If Steve Harvey were to survey 100 metalheads and ask what their most anticipated release of the year was, there’s no way Coroner’s Dissonance Theory wouldn’t come out on top. It’s been 32 long years since we’ve last heard any new music from this Swiss tech thrash institution, which is longer than many of us have been alive. Considering their prolonged absence, one could be forgiven for asking the inevitable question: “Do they still have it?” After all, there are many who consider Coroner to be one of the few bands in metal history with a flawless catalog. Taking all this into consideration, Dissonance Theory had a lot to live up to, and I’m thrilled to announce that it doesn’t just meet these expectations, but exceeds them.
There are a million different directions a new Coroner album in 2025 could’ve taken. We could’ve gotten an old school ’80s affair that emphasized denim and leather-clad euro thrash brutality above all else. We also could’ve gotten a hyper-futuristic effort, fully sentient of the idea of a Coroner album in a post-Coroner world, where bands like Meshuggah, Gojira, and countless others have made entire careers off the musical tropes of Mental Vortex (1991) and Grin (1993). Instead, we get an album that, against all odds, picks up sonically right where Grin left off, as if no time has passed whatsoever. This begs the question: Are Coroner that musically in sync that they can still naturally crank out an album of this magnitude a lifetime later, or were they that ahead of the curve in ’93? The truth likely lies somewhere in between.
Following the opening soundscape that is “Oxymoron”, “Consequence” takes centerstage and establishes the mood of the album. We’ve got breakneck thrashing riffage, virtuosic showmanship, and a bleak, suffocating atmosphere that sucks us into the void. The production is undeniably modern, yet the approach works in this case, as it emphasizes the intensity and chaos of the music itself. Brooding, monolithic slabs of disso-metal like “Sacrificial Lamb” and “Crisium Bound” (the latter boasting a Grin-esque bounce) sound less in line with Coroner’s peers and more in line with the aforementioned tech-metal trailblazers they’d inspire, while a rager like “Symmetry” manages to fuse everything excellent about this band into one tech thrash headbanger.
Through it all are constants one would expect from a Coroner album. Frontman bassist Ron Royce’s signature proto-death metal vocals are as ferocious and unrelenting today as they were nearly 40 years ago. Guitarist Tommy T. Baron continues his reign as the Allan Holdsworth of thrash, pouring his heart and soul into those iconic ultra-melodic solos. And then we’ve got “newcomer” drummer Diego Rapacchietti, filling the void of Marquis Marky with a performance that lies somewhere between technical precision and extreme metal power. Fuse these three talents together with mind-bending lyricism and pummeling riffs, and you’ve got Dissonance Theory.
With a back half that boasts a pair of Meshuggah on steroids-punishers (“The Law”, “Transparent Eye”), a masterclass in prog metal hypnosis (“Trinity”), one more thrasher for the road (“Renewal”), and a glorified lost Emerson, Lake and Palmer outro (“Prolonging”), I fully understand why so many are already crowning Dissonance Theory as album of the year. At the very least, it’s most certainly the comeback of the year, and the most convincing return I’ve witnessed since Cirith Ungol’s Forever Black. Move over wannabe tech death wizzes of the Bandcamp realm! The kings have returned to reclaim their throne, and their power is mighty as ever. There’s no resting in peace for Coroner anytime soon!
9 out of 10
Label: Century Media Records
Genre: Technical Thrash Metal
For fans of: Voivod, Kreator, Meshuggah