Coroner: Divine Step (Conspectu Mortis)

Deeply infernal, dischordant, and unsettling prog metal from Coroner's next to last album Mental Vortex. Enjoy.

Mastodon: Aqua Demetia

Excellent early Mastodon, from the LEVIATHAN album. It reminds of the best moments of early Voivod and Coroner. Mindbending, heavy as hell prog metal. Here's AQUA DEMENTIA. Enjoy.

Coroner: Pale Sister

Some healthy, gloomy, prog metal for your Friday. PALE SISTER from Coroner's THE MENTAL VORTEX. Enjoy.

Coroner: No Need to Be Human

Bleak, dissonant, intense, progressive thrash metal from 1989. "No Need to Be Human" from Coroner's 1989 masterpiece "No More Color". I know I've reviewed this album here before, but it deserves another shout out. Can't recommend this disc and song enough.

CORONER: MENTAL VORTEX

Coroner's "The Mental Vortex" (1991) is the group's finest release. It is a bit slower than their previous masterpiece "Die By My Hand", sacrificing speed for more power and a deeper more complex sound. The music is dark and dissonant, with slow to mid pace grooves and rich, complex, discordant riffing throughout. The album is chock full of evil grinding riffs. Ron Royce's vocals are stark and depressive, and Marky's guitar playing is adventurous, ranging from jazz fusion, to psychedelia, to churning, dissonant, mid-paced thrash. After this release, Coroner became harder to categorize than ever. Impossible to pin down to the trappings of thrash metal, on this release their sound is truly a form of art rock, mixing elements of jazz fusion, metal, and a machine like dissonance that is completely their own, and has inspired industrial metal bands such as Ministry and Skrew. "'The Mental Vortex" starts off fast and brutal with "Divine Step" then slowing down a bit but growing more intense until the final track...an excellent cover of The Beatles "I Want You (She's So Heavy)". An incredible album, and highly recommended. Here's "Sirens" and "Son of Lilith'.

MASTODON: CRACK THE SKYE

Mastodon's latest release "Crack the Skye" is somewhat of a departure from the visceral heaviness of their previous works. It is slower, minus alot of the metal riffing that Mastadon is famous for, and features more melodic vocals. What you have instead is a sprawling, prog rock opus, filled with complex beauty.

How to describe the sound on this disc? It reminds of the heavy psychosis and dissonant psychedelic space metal of Voivod, circa "Dimension Hatross". There is a strong King Crimson influence, with highly experimental guitar work and complex time signatures. I also hear a strong Coroner influence with some dark, discordant, depressive mid-paced progressive thrash guitar playing. And Sabbath. Mastodon at times on this album channels the spirit of Ozzy, with some vocals sounding akin to his, and with some quality doomy frayed nerve endings riffing. What this album lacks in pure speed in aggression it makes up for in complex, beautiful. and frightening layers of sound. Listen to this disc on a good set of speakers or headphones. The production is very full and deep, and you won't want to miss any nuances. Lyrically, "Crack the Skye" is a deep, somewhat abstract, psychedelic science fiction concept album, akin to the sprawling concept works of Voivod. All the tracks are great, and once again, this an album that must be listened to as a whole as the songs flow into each other without breaks. Highly recommended. It is not the Mastodon you may be used to, but I promise that "Crack the Skye will not disappoint.

SKREW: "BURNING IN WATER, DROWNING IN FLAME"

Skrew were an incredible industrial metal band that formed in 1991 by Adam Grossman and Danny Lohner from the ashes of the art-metal band Angkor Wat. Their best album is their debut, "Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame"(1991). Their sound on this album to me is like a cross between Slayer, Ministry, and Coroner. The guitar sound is very heavy and dissonant with gargantuan thrash metal riffs. There is a plenty of processed drumming and samples, courtesy of Ministry's Al Jourgensen. Adam Grossman's vocals are hellish and tortured, and his lyrics are disturbingly poetic. Grossman's voice combined with horrific and well chosen audio samples and progressive thrash metal guitar work make for a soundtrack to hell, the perfect album for the apocalypse. "Burning in Water, Draowning in Flame" is an album that ,after eighteen years, I have never grown tired of.
Here's the title track, and the evil yet contagious "Poisonous".

Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame - Skrew

Poisonous - Skrew

MASTADON "DIVINATIONS"

If you want to hear "Divinations", the first track to be made available from Mastadon's yet to be released, highly anticipated new album "Crack the Skye", click here. It's the first track on their player. I like what I hear so far...very King Crimson and Coroner inluenced, with a lot more melody in the vocals than previous works. Slightly more accessible, yet still heavy. Check it out.

CORONER'S "NO MORE COLOR"

Coroner are a highly innovative progressive thrash/speed metal band that peaked in the late '80's/early '90's. Their sound is vicious and heavy, with blazing tempos, bizarre chords and tunings, and desperate, lost in a vortex vocals. Their music gives you the feeling of being lost in a cold, mechanical world that is spinning out of control. Their influence is far reaching. It is especially heard in the music of industrial metal bands Ministry and Skrew. Their best album is "No More Color". It is a stark, pleading piece of desperation and hopelessness. From beginning to end it punishes you, with songs such as "No Need to Be Human" and "Tunnel of Pain". You will not walk away from this album in a better mood, but you will want to come back for more again and again.

Coroner was one of those bands that pushed metal outside of it's limits, almost into the realm of art-rock. They were too strange to make it big in the thriving metal scene of their time. They sustained themselves throughout their career on a small but loyal cult following.

Give "No More Color" a try. You won't be disappointed.

Here's "Read My Scars" and "Die By My Hand" from "No More Color".

Read My Scars - Coroner

Die by My Hand - Coroner