Steve Gresswell (bass, keys, drums) has been using the name Coalition on and off for a number of years, and actually released an album using that name back in 1993, but this release is rather more recent, from 2012. For this he brought in guitarist Phil Braithwaite (who works with Steve in his Inner Visions project), and singer Paul Bulger. Overall this is a neo-prog album, but one that is quite different in that often the star is Braithwaite who proves that he can shred like a master, which gives a very different feel to a prog work. Steve is also a good musician, but for the most part he works on providing the perfect backdrop for Phil to shine, which he does whenever he is given the opportunity.
The overall sound reminds me of the underground scene of twenty years ago, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing in my book, but overall this is let down by the quality of the songs themselves and the vocals. There is a mish mash between the fluid soloing from Phil, and Paul’s vocals where he seems to struggle slightly, and I found that it jarred too much. Given how much focus is given to Phil it might be an idea to rethink the approach and have this as an instrumental project, and see how they go from there. It is still a good album in many ways, and I have been playing it quite a bit, but there are hints that show that they could do much more.
