Band: Coroner | Album: Dissonance Theory | Genre: Progressive thrash metal | Year: 2025
From: Zurich, Switzerland | Label: Century Media
For fans of: Voivod, Dark Angel, Vektor
As I’ve noted before, progressive thrash is currently one of the less-popular varieties of metal out there. A few bands still carry the torch (like Vektor and Anarchÿ), but black, death, and sludge bands are much more likely to fold progressive elements into their music. For a while in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, prog-thrash was relatively more vibrant. Bands like Dark Angel, Toxik, Voivod, Watchtower, and even Metallica wrote long, multiparted compositions and demonstrated some major artistic ambitions.
One of those classic early prog-thrash bands was the Swiss trio Coroner. Their songs were usually relatively to-the-point, only rarely going over six minutes. But their composition was some of the most varied and intellectual in all of thrash metal. Jazz, classical, and avant-garde elements often found their way into the band’s riffs. The last time Coroner put out an album was their self-titled quasi-compilation album from 1995. They broke up and went on an extended hiatus. I wasn’t even aware they’d reunited!
Dissonance Theory starts with a moody and ethereal little intro, “Oxymoron”, which segues into the first real song, “Consequence”. Jagged guitar arpeggios and thundering drums lead into an assault of machine-gun riffage and hoarsely shouted vocals. Coroner has always excelled at balancing meat-and-potatoes palm-muted passages and soaring inclusions of odd chords and atmospherics. The band even throws in some vocoder, a rarely-utilized tool in metal outside of Cynic. This record also benefits from more modern-sounding production than their ‘80s and ‘90s output. Those records, while great, often had a bit of a dry sound to them, and this lead off song really packs a wallop.
“Sacrificial Lamb” opens with foreboding drums and spare, echoing guitar, eventually turning into something slow and lurching. But much like the previous song, mixed in among some relatively straightforward moments are unconventional chord progressions and patterns. The rhythm stutters awkwardly in a way that reminds me of Meshuggah at moments. “Crisium Blood” continues with this pattern but at a faster tempo. Everything feels uneven and off-kilter in an incredibly entertaining way.
“Symmetry” immediately kicks off on a rocket ship. The pace is breakneck, and the guitars are blistering. Coroner continues to brilliantly deploy strange, jazzy chords on top of high-octane thrash rhythms. Things slow down in the second half of this song, and the guitars become vague and impressionistic, but the aura they convey is threatening.
Things slow down for the opening moments of “The Law”. There are some Near Eastern tinges, both in the tones of the guitars and the scales they’re playing. When the rhythm section kicks in, it actually reminds me of certain Between the Buried and Me songs, with that rather distinctive sort of majestic-yet-minor-key chord progression. The next song, “Transparent Eye”, keeps up with the abstract, avant-garde chords amid biting thrash metal passages. This sort of tonal and textural variation has always been one of Coroner’s greatest strengths, and this song demonstrates the three decades without a record did nothing to dull their instincts. The downtuned chugging of this cut goes so far as to verge on groove metal, a subgenre I normally hate, but which works well here. The band also dips back into some Cynic influence around this song’s midpoint, with spacey clean guitars providing buildup to a crushing climax.
“Trinity” is solid but relatively indistinct for this record. For almost any other band, this would be a standout cut, but Coroner’s standards are so high, this winds up as a lesser work. “Renewal” ups the intensity, delivering a crushing blow of powerful prog-thrash. The progressive influences are woven naturally into the riffs here. Many of these songs feature a fluctuation between aggressive thrashiness and more abstract chords and arpeggios. Here, Coroner maintains all their fury while also weaving in oddball chords, meters, and lines.
Coroner’s comeback album ends on its shortest proper song, the ironically-titled “Prolonging”. Here, the air reminds me of certain prog-sludge acts, like early Baroness or Blood Mountain-era Mastodon. Surprisingly, it features an organ solo, which works out quite well. Metal and organs don’t always get along, in my experience. This solo occupies most of the first half of this song, with the second half consisting of eerie effects and atmospheres.
Dissonance Theory is a fantastic record. Coroner had been inactive for so long, the idea of them releasing new music hadn’t even crossed my mind, but I am very glad they’ve put this out. Everything here sounds incredibly fresh and new while also having an obvious connection to their older work.
Score: 90/100
The Elite Extremophile 