Coroner (band)

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Coroner

Background information
Origin	Zurich, Switzerland
Genre(s)	Technical thrash metal
Years active	1985–1995
Label(s)	Noise
Former members
Ron Broder (Bass, Vocals) Marky Edelmann (Drums) Tommy Vetterli (Guitars)

Coroner were a Swiss thrash metal band.

The Swiss thrash trio Coroner were originally members of Celtic Frost's road crew. They eventually formed their own group, recording their demo Death Cult in 1986 with Tom G. Warrior of Celtic Frost on vocals. Their first full length album R.I.P., released in 1987, featured bass player Ron Royce on vocals and he assumed the role for the rest of the group's existence. The group released several albums through 1993, ending with a greatest hits collection, Coroner, in 1995. Lack of media exposure brought this band to disbanding in 1994 - and eventually to their farewell tour consequent to their self titled album. As of March 2005, rumours of a reunion in the works are hitting the heavy metal newspages persistently.

1 Evolution and Style
2 Coroner live
3 Members
4 Discography
5 External links

[edit] Evolution and Style

Musically, Coroner evolved from a pure speed metal band with gothic and classical overtones a la Celtic Frost and Bathory into a very sophisticated technical band. Coroner's first album, R.I.P., was blazingly fast in almost every song with gothic keyboards added for atmosphere. There were almost no tempo changes on R.I.P. The lyrics, mostly about death, were similarly unsophisticated.

This changed on Punishment for Decadence. Breakneck tempo changes interspersed mid-paced and even the odd slow passage between the blazingly-fast passages that were reminiscent of R.I.P.. Lyrically, Coroner began to touch upon such themes as politics and personal introspection. Unfortunately, Punishment for Decadence, unlike "R.I.P.", suffered from poor production courtesy of Guy Bidmead.

No More Color was a watershed album for Coroner. The production, still by Johns at Musiclab, was an improvement by leaps and bounds. Moreover, Coroner's musicianship truly shined on No More Color: the guitar work was characterised by intricate modes and arpeggios, solo work that was chromatically colourful, as well as the de rigeur crunchy chords and speed runs; the drumming went beyond the 4/4 time monotony of Coroner's two previous albums to incorporate syncopation; the bass playing mostly doubled the guitars but given the complexity in the guitar playing, this was no mean feat.

Mental Vortex improved over No More Color. Continuing with the previous album's technical formula, the speed metal formula was re-integrated into Coroner's sound on this album but with a decidedly mature tone that made it sound not at all like R.I.P. or Punishment for Decadence. There were slower songs but none of songs on Mental Vortex stayed the same speed for very long. The songs on Mental Vortex ranged from 4 to 8 minutes. Overall, the tone was like that of No More Color only much more aggressive.

Coroner was a greatest hits package which also contained some unreleased material.

[edit] Coroner live

Like most three-piece bands (aka "power trios"), Coroner's material did not come across very well on stage^{[citation needed]}. The guitarwork on every album made after the Punishment album involved multiple layers of riffs, often with arpeggios and melodies being played over chords and riffs. This layering, easily accomplished in the studio through overdubbing, is impossible for a single guitarist to do live.