CROMAGNON: CALEDONIA

Here's a piece of frightening and downright disturbing psychedelic rock from 1969 from the little known band Cromagnon. This is like a lysergic cross between the industrial metal of Skrew and the highly experimental and fried acid rock of The Red Crayola. This song is very apocalyptic sounding and one of my favorites. Here it is, Cromagnon's "Caledonia". It appears on their album "Orgasm". Well worth checking out. The homemade video is very impressive and suits the song perfectly. Enjoy.

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'.

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

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