Hydra Head
Kansas City hardcore innovators Coalesce wear their Led Zeppelin influence like a tattoo sleeve. Where contemporaries like Botch and the Dillinger Escape Plan pursued technical excellence over verse-chorus structure Coalesce were always willing to follow up a noodly bit with a neck-snapping monster riff which is why the ’99 release of an EP of Zeppelin covers worked as well as it did. Coalesce stay fairly close to the Zeppelin blueprint with the seven songs they cover the main difference being Sean Ingram’s devastating atonal growl replacing Robert Plant’s blues wail. "Immigrant Song" "Out On The Tiles" and "Whole Lotta Love" emerge relatively unscathed and "That’s The Way" and "Thank You" get a surprisingly sensitive treatment.
The same can’t be said for the other covers present; for this reissue Hydra Head has included the Coalesce halves of assorted split releases. They gleefully turn in near-unrecognizable versions of songs by Midwest outfits Boysetsfire and the Get Up Kids as well as a middling version of Black Sabbath’s "Supernaut" and a straight-ahead cover of Undertow’s "Cutting Away."
This reissue is great news for those who missed the various Coalesce EPs the first time around as they’re now long out-of-print and hard to find. However for longstanding fans and completists the only thing on offer is Aaron Turner’s beautiful redesign and repackaging which really needs to be seen to be believed.
