Writing about heavy music and not sounding (at least marginally) like an idiot is a difficult thing for me. I mean, how many times can you use words like “crushing,” “thunderous,” “dense,” and “complex” before it all starts to read the same? That being said, I’m going to try to do the impossible here because I never really thought I’d be able to review any Coalesce album as a new release. The band’s new album, Ox, is their first in ten years; their first since 1999’s 0:12 Revolution In Just Listening and, yes, it’s everything I’d hoped for and then some. Featuring both Nathan’s from The Casket Lottery, vocalist Sean Ingram and guitarist Jes Steineger, the band sounds tighter and more adventurous than ever. Ingram’s deep guttural bark is intact but he also (on a couple occasions) shows a greater range with his cleaner sounding vocals including what sounds like a falsetto. The arrangements are complex, aggressive, dizzying, and, well, you get the picture. This is metalcore of the highest order. There is one thing that’s a bit different about Ox though.
This is a soul record.
It might sound odd for those of you who haven’t yet heard the album, but there are some deep and almost bluesy grooves on Ox and some of the most impassioned vocals I’ve ever heard laid to tape (ok probably ProTools). It’s a brutally abrasive and sludge-heavy soul jam that’s most easily identified and exemplified by the straightforward blues intro of “Wild Ox Moan” that just explodes into what you’d normally expect from Coalesce. Honestly, this album is amazing and actually represents a fairly sizable leap forward for the band. Maybe you don’t like it or maybe you do but I’m firmly in the second group. Ox and the new OXEP are out now on Relapse Records.
MP3:
Coalesce - Wild Ox Moan
Coalesce - Questions To Root Out Fools
Related posts:
