The British band Coil, centered around musician-cum-artists John Balance and Peter Christopherson, has always been difficult to situate generically. Formed in 1982 after the dissolution of the first industrial band Throbbing Gristle left members Christopherson, Chris Carter, Cosey Fanni Tutti, and Genesis P-Orridge free to develop more personal projects, Coil has always been viewed historically as constituting part of the second wave of British industrial music. Not only do Balance and Christopherson feature prominently in both industrial music fanzines and scholarly histories of the genre, but their work is frequently categorized under the label goth/industrial by record stores and websites. In a review of the band's last official album The Ape of Naples , for example, a contributor to the website Sputnik Music calls Coil one of the most influential Industrial bands ever and credits them with having formed the entire sound [of the genre].

This published version is made available on Dickinson Scholar with the permission of the publisher. For more information on the published version, visit McFarland Publisher's Website. From Music at the Extremes: Essays on Sounds Outside the Mainstream © 2015 Edited by Scott A. Wilson by permission of McFarland & Company, Inc., Box 611, Jefferson NC 28640. www.mcfarlandpub.com.

Steirer, Gregory. ’The Price of Existence is Eternal Warfare: Industrial Masculinity and Coil.” In Music at the Extremes: Essays on Sounds Outside the Mainstream, edited by Scott A. Wilson, 177-94. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2015.