The Casket Lottery

In the late 1990s Nathan Ellis, who played guitar and vocals in Coalesce, teamed with bassist Stacy Hilt to launch the Casket Lottery and shape a style built on intense, emo-inflected lyrics supported by dense guitar textures. Nathan Richardson joined on drums in time to accompany the band on the road with Rainer Maria, Small Brown Bike, Sweep the Leg Johnny, and Waxwing. Multiple EPs and self-released recordings preceded the group’s first proper album, Choose Bronze, issued by Second Nature Recordings in 1999. Moving Mountains followed the next year and illustrated how the Casket Lottery’s sound was expanding. Their third album, Survival Is for Cowards, appeared in conjunction with Coalesce’s reunion during spring 2002. The following year the band assembled scattered tracks and unreleased material under the title Possibles and Maybes.