Frank Iero and the Patience - Keep The Coffins Coming
When word broke about My Chemical Romance's disbandment all were saddened and pained by the news. While this news was indeed bad, there was some good news to come from it, as the band members, Gerard, Mikey, Ray, and Frank would branch out into other projects, involving music and other artistic passions of identity.
Frank Iero guitarist for My Chemical Romance as well as backing vocalist, went on to do more music, in such acts as post-hardcore band Leathermouth, as well as a solo punk rock project titled Frank Iero and the Patience, along with many other acts, frnkiero andthe cellabration, Pencery Prep, Reggie and the Full Effect, and Death Spells. While all of these projects had music in common, the most spoken about would probably end up being Frank Iero and the Patience, with them releasing two albums, "Stomachaches" (2014) under the previous name frnkiero and the cellabration, with the follow-up album under the current name Frank Iero and the Patience titled "Parachutes" (2016). With the 1 year mark anniversary of this second album "Parachutes" on the horizon, new material needed to be heard nonetheless right? Of course, because new material was made in the writing and recording process for an EP titled "Keep The Coffins Coming" released a month prior to the 1 year anniversary of the last release.
Nevertheless though, "Keeping The Coffins Coming", is an EP of sorts, that also has a back story behind it. As Frank himself goes into detail saying “When we were done touring Stomachaches, I talked to my manager, Paul, about what we should do. I had my bucket list and one of the things on there was to work with Steve Albini,” says front man Frank Iero. “Paul asked how long I’d wanted to work with Steve and I was like, ‘Since I was, like, 11!’ I wanted to make a Steve Albini record! Paul said he’d call him and I was like, ‘You can’t do that… that would be weird. Don’t do it.’ And he was like, ‘That’s my job!’ ”
Iero continues, “He called him, Steve said he could do it and he had three days. Next phone call I made was U-Haul; I fuckin’ packed the U-Haul up and drove the band to Chicago. I got to record an EP with my friends and one of my heroes in this, like, giant firehouse building in Chicago. The EP is this missing link between Stomachaches and Parachutes. It’s everything I wanted it to be. It’s fuckin’ awesome!”
So is it the missing link between the two releases released before? Surprisingly yes, it just has a lot more variety going for it. It has a lot of energy, angst, and more going for it. It is punk rock to its finest content really. Lots of upbeat tones, temps, riffs, and lots of aggression with progression thrown together, to create flawless amounts of energy. That you can both dance to and bob your head to and still partake in the fun of the music.
When it comes to the material with songs like "I'm A Mess", it is filled with excitement and energy, you want to just raise your fist high in the air, pumping it proudly, while a track like "No Fun Club", keeps a more fast paced adrenaline pumping throughout the track itself. Screams echoing through with the instrumentals right in line, it just all falls into its proper place easily, it sounds great. As for the rest of the material, it becomes a mixed bag of sorts, falling between the tracks of these others mentioned already.
In short Frank Iero and the Patience's "Keep The Coffins Coming" is an EP that fills the voids of the missing links Frank recalled before, bringing this whole new freshness of material, that is something totally unique and new.
