Functioning On Impatience

Album Review

While clocking in at only 20 minutes, and containing just seven tracks, Coalesce's Functioning on Impatience may very well be their best release. And having a crisp, brilliant layout for the album art doesn't hurt the cause, either. The first track starts out with vocalist Sean Ingram bellowing a cappella in his caustic, wounded tone. The drumbeats start off simply, and right before everything explodes, Ingram subtly proclaims, "You can't kill us all," thus opening the way for a song full of rhythmic, churning guitar work, tight drumming, and rumbling basslines, all of which are accompanied by the thick vocal growls. Much of the album follows that routine, but always finds a way to keep things interesting, whether it be the zombie-like cadence on "A New Language," or the off-time, back-and-forth guitar work on "Measured in Gray." There are a good amount of time changes and starts-and-stops worked into the squealing guitar work of Jes Steineger. The rhythm section maintains a ridiculously tight reign on their set of the songs, reminding the listener that despite the up-front guitar work and Ingram's memorable vocals, they're actually the real power behind Coalesce. When the listener is driven to the lyrics in the booklet, they'll find biting, sharp barbs whose overall message remains somewhat mysterious. Nonetheless, they accompany the tracks quite well, and work with the vocals perfectly to emphasize the gritty, brutal nature of the band. Amazingly, the highlight of Functioning on Impatience would have to be the amount of groove and tight rhythms. That's not to say that this is music one can dance to, rather, in the midst of Coalesce trying to work the time-changes that many a future metal band would try and emulate, they've actually doubled back on themselves and created a very rudimentary, almost tribal rhythm in many of the songs. Granted, that beat tends to change quite often, but it's surely a welcome surprise considering the lack of progression and intelligence all too often seen in metal.