You wouldn't be faulted if OX, Coalesce's first album in almost a decade, shocked you with its overall raw, vital energy. "Reunions" don't often work this well. That said, as I mentioned shortly before it's release in June, the new collection ranks with their classic 0:12 Revolution In Just Listening and, yup ... I really do prefer it to its elder. Riding that wave, the new seven-song OXEP, which came out today, continues the expansive, texturally expanded post-hardcore exploration of the full-length. (It's all new material.) When speaking with vocalist Sean Ingram and guitarist Jes Steineger about OX I suggested:Maybe because of the country western and just straight-up western feel ("Wild Ox Moan," "We Have Lost Our Will"), it comes off as a really American album. I don't mean this in a jingoist way. More Johnny Cash. A distinctively American sound.Their responses go well with OXEP's "Absent In Death." So read while you listen.Continue reading New Coalesce - "Absent In Death"...