### Coroner: S/T

#### 30/06/10 || InquisitorGeneralis

By now it’s now secret that I am going cuckoo for fucking cocoa puffs over Coroner. I have made it my life’s mission to make sure that their diverse discography gets full attention here on Global Domination. Former staffer and angry Cuban hothead Baalzamon666 got to most of the prime stuff before I rode into to town. I’ve cleaned up the rest, including the band’s 1986 demo tape! With this coverage of their self-titled compilation of then new and unreleased material I think I have finally laid Coroner to rest. Look at me ma, top of the world!

If you are expecting a straight-up greatest hits collection from “Coroner” you will be disappointed. While you do some quality tracks from the albums before “Grin”, most of the material on here is a reflection of the more creative and alternative turn the band made at the end of their way-too-fucken-short career. I have slowly come around to appreciating this side of Coroner and while I still feel the faster, more thrash oriented stuff from “R.I.P” to “Mental Vortex” is the band’s best output there is still a lot of good shit that came from the “Grin” sessions and afterwards.

The only two real old-school thrashers on here are “Masked jackal” and “Reborn through hate”. Both are absolute classics featuring precision drumming and killer footwork by Edelmann along with the expected awesomeness of Royce and Vetterli on guitars. The jazzy but still heavy solo on “Masked jackal” is one of the band’s finest. Any Coroner compilation would have to have these two masterpieces on it. From the transitional “Mental Vortex” you get “Divine step” and the Beatles cover “I want you (she’s so heavy)” which should have made our Top 10 Metal Covers List but we had to save space for dogshit like In Flames and Children of Bodom. Anyway, these two from “Mental Vortex” are still heavy and thrash influenced but show pieces of the ambient, more alternative style that would flourish on “Grin”. See the section before the kick-ass guitar solo on “Divine step” to see what I’m talking about.

From “Grin” there is the excellent “Serpent moves” and a horrible remix of “Grin” itself. I may be a total Coroner fanboy but even I have to admit that the last two songs on here, said remix and a reggae sounding version of “Purple haze” suck diseased monkey testicles. The real winners on here are “Shifter”, “The favorite game”, and “Golden cashmere sleeper” parts 1 and 2. “Shifter” is mid-paced thrasher with a killer ending: Tommy really lets his feet fly in a section heavier than anything found on “Grin”. “The favorite game” is more groovy, technical track that would be fucken outstanding if not for the annoying samples. Still, it is pretty fucken good. “Golden cashmere sleeper pt.1” is another slow, alternative track but features some odd, interesting guitar work. The second part of the song is instrumental and jammy almost, but I still fucken like the hell out of and put together the “Golden cashmere sleeper”‘s make for an interesting, creative slab of music that is unlike anything else the band has done.

This is certainly not an essential piece of the Coroner discography and the last two songs are just plain terrible. Still, the new/unreleased material is pretty cool and surprisingly heavy. If you already have become familiar with the five studio albums before this you should definitely pick “Coroner” up to get the complete picture of the band. If you are looking for a classic “greatest hits” style comp, this ain’t it bub. If you are looking to see a band continue to challenge expectations and evolve in terms of creativity and style, you are in the right place. No more Coroner to review? What the fuck I’m I going to do with myself…

- Information
- Released: 1995
- Label: Noise Records
- Website: Coroner MySpace
- Band
- Ron “Royce” Broder: vocals, bass
- Tommy “T.Baron” Vetterli: guitar
- Marky “Marquis” Edelmann: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Benways World
- 02. The Favorite Game
- 03. Shifter
- 04. Serpent Moves
- 05. Snow Crystal
- 06. Divine Step (Conspectu Mortis)
- 07. Gliding Above While Being Below
- 08. Der Mussolini
- 09. Last Entertainment (T.V. Bizarre)
- 10. Reborn Through Hate
- 11. Golden Cashmere Sleeper, Part 1
- 12. Golden Cashmere Sleeper, Part 2
- 13. Masked Jackal
- 14. I Want You (She’s So Heavy)
- 15. Grin (No Religion Remix)
- 16. Purple Haze (Radio Live Cut)