The 21st century has seen just about every classic thrash band resurrect for the obligatory comeback tour and the inevitable reunion album that comes with it. Every band except Coroner. Sure, they checked off the former about 15 years ago, starting with a run of euro fests and embarking on a never-ending jaunt that’s been going ever since. The prospect of a new Coroner album, however, is a different matter altogether, until now. After 32 years, the tech thrash pioneers have returned with Dissonance Theory: An album that sonically picks up right where 1993’s Grin left off. We sat down with guitarist Tommy T. Baron to discuss the making of this long-awaited affair, the band’s songwriting approach, and their impact on the modern metal scene.
Greetings Tommy and welcome to Defenders of the Faith! How are you doing today?
Tommy T. Baron: I’m great, thank you. How are you?
I am doing fantastic. Thank you so much for coming on to talk about the new Coroner album, Dissonance Theory. Before we go any further, I must ask, just the words “new Coroner album”: Is that a bit surreal for you to hear?
TTB: Yeah, it feels a bit like the first album (R.I.P.). Everything is exciting. Our first album after 32 years, it’s something special.
It’s been 15 years since Coroner initially reunited, playing celebrated festival sets and touring all over the globe in the years that followed. At what point during this reunion jaunt did the prospect of new music arise?
TTB: It was 2 years into the reunion. (Drummer) Marquis (Marky) wanted to stop. He had had enough, but Ron (Royce) and I wanted to go on. When we decided that, we knew that we had to write new stuff some time, so that was around 2014, 2015. Then, offers from record companies came and we signed with Sony in 2015, if I remember correctly.
Even that’s 10 years ago now.
TTB: Yes, everyone expected the new album around ’17 or ’18, but life came into the way, a little bit. The main reason is my daytime job. I’m a music producer at my own studio. After recording a band all day, there is no creativity left *laughs*. It only worked when I took a few days off and went to the Swiss mountains, just by myself. Then, stuff started to flow, but I could do that for a few days and then I had to go back to the studio because the next band came in. That’s why it took forever. And we really wanted to do something great, something we have to be happy with. It was a little bit obsessive with the writing as well. I get really bored by my own playing, so maybe out of 30 riffs, one made it on the album. Stuff like that, but I think it was worth every second I spent on it.
Who came up with the title Dissonance Theory and in what way does it connect to the theme of the music on this album?
TTB: Actually, the first title I had in mind for the album was Oxymoron, but a few people thought it was weird because the word “moron” was in it. I searched for an alternative and came up with Dissonance Theory. It can mean something similar. Oxymoron could mean sharp, intelligent, but dumb. That’s mankind, with all the achievements, but at the same kind, mankind kills itself. Dissonance Theory is about the concept of cognitive dissonance theory, if you have two conflicting beliefs. An example would be you like to eat meat, but you don’t want to harm the animals at the same time. That fucks with your brain, so you have to find your own truth. It’s all about truth. There’s different truths to everything, so I think that’s really interesting stuff. All the songs have a little bit of this theme in it to some extent.
Were there any world events or life experiences that shaped the direction of the lyrics or music on here?
TTB: Not really. It’s just the fact that the world is a bit fucked up. It was like back in the days *laughs*, but it’s even worse nowadays actually.
Who handled which aspects of the songwriting for Dissonance Theory? Was there anything the band did differently this time around as opposed to those ’80s and ’90s albums?
TTB: Yeah, the first few albums we wrote together. Ron and I, we sat together and brought together the ideas. Nowadays, Ron has a normal daytime job, so he’s a bit further away from the music. This time, I wrote everything by myself with help of the other guys, of course. They brought in their ideas towards the end. I also had help from Dennis Russ, the co-producer. He’s a good friend of mine. I’ve worked with him for a long time here in the studio. He especially helps customers of mine with lyrics because if English is not your mother language, it’s kind of hard to write something halfway intelligent. Marquis wrote all the lyrics in the past and he always had help from an American friend.
We also worked with Kriscinda Lee Everitt. She’s an American author. She’s writing a book about the band at the moment, and she helped out with a lot of lyrics as well. We did the concept and the themes and everything. She writes books, so that’s a big difference, but how she can play with the words is on another level. After everybody in the band started to write lyrics, it was OK, but I thought they weren’t good enough *laughs*. Then, I asked Dennis to help me with that and we came to the conclusion that we have to write everything new. That was different to the past, the lyric writing, but the rest was…I wrote almost all the riffs in the past, at least from No More Color on. Maybe one part was from Ron. This time, it was like 99% I wrote. I think sometimes it’s easier because it’s one person’s mood. It’s more difficult if more persons work on one title. The end result is more organic for somet reason.
Par the course for Coroner, there are no shortage of hard thrashing songs on here, but also more progressive, ominous cuts that emphasize atmosphere and intensity. When it comes to arrangements, does the band have in idea which direction a song’s going to take prior to recording, or does this process ultimately transpire in the studio?
TTB: No, we did pre-productions. All of the songs were really prepared, almost every detail. Of course, there are some changes last minute, or in the studio, when you hear everything clear, you’ll think, “Oh, what’s going on there? Harmonically, something is not working.” Stuff like that, but just minor things.
So essentially you take those skeletons and build upon them from there?
TTB: Right. We recorded everything in parts. We recorded the drums. Then, I had another band coming in. Three months later, I recorded vocals. Stuff like that. It took time, but it had time to grow. I always had the chance to listen to it with fresh ears, so that was a plus.
Your solos have always been extremely melodic and emotive. This remains the case on Dissonance Theory. Growing up, which guitarists most influenced your playing? Furthermore, which qualities would you say are key for a killer guitar solo?
TTB: There’s so many guitar players. I listen to every band with a good guitar player. Eddie Van Halen is one of my favorites. Yngwie (Malmsteen), of course. Allan Holdsworth, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix: I could go on for half an hour like that. To me, before I record a solo, I’m a bit afraid. Nowadays, on YouTube, there’s 16 year old people playing technically crazy, but I think for me, nowadays, the more emotional side of things is more important, not playing technical for the sake of being technical. I tried to do something fast when I thought it fit there. I think a lot of those new players, they play great. They play technically a 100 times faster than I do, but sometimes I have a hard time remembering what they just played. It goes in here *points to ear* and it goes out. Nothing stays. I try to concentrate and play from my heart.
You know, I feel vindicated hearing you mention Holdsworth, because in all my years listening to Coroner, I’ve always thought to myself, “Man, Tommy’s has to be a Holdsworth guy!”
TTB: *laughs* Yeah, he’s the guitar player’s guitar player. Even the way he thought about music theory, he had a total different approach. Every guitar player, when he hears his name, is like “OK, I’ll shut up.” Even Eddie (Van Halen) was a huge fan!
This is Coroner’s first album with drummer Diego Rapacchietti. In what ways does his playing impact the band and the subsequent music that makes up Dissonance Theory?
TTB: I’ve known Diego for a long time. He was a session drummer in my studio for a lot of productions on a lot of different styles as well, from pop productions to black metal, everything. He can play everything. I think I had way more possibilities to write because he can play everything. I could program what I wanted when I was writing so he could do it anyway. It wasn’t like that in the past, which was OK too, to have parameters where you can work, but this time, it was way more free.
While there are moments throughout Dissonance Theory that can be compared to the band’s back catalog, by and large, the album carves its own singular identity in the Coroner canon. How important was this for the band in the scope of crafting the album?
TTB: Before we stared writing, I thought a lot about how should this album be. Should it be a continuation from Grin? A lot of people prefer that album. Other ones hate it. Should it be more like the first three albums? I found out really quickly that doesn’t make sense at all because I’m a total different person nowadays. I couldn’t write No More Color again. It would be pointless. I just started writing. There are similarities because of me writing the riffs. Even in one of the new songs, the guys came to me like, “Hey, this riff sounds a bit like that song from that album!” “Really? Oh yeah, you’re right! OK.” You create your own style and way of playing riffs. In 32 years between, there’s a lot of influences and music changed. We changed. That’s what came out.
In the years since Coroner’s original run, an entire crop of progressive and technical metal acts have arisen, citing the band as a crucial influence. How do you feel about Coroner’s impact on the modern metal scene, and are there any modern acts in particular who stand out to you?
TTB: Yeah, Meshuggah, they stand out, and Opeth. Meshuggah I like to listen to when I workout in the gym. It’s a perfect fit. It’s a great honor that those guys grew up listening to us and that we influenced them, band way bigger than we ever were. It’s very cool!
In closing, with a new year on the horizon, what does 2026 have in store for Coroner?
TTB: We put a lot of hard work into this album. We really want to tour to promote it as much as we can. We have a new booking agency in the US. They’re working really hard at the moment, I hope. There’s a lot of stuff in the pipeline that’s not confirmed, so I can’t tell you about it, but I guess we’re gonna play the US very soon again. Hopefully it will work out.
I hope so too. I caught you the last two times you played Reggies here in Chicago, and it was brilliant!
TTB: Ah, Reggies! There you go! *shows a Reggies shirt for the camera*
I love it!
TTB: Reggies is great! I remember those shows. I think the first time with Vio-Lence we played twice. That was great!
The new Coroner album, Dissonance Theory, is out now on Century Media Records. For more information on Coroner, click here.