The band started in 1994 but disbanded in 1999 due to some member difficulties within the band. In 2005 they were invited by Hellfest to play a reunion show but due to legal issues from former band members the show didn’t take place and instead of that they played two smaller shows in the USA. In 2007 they announced that they had recorded some new tracks which were released on the EP Salt and Passage in the same year. This was the start of a new era for the band and after a successful European tour they just did, the first album since 1999’s 0:12 Revolution in Just Listening can be found in your local (good) record store!

 

So can Coalesce match the standards set by all these crazy technical bands we have nowadays? They certainly can. OX is yet another potential mathcore classic. Don’t expect crazy over-the-top guitar work like The Dillinger Escape Plan or The Red Chord but think Converge and Pig Destroyer-like drum work combined with down-tuned almost crust punk-like guitar parts, deep and heavy with some crazy riffs on top of it from time to time. These crazy parts are being combined with influences from genres all over like stoner rock clean vocals in ‘The Comedian In Question’, atmospheric post-metal parts such as in ‘The Purveyor of Novelty and Nonsense’ and country blues influenced ‘Wild Ox Moan’. Crazy and heavy, but kept under control and keeping some space between the tracks instead of putting weird riffs everywhere in between. You can even expect a few acoustic parts like in ‘We Have Lost Our Will’ which results directly into the awesome technical highlight of the album; ‘Questions to Root Out Fools’. 
 

They sound like they have never been away but with a better production. Coalesce show once again how it’s gotta be done, in style!