About Coalesce
Coalesce was an American metalcore band formed in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1994. They are considered pioneers of mathcore and were known for its aggressive style of music and reckless live shows. The band broke up in 2010 and has performed two reunion shows since then.
Before forming Coalesce, guitarist Jes Steineger and bassist Stacy Hilt were members of the Krishnacore band Amara, Jim Redd was the drummer of the alternative metal band Loathe, and Sean Ingram was the frontman of the straight edge band Restrain, all from Kansas City, Missouri. Both Amara and Restrain performed several times together and were friends. Ingram, who was a big fan of Earth Crisis and the burgeoning vegan straight edge scene, relocated to Syracuse, New York on Christmas Day, 1993. For their part, Steineger and Hilt wanted to establish a new band and had numerous attempts looking for a drummer, and after locating Jim Redd during a show, they were impressed by his musical ability and together formed Breach in January 1994. Disillusioned by the militant attitude of the Syracuse scene, Ingram went back to Kansas around Easter 1994 and almost immediately auditioned for Breach, writing the lyrics for "Harvest of Maturity" and being accepted to join them. The band changed their name to Coalesce to avoid confusion with a Swedish band of the same name.
The U.K. division of Earache Records was impressed by Coalesce's demo and invited them to record an EP for Earache's 7-inch series imprint, New Chapter. The EP, titled 002, was recorded in one day and released in 1995. 002 marked the beginning of Coalesce's relationship with Red House Studios and producer Ed Rose, who would record all of Coalesce's following material.
In the summer of 1995, Coalesce embarked on their first U.S. tour to promote 002. They supported the bands Bloodlet and 108. The tour served as a cause of Coalesce's first break-up, as the clashing of personalities had amplified between vocalist Sean Ingram and drummer Jim Redd while on the road. Once Coalesce returned home from the road, Redd convinced the other bandmates to oust Ingram from the band. Sean showed up at band practice to find that James Dewees was auditioning for vocalist. Ingram engaged in a confrontation with drummer Redd, resulting in Coalesce disbanding altogether in March 1996.
In July 1996, guitarist Jes Steineger called Ingram and the two decided to reform the band. Stacy Hilt was included as bassist in the reunion, and included James Dewees as drummer, the same person who had attempted to secure the available vocalist position before Coalesce had broken up; drummer Jim Redd decided not to rejoin the band again because he was attending the University of Maryland in Baltimore, Maryland. This incarnation of the band dusted off some older material and revised it so they could release it on the records A Safe Place 7-inch on Edison Recordings and the Earache-distributed split EP with grind veterans Napalm Death, entitled In Tongues We Speak.
In 1997, Coalesce wrote and recorded their first full length, Give Them Rope , as well as songs for several compilations and split 7-inch records with The Get Up Kids, Today is the Day, and Converge. After weeks of performing new material on tour, including a violent show in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, the work began on what would become Functioning on Impatience, but Stacy Hilt's increasing exhaustion due to their aggressive performances led to him quitting the band. After Hilt left the band he was replaced by Nathan Ellis, a guitarist willing to switch to the bass to join one of his favorite bands. Coalesce entered Red House Studios in the spring of 1998 to record the album Functioning on Impatience in three days. Shortly after, Coalesce recorded songs for a split 7-inch with Boy Sets Fire. Both the full-length and the split record were released that summer.
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