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Class 6(66)

Coroner: Punishment for decadence

05/12/07  ||  Global Domination

This review was written by ex-staffer/cocksmoker Seker.

Released: 1988

Introduction

Some things in life are just completely certain and unquestionable. Things like the fact that sitting down to pee automatically makes you a pussy, or the fact that rubbing one out with morning wood is pretty hard to do, or the fact that Coroner kicks ass. Seriously, disliking Coroner already makes you suspect. I mean, what the fuck is there to hate about Coroner? They’ve got the neck-snapping thrash grooves, the blindingly fast and catchy melodies, and the snarling, menacing vocals: in short, they’ve got everything you need for a good tech/thrash/death band, and they’ve got their own, inimitable style.

Many will point to later, more esoteric works like “Mental Vortex” or “No More Color” when asked to identify the crème de la crème of the Coroner discography, but, in the immortal words of George Carlin, I say fuck ‘em! Nothing can match the sheer violence and morbidity of Coroner’s second effort, the nasty and ripping “Punishment for Decadence”.

Songwriting

9.5. You’ve got your furious and thrashing opener (“Absorbed”), your nigh-Helstar complex neoclassical instrumental (“Arc-Lite”), the violent, ripping madness of “Shadow of a Lost Dream”, the complex, intricate arrangements of “Sudden Fall”… really, this album is pretty much devoid of filler tracks. It grooves, thrashes, and flows like a motherfucker, with liquid streams of pure neoclassical melody forcing their way through roaring thrash riffs in a way that hadn’t been seen before or since.

The only real problem is the two bookends of the album. Some intros are great, like the swirling Azathothian chaos that opens “Blessed are the Sick” or the misanthropic proclamation that leads into the first Malevolent Creation album. Some intros, namely this one, just fucking suck and are completely pointless. I mean, really, do we need a bunch of moaning and whooshing noises at the beginning of the album? At least it only lasts for twelve seconds, which is more than I can say for the abysmal Jimi Hendrix cover that closes the album. Seriously, just fucken avoid it; it’s not fucken worth it. Novelty covers are stupid. Always. No fucken exceptions.

Production

9. There’s plenty of bozos on various lesser websites bitching about the rather raw production, but again, fuck ‘em! You can hear everything perfectly (even the bass), and yet it still manages to be raw and nasty. The way that good metal should be, you know.

Guitars

10. Did you know that you can be technical and progressive without being wimpy? I sure as hell didn’t, until Tommy T. Baron came along with this album and knocked me flat on my ass. This guy not only can play extremely fast; he also has an acute ear for complex melodies and whiplash-inducing thrash riffs. He’s also capable of building up a tense atmosphere, which is obviously something rare in progressive thrash: most prog metal sounds very mechanical, but Baron’s guitar playing manages to give this album a very organic, live and bleeding feel.

Vocals

9. You’ve gotta love Ron Royce’s venomous snarl. He almost sounds like Tom G. Warrior (aka best vocalist of all time ever), but that might just be the accent. Either way, he enunciates all of the lyrics with a large degree of clarity without sacrificing any sense of menace or malevolence, much like Dave Vincent on “Angel of Disease”. He really pulls off all of the requisite thrash vocal tricks too: screams, snarls, roars, and your standard frat boy gang shouts. Pi Alpha Nu! Pi Alpha Nu! FUCK YOU! Oh wait, wrong album…

Anyway, it’s a great performance. It’s also worth mentioning that Royce does a good job of forcing lyrical lines into the middle of thrash grooves in a rather inventive matter. Check out “Shadow of a Lost Dream” for the best example of this: while most singers at the time either completely led the band or were content to just scream over the top, Ron uses his vocals as both a percussive and semi-melodic instrument, twisting and turning in and out of the complex song arrangements. Why can’t more vocalists be like this?

Bass

9. It’s right up there, running along side the guitars in tandem, which makes sense, as Mr. Royce (shit, he sings and plays this kind of stuff? Goddamn…) was one of the major songwriters along with Tommy T. He fills out the low-end frequencies nicely with plenty of technical runs and slamming, ripping grooves, and he plays in a very technical style that avoids being too show-offy.

Drums

9. Marquis Marky, or Markus Edelmann, if you prefer, lays down plenty of sick grooves and violent fills without ever losing sense of where the music is, which is quite an accomplishment, considering the madball tempo changes that abound on this disc. Unlike most technically skilled drummers, he doesn’t spill all over his drum kit, hitting obscure Conga drums and 10,000 year old China cymbals manufactured by the Sumerians; no, he sticks to your basic drum kit and delivers a violent, skin-em-alive performance that fits the music perfectly.

Lyrics

7. Uh, they’re lyrics, yeah? They tend to avoid the bane of 80s thrash (i.e. political whining) for the most part: it’s mostly all about inner torment and dream-like contemplation of consciousness and morality, as well as a healthy dose of death and warfare, like the following: “Did you see their faces beaten to obey/Did you see the colors sulfur yellow, concrete gray/Did you see the eyes listless and indifferent/Oppression no resistance bodies without a spine”. You know, stuff like that.

Cover art

8. Holy shit, Coroner actually good some decent cover artwork done! I mean, have you seen “Mental Vortex”? What the fuck is that supposed to be? And don’t get me fucken started on “Grin”… Anyway, we’ve got the classical skeleton-playing-the-violin motif in a nice blended shade of red and yellow on a black background. Looks good to me.

Logo

8. It’s a pretty cool, medieval-looking piece of work, even if it does look a fucken lot like the Corona logo. Seriously, if you need to put fruit in your beer to make it worth drinking, than it’s really not worth quaffing in the first place. Sorry Mexico. You can keep the worm too.

Booklet

7. Oh man, you totally won’t believe what’s in this booklet! There’s like, lyrics AND pictures AND fucken band information! I mean, fuck, I’ve never seen that kind of stuff before!

Overall and ending rant

9.5. This one barely edges out Watchtower’s “Control and Resistance” for the coveted title of Best Tech-thrash Album of All Time Ever (unless you count Atheist’s “Piece of Time”, but really, that album is more death metal anyway). It’s catchy, it’s thrashing, and it’s got a healthy dose of downright malevolence that is usually lacking in material like this. I’ve heard Coroner described as the Rush of thrash metal, but guess what? Geddy Lee sounds like a dying old woman crossed with one of her cats, while this album is completely awesome all the way through, apart from the stupid Hendrix cover. Take that, prog rock sacred cow! Also, this album came out the year I was born, which automatically makes it awesome.

Class 6(66) -reviews