GRIN

"Grin" is the 5th full-length studio album by Swiss thrash metal act Coroner. The album was released through Noise Records in September 1993. It´s the successor to "Mental Vortex" from 1991. "Grin" is generally an album which divide the waters, because Coroner changed their musical direction quite a bit on this album. The signs were already there on "Mental Vortex (1991)" though, as that album introduced a more cold and clinical sound, as opposed to the more organic sounding first three albums.

"Grin" further explores the colder and more clinical sounding thrash metal style of the predecessor, but adds a repetitive industrial element and generally features less focus on technical thrash metal playing and a little more focus on groove (although Coroner are of course as well playing as ever, and there are still quite a few technical details to be found on the album). "Grin" features a bleak atmosphere, and the Tom Morris produced, Morrisound Studios recorded production, suits the material perfectly. The sound is a bit dry, but it´s both powerful and detailed.

The album opens with the short intro "Dream Path" and then "The Lethargic Age", which to my ears is a pretty bad choice for a first track. "The Lethargic Age" is one of the least powerful and least interesting songs on the album, but once "Internal Conflicts" kicks in, things begin to look a little brighter. The rest of the tracks on the album are a bit up and down in quality and catchiness, but "Grin" is generally a good quality release by Coroner. Other than "Internal Conflicts", I´d mention tracks like "Serpent Moves" and "Paralized, Mesmerized" as some of the standout tracks on the album. The tracks are generally pretty long, most of them ranging from 6 to 8 minutes of playing time, but the new repetitive element of the band´s sound makes this necessary.

As always the musicianship is on a high level. Marky Edelmann is a skilled drummer and he plays some pretty interesting rhythms on the album. Lead vocalist/bassist Ron Broder occasionally sounds a bit more restrained when singing on "Grin", than his more raw vocals on the preceding releases, but his vocals are more powerful on some tracks than on others. Guitarist Tommy Vetterli plays some creative thrash/heavy metal riffs and some absolutely brilliant guitar solos.

So upon conclusion "Grin" isn´t as different sounding from the preceding part of the band´s discography as many fans make it out to be. The overall atmosphere is a bit darker/bleaker and there is an emphasis on groove here not heard on previous releases, but at the end of the day this is still unmistakably the sound of Coroner. A 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives)

On Coroner's final album, Grin, the band's perchant for the experimental is given free reign for one last time. The raw aggression of their early albums seems to be questioned here by the technically adept and rather cold approach they take. In fact, the regular use of spoken word samples and the early 1990s production aesthetic keeps making me think they're about to take the plunge and go full-on industrial metal, though they never quite do that - in fact, they never quite focus their approach sufficiently to clearly suggest a direction they could go in after this, which I guess might be part of the reason why they broke up.

I'd suggest making this the last Coroner album you try out, because it's eclectic to the point where it's doubtful you'll dig the entire album from beginning to end, but it's worth it to see them dabbling in all the different directions they might have taken the project had they resolved to pursue one of them above the others.

"We wanted to make the greatest record, ever". That's what Tom Vetterli said on the Coroner - Rewind documentary. Well, I don't know which album is the greatest record ever, but to my taste it is one of the best Heavy Metal albums, ever, including the future ones.

The band tried to realize their ambition at Greenwood Studios in Switzerland, a very expensive studio which Noise managed to book just because Queen pulled off the last moment and they landed a good price for it. Tom Vetterli was the mastermind of this ambitious plan. The tension that this project imposed on the band members was such that finally the group split. But let's focus on the music. Having perfected in just one album their new direction of Mental Vortex, it was time for Coroner to move into something new. The guitars are lowered to D now and the tempos are slower except on Internal Conflicts (once again samples from a movie are included and this time it is Aliens) which is the only track that could fit in a previous Coroner album. Everything else is totally different and well ahead of its time. On Grin there are elements from the industrial and the alternative metal scene, as well as a certain avant-garde tinge (perhaps influenced by their mentors Celtic Frost). The riffs are unbelievably groovy and heavy wrapped in a dark and sometimes even threatening atmosphere. The most illuminating example is Host which could well be used for a horror movie. This song is dragging and suddenly a sequencer that could be heard in a techno song comes in - and the metalheads of the time scratch their heads in disbelief. The answer to my question why Coroner never became a household name is this: they were too experimental, too progressive, too complex, too technical, too futuristic for the majority of the metal fans who seem to be satisfied by their favourite bands regurgiating the same old stuff. More than that, I don't think that Noise was the right label which didn't quite believe in them. Whatever the reasons, Grin signalled the end of the band and, what is even more sad, scarcely it is mentioned when the topic about the best metal albums is breached. Sometimes when I listen to it, the goal mentioned by Tom Veterrli comes to my mind and I'd like to tell him "But...you did!".

Verdict: an ABSOLUTELY essential album for the fans of progressive metal. Even if, eventually, you don't like it, you truly have to give it the chance it deserves.