Preview: Coalesce

Converge, Coalesce, Black Breath, Great Falls, @ Neumos | 05/13 | 8pm | $17 adv

A warning to our dear readers: prepare to have the power of unabashed hyperbole released upon you.

Coalesce is one of the greatest bands of all time.

This is an indisputable truth in life. Remember when Henry Rollins described Black Flag as “the heaviest band in the land?” He hadn’t heard Give them Rope. Black Flag probably never hit some girl in the head with their bass drum (on the other hand, they might have).

Coalesce has been doing it for the better part of the 90′s and 2000′s. Yeah, they’ve broken up numerous times and been through various incarnations, but they’re here and they are every bit as potent now as they were when the world first took notice of them. Last year saw the release of both OX and the OXEP, which is a major step in the right direction for a band that had called it quits just three years ago. This year finds them on tour with Converge, one of the biggest and greatest hardcore bands of all time. People forget, but Converge and Coalesce did a great split seven inch EP entitled Among the Dead we Pray for Light back in 1997. It featured “Have Patience” from the Coalesce Give them rope album and a limited version of Converge’s “Love as Arson” which was better than the version that was eventually released on When Forever Comes Crashing.

This is the thing: Coalesce is a volatile band. More in their sound than in their life as a band, but the fact remains that they could break up again at any time. Their show is something not to be missed– a crushing, all-out mess with Sean Ingram spitting his throaty, guttural lyrics over it.