### Coalesce: 012 - Revolution in just listening

#### 12/07/10 || Daemonomania

Talk about a shit album title. What deep, ironic, clever thought process went into it?

Coalesce Dude 1: Bro, you remember when you listened to the first 12 seconds of “The saddest day”, bro?

Coalesce Dude 2: Bro, totally. It was a revolution in just listening, you know what I’m sayin’ Rider of Bro-han?

And so on. From looking at this and the song names, you’d think either some pop-punk or hipster-grind shenanigans were about to take place. And you’d be wrong – both about this and about the identity your real father. (Hint: It’s either me or Lord K, we switched it up on your mom many times over that long weekend in Barbados. Shit was pouring down her legs like someone popped a rancid milk balloon up in that piece).

Coalesce play a burly take on the early strain of metalcore. Back when the genre had some balls. What sets them apart from a million other Converge clones that rose to prominence at the time? Seemingly conservative lyrics and an omnipresent, mathematical, gutscraping groove. And lots of bleeps and blips and samples incorporated intelligently into the music itself. For example, the best track on here, “Counting murders…”, starts with whirring helicopter blades quickly mirrored by the riffs, then later chucks in what might be the sound of a car peeling out amidst the metallic punishment. Nice, bro.

What else does Coalesce have going for themselves? The singer possesses a crushing bellow, interspersed with a bit of regular ole plain-talking. That’s real conversation for yo’ ass. The guitarist switches up his hardcoring with experimental flourishes that remind me of Tom Morello. Definitely the star of the band. The bass and drums drum and bass, respectively. Overall everyone gets two gold stars next to their names and a quarter to buy some candy. Minus one gold star for the last song which is just a bunch of clicking noises. Was that supposed to be cool? It wasn’t.

This falls into the “albums I don’t listen to much these days but still have MAD RESPECT for, broner” category. For those just realizing metalcore isn’t necessarily synonymous with turdburglar, I’d highly recommend “Revolution”.

On a side note (since reviewers who talk about the album cover are in short supply these days), Wiki Explanation for the image above: “a surrealist vision…developed into a cover painting…featuring dual conjoined fetus’ floating before a mammoth eardrum” Suuure.

- Information
- Released: 1999
- Label: Relapse
- Website: Coalesce MySpace
- Band
- Sean Ingram: vocals
- Jes Steineger: guitars
- Nathan Ellis: bass
- James Dewees: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. What Happens On The Road Always Comes Home
- 02. Cowards.com
- 03. Burn Everything That Bears Our Name
- 04. While The Jackass Operation Spins Its Wheels
- 05. Sometimes Selling Out Is Waking Up
- 06. Where The Hell Is Rick Thorne These Days?
- 07. Jesus In The Year 2000/Next On the Shit List
- 08. Counting Murders, Drinking Beer (The $46,000 Escape)
- 09. They Always Come In Fall