Coroner: Dissonance Theory (2025)
What was your favorite heavy metal album of 2025?
Mine was Coroner's Dissonance Theory: a comeback 30 years in the making by one of the few metal bands that's never put out a bad record and arguably just got better and better with each of their first five studio LPs, now augmented by a sixth impeccable musical chapter.
Just over a year ago, the Swiss power trio famously made up of Celtic Frost roadies, guitarist Tommy Vetterli, vocalist/bassist Ron Broder, and drummer Marky Edelmann -- now replaced by Diego Rappachietti --came through Nashville on a wholly unexpected reunion tour.
The show was everything I could have hoped for and more ...
Because one is so rarely faced with so much instrumental brilliance AND artistic integrity AND such a surgical musical decapitation at the hands of perhaps history's greatest progressive thrash metal band -- often referred to as "the Rush of thrash."
Dissonance Theory is an accurate description for ALL Coroner LPs, as these have always pushed the limits of metallic extremity against hard-won melodic elements in such a way as to accentuate the group's compositional inventiveness and amplify eventual epiphanies.
So it stands to reason that Coroner would pick up where they left off over three decades earlier, with twin crowning achievements, Mental Vortex (1991) and Grin ('93), and fuse the the former's dazzlingly elaborate techno-thrash with the latter's mid-tempo dread-grooves.
The result is a master-class in controlled violence and intellectual depth, as standout after standout ("Crisium Bound," "Symmetry," "Transparent Eye," "Renewal") is propelled by Rappachietti's clockwork precision and Vetterli's razor-sharp virtuosity, about which an entire thesis could be written.
Co-producer Dennis Russ contributes integral synths that never upset Coroner's clinical tripodal balance (with the possible exception of his organ solo on the superfluous coda, "Prolonging"), and robotic voices (reminiscent of Cynic) bring a sci-fi sheen to "Consequence."
But, elsewhere, it's always Broder's cynical bark eviscerating religion ("Sacrificial Lamb"), tyrants ("The Law"), and nuclear apocalypse ("Trinity") with a cold, emphatic wisdom, while his bass lines possess a mind of their own, rarely following the guitar's lead.
Heck, even the album's "mandatory metal intro," "Oxymoron," isn't wasted and conveys true industrial terror; teeing up the rest of the record and the crystal-clear, bone-shattering mix delivered by studio wizard Jens Bogren (Opeth, Kreator, Katatonia, etc.).
Man, it's hard writing about music you're totally obsessed with!
But I've done my best, and I'll close by celebrating Coroner's unique and unmistakable musical DNA, because most bands -- even some of the bands I love best -- still sound like other bands, but Coroner sounds only like Coroner and NO other band sounds like Coroner.
More Coroner: R.I.P., Punishment for Decadence, No More Color, Mental Vortex, Grin.
