Coroner - Grin Coroner

From their modest beginnings as roadies for avant-garde Swiss metal legends , the members of CORONER carved out one of the most unique careers in the European thrash metal scene. They were originally pegged as a conventional thrash band, but their jaw-dropping musicianship and increasingly complex, almost prog rock compositions soon won over most critics, some of whom labeled them the of thrash metal.

Over the course of eight years and six albums, they fought constantly to expand the limiting boundaries of thrash, yet achieved only limited commercial success for their efforts. Still, their fearless experiments have allowed their albums to endure and stand the test of time better than many of their more celebrated peers.

Guitarist Tommy T. Baron (real name Thomas Vetterli) and drummer Marquis Marky (aka Marky Edelmann) put in various tours of duty as roadies for the seminal before founding CORONER with bassist/vocalist Ron Royce in 1985. In fact, main man Tom Warrior (Celtic Frost) sang on their Death Cult demo. Subsequently signing to a German label, the trio debuted with 1987's 'R.I.P.', then quickly followed it with 1988's 'Punishment for Decadence', which featured a surprising cover of 's "Purple Haze." With 1989's transitional 'No More Color', CORONER truly inaugurated their golden era and raised their standards on every front: from the stylized album artwork to the slower, tighter rhythms and riffs that revealed their incredible technical proficiency to the experiments that began breaking away from the limitations of thrash metal, both musically and lyrically.

This ambitious vision came to full fruition with 1991's amazing 'Mental Vortex', which included a daring reconstructed cover version of ' "I Want You (She's So Heavy)." Recorded by top thrash producer Tom Morris, many expected the album to push CORONER s career to the next level and introduce them to a wider audience.

CORONER came up with an even more daring, unconventional album in 1993's 'Grin', which abandoned much of the thrash-based aggression of their early days and focused on challenging dynamics and eerie atmospherics. This move proved too radical even for longtime fans, ironically, and they remain split over the album's merits, some seeing it as a total sellout, while many others consider it the band's greatest triumph.

Following the much awaited new album 'Dissonant Theory' released in October 2025, their most ambitious, ground breaking and revered albums 'Mental Vortex' and 'Grin' are now reissued on Listenable records in digipak and coloured vinyls , grab them now while you can !