Coalesce/Boy Sets Fire

split (Hydra Head)
by Tim Den

Anything Coalesce touches turns to gold. They can pull off Led Zeppelin covers and make lame bands like Boy Sets Fire sound good. The two bands here cover each other’s songs, and it doesn’t take a scientist to notice right away which band is the Real Deal. While Coalesce can make one-dimensional attempts at emo hardcore into blistering workouts of noise and texture, Boy Sets Fire can’t even cover material correctly. Sounding weak and obviously devoid of the essence that the originals held, the two covers they present are laughable. Maybe it’s because trying to capture Coalesce’s magic is impossible in itself, but it’s still no excuse in Boy Sets Fire’s case because even their own material is bad (as many of their releases have proven). If you get this, don’t play past song two.
(www.hydrahead.com)