Music Monday #8: Coil - Love's Secret Domain

[nanila]

Ah, it's time for another trip down Memory Lane. Before I left high school, I had heard of exactly four bands that could be considered industrial (and I still hadn't heard of industrial music): Coil, Front Line Assembly, Skinny Puppy and Nine Inch Nails. The first was my favourite at the time. I remember hearing the eponymous track from the album Love's Secret Domain, taped onto cassette by my friend Colin. I froze to the spot when I heard the words of William Blake's poem The Sick Rose, interlaced with something unrecognisable - Roy Orbison, I was to learn much later - spoken over insidious rhythms and an uneasy euphony that tingled in my mind for hours. It became one of the first albums I ever bought on CD.

[YouTube video (audio only) of Coil's "Love's Secret Domain", 03:53]

Oh rose, thou art sick
Seduce... let loose
The vision and the void
Blood sickle... honey suck

In little children's heavy heads
My dreams erupt while in my bed
Innocence is dripping red.

In dreams I walk with you
In dreams I talk with you
In dreams...
You're mine
All of the time.

Heads on fire and drunken lights
Days devoured by hungry nights
In love's secret domain
This is mad love
This is mad love
In love's secret domain.

Sweet tortures fly on mystery wings
Pure evil is when flowers sing
My heart,
My heart is a rose
This is mad love, Oh
This is mad love
In love's secret domain...

Give sanity a longer leash, but
Some of us have sharper teeth
In love's secret domain...

In dreams I walk with you...
In dreams I talk with you...
In dreams...
You're mine
All of the time.

Oh rose, Thou art sick
The invisible worm
The vision and the void
The blood sickle cuts.
And the honey sucks.

Oh rose, thou art sick!