for many years, his last appearance being on Stolen and Contaminated Songs in 1992...

.

The musician's involved in this album were: John Balance

John Balance

John Balance , born in Mansfield, England, was the founder of the experimental music group Coil, along with his partner Peter Christopherson...

, Peter Christopherson

Peter Christopherson

Peter Martin Christopherson, a.k.a. Sleazy was a musician, video director and designer, and former member of the influential British design agency Hipgnosis....

, Stephen Thrower

Stephen Thrower

Stephen Thrower is an English musician and author.Formerly a member of the music group Coil , his current music project is Cyclobe, with Ossian Brown...

, Alex Fergusson

Alex Fergusson (musician)

Alex Fergusson is a Scottish guitarist / record producer.Fergusson formed the punk band Alternative TV with Mark Perry in 1977, and a few years later Psychic TV with Genesis P Orridge...

, Jim Thirlwell, Billy McGee

Billy McGee

Billy McGee is the sheriff of Forrest County, Mississippi, . He gained nationwide popularity for working against the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He is considered to be a Robin Hood figure by the majority of the citizens of Forrest County...

, and Andrew Poppy

Andrew Poppy

Andrew Poppy is an English composer, pianist, and record producer.-Biography:From 1974 to 1979 he studied music at Royal Holloway College and Goldsmiths College University of London, studying piano with Susan Bradshaw and earning a B.M...

.

Editions

The standard 12" was released by the label "Threshold House with the catalogue number LOCI 1.
2000 copies were pressed on black vinyl, an unknown colored vinyl edition was also made, some of which were red and some of which were clear. In addition, 25 copies on red vinyl were released with an unfinished sleeve. The first initial copies of this album were shipped with the free 7" singles The Wheel/The Wheal and The Wheal/Keelhauler. The Wheel/The Wheal was believed to be shipped with the first 500 copies, then The Wheal/Keelhauler with an unknown additional copies.

A special art edition of the 12" was released in an edition of 55 under the Threshold House label with the catalogue number LOCI 3, a catalogue number later assigned to the Windowpane

Windowpane (album)

Windowpane was a single released by the band Coil in 1990. It was released on 12" vinyl and CD. A video was created by Peter Christopherson for this song. "Windowpane" appears here truncated, missing the backwards vocals as they appear on the end of the song on Love's Secret Domain. The "Astral...

 12". According to Brainwashed.com, this set sold for £55 via mail order and included the following: "a black vinyl copy of the LP with gold leaf applied to the centre of the front cover where text appears on the regular edition, The Wheel/The Wheal 7" single, three numbered art prints in a lacquer sealed folder, two posters, a booklet of art and collage designed by John Balance, a credits insert, a signed and numbered certificate."

In 1988, the album was also released on CD by the labels Normal and Threshold House. The Normal release had a catalogue number of NORMAL 77 and was released in the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

. The Threshold House release had a catalogue number of LOCI 1 and was released in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. A Total of 1,000 numbered copies were produced during this pressing. The last three tracks have indexing problems.

In 1996 the album was repressed under the label Threshold House with catalogue number LOCI CD 11. The artwork for this release is entirely different for this album. The album is subtitled "Returning to the Purity of the Current." This version still suffers from indexing problems.

In 2006, the 1996 version of the album was made available for download at Coil's official site, thresholdhouse.com, in aac

Advanced Audio Coding

Advanced Audio Coding is a standardized, lossy compression and encoding scheme for digital audio. Designed to be the successor of the MP3 format, AAC generally achieves better sound quality than MP3 at similar bit rates....

, mp3

MP3

MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...

, and lossless flac

FLAC

FLAC is a codec which allows digital audio to be losslessly compressed such that file size is reduced without any information being lost...

formats. This album is still available for download.

The CD pressings included the extra tracks "Hellraiser" and "The Wheal".

12" versions

Side A:

1. "Last Rites of Spring" - ?
2. "Paradisiac" - ?
3. "Thump" - ?
4. "For Us They Will" - ?
5. "The Broken Wheel" - ?
6. "Boy in a Suitcase" - ?
7. "Golden Hole" - ?
8. "Cardinal Points" - ?

Side B:

1. "Red Slur" - ?
2. "...Of Free Enterprise" - ?
3. "Aqua Regalia" - ?
4. "Metal in the Head" - ?
5. "Either His or Yours" - ?
6. "Chickenskin" - ?
7. "Soundtrap" - ?
8. "The First Five Minutes after Violent Death" - ?

CD versions

1. "The Last Rites Of Spring" – 1:57
2. "Paradisiac" – 2:27
3. "Thump" – 3:17
4. "For Us They Will" – 4:48
5. "The Broken Wheel" – 4:35
6. "Boy in a Suitcase" – 1:12
7. "Golden Hole" – 2:36
8. "Cardinal Points" – 4:19
9. "Red Slur" – 3:08
10. "...Of Free Enterprise" – 1:22
11. "Aqua Regalia" – 1:29
12. "Metal in the Head" – 2:07
13. "Either His, or Yours" – 2:54
14. "Chickenskin" – 2:44
15. "Soundtap" – 0:38
16. "Hellraiser" – 5:00 (Correct time = 2:43)
17. "The Wheal" – 3:14 (Correct time = 3:15)
18. "The First Five Minutes after Violent Death" – 2:43 (Correct time = 5:00)