CORONER – “Renewal” & “Symmetry”

I’ll admit as the years went by, I lost touch with Coroner and their music. Frankly, I was mildly surprised to hear the band was playing again and that a new effort was soon to be released. Dissonance Theory was just released on October 17^th via Century Media Records. A pair of new music videos, “Renewal” and “Symmetry” has been unveiled to promote the effort.

Coroner is a thrash metal band from Switzerland with roots dating back to 1983. Believe it or not, the original members of Coroner were originally roadies for Celtic Frost!

In fact, Tom G. Warrior (Celtic Frost – Vocals/Guitars) actually provided the vocals for the aspiring band’s first demo, Death Cult (1986).

Coroner’s music is hard to describe. It seemingly combines elements of thrash metal, classical music, jazz, and industrial metal. They’ve always been respected in my circle of friends for their a-typical style and unconventional vocal delivery. Along with Voivod and Watchtower, Coroner has been credited for helping pioneer the subgenre of technical thrash metal also known as progressive thrash.

I’ve been following the band since the mid ‘80s and my favorite album by the group is unquestionably No More Color (1989). I personally think this is Coroner at their best. It features more technical guitar work than previous releases but still features the unusual time signatures which became part of the trademark sound for the band.

Ron Royce‘s bass playing on No More Color is also worth mentioning. The advanced three-finger technique utilized on the album enables him to double the rhythm line, giving the attack a fuller sound. A progressive take on thrash metal. That is extremely technical but also brutal.

I’ll admit as the years went by, I lost touch with Coroner and their music. Frankly, I was mildly surprised to hear the band was playing again and that a new effort was soon to be released. Dissonance Theory was just released on October 17^th via Century Media Records. A pair of new music videos, “Renewal” and “Symmetry” has been unveiled to promote the effort.

“Renewal” is a performance offering with some interesting clips thrown in. The snippets of eyes, rotating machine gears, hands writing and clocks progressing weave themselves into the track and offer an additional perspective to the music. Like a brain working as a machine, we try to make sense of the world around us. The opening of the curtains is like a realization that has occurred, a renewal to a new form of understanding.

The music video for “Symmetry” is of a similar vein. A performance offering with select snippets thrown in. Image seems to be the main theme, what’s your worst trait? Is it something we all can, see? Nobody knows what’s going on inside. We all know there’s a difference between who we actually are and how we’d like to be seen. Sometimes that image staring back at us is something we’d like to break!

Coroner has done it again. Dissonance Theory is an album packed with relevancy and thought provoking lyrics set to grinding thrash. Check out the music videos for “Renewal” and “Symmetry” and let the discord of Coroner set a new ideology inside of you! \m/