#technical thrash

Wraith - Cloaked in Black

Coroner: No More Color (1989)

Coroner’s efforts on behalf of progressive thrash wouldn’t be fully appreciated until several years after their demise (proof positive they were way ahead of their time) but larger numbers of metal fans did start “getting the memo” 30 years ago, with the release of 1989’s No More Color. 

The third of five essential studio albums, it found the Swiss trio transitioning from the technically skilled, but still relatively conventional extremities of their first two efforts to the truly distinctive thinking man's avant-thrash of the two discs yet to come -- their hive-mind visibly winning the battle over muscle.

So even though my first response, back in the day, was to worry that the excessive complexity of new offerings like “Die By My Hand,” “No Need to be Human,” and “Read My Scars” was overwhelming songwriting common sense, I now hear the two dimensions clearly converging.

And, man, do they converge beautifully on standouts like “D.O.A.,” “Mistress of Deception” and “Tunnel of Pain,” which present Coroner at their most accessible and mature to date, with no small help from the less rigid production overseen by former Saxon veteran, Pete Hinton.

Then comes the cryptic closing cut (almost a Coroner tradition), “Last Entertainment,” which, in the spirit of their mentors Celtic Frost, challenges metallic convention with a remarkable study in ambient thrash, offsetting manic moshing with atmospheric synths and a spooky, echo-laden narration.

Over the years, I’ve tried summarizing all of the above in so many different ways -- writing here that Coroner’s need for speed dissipated so that their creative instincts could catch up; writing elsewhere that the band dialed back extremity and promoted melody to achieve a more perfect balance, etc.

But all you need to know is that No More Color remains that pivotal moment in Coroner’s career, without which they simply couldn’t have achieved the ensuing Mental Vortex (still considered their signature album, by many), nor established their increasingly appreciated legacy.

p.s. -- Portions of this blog were culled from my old All-Music-Guide review and this survey of 1989’s most important metal songs for Loudwire.

Album of the year 2016 runner up: Vektor - Terminal Redux

Here’s an album that will be on MOST metal album of the year lists.

Terminal Redux is, to put it likely, fucking insane. Progressive / technical thrash metal with sci-fi theming has never sounded this good. It’s hard to even know where to begin when reviewing this album. Let’s try.

Technicality. Blazing, technical guitar and bass riffs that hardly ever repeat more than twice. The guitar solos are batshit insane and technical as hell. Technicality isn’t really something I look for in metal, but Vektor has done it so tastefully here that I’m highly impressed.

Something to note is that they actually tune their instruments up to F. In a genre that is known for its tendency to tune down, this is a very interesting choice. This allows them to get this tight and bright sound on their strings which they use to weave a very ethereal web of sound.

As far as the guitars go, yes, there is a certain mechanic aspect to the sound, as you’d expect from a technical metal band. That being said, Vektor sounds pretty organic considering how technical they are. They manage to strike a tasteful balance. It never gets technical to the point where it’s like lifeless noise, it goes down that path while retaining the soul.

For the most part, the riffs are blazing fast thrashers that never let up. That being said, there are moments on this album where they slow down. It is a small minority, but it happens. These moments of contrast actually add a lot to the album without taking away from the thrash.

The vocals of Vektor are something that I actually didn’t like at first. To me, the singer sounds like the lovechild of Chuck Schuldiner and Dani Filth. One of these things is not like the other. That being said, the Dani Filth-esque falsetto’d black metal shrieks are used to much better effect on here than they are in any Cradle of Filth record. When the vocalist does a pure falsetto moment, a la Angel of Death by Slayer, it always ends up being a moment of total thrash energy that catapults the song forward.

The album is very progressive. The song structures have a lot of twists and turns. A lot of surprises that you won’t see coming. Some clean vocal parts are thrown in here and there. They even managed to squeeze in a power ballad on this record! It’s actually a very standout track.

If you like prog, tech, or thrash, you really gotta check out Vektor’s Terminal Redux. It is one of the best record in any of those sub-genres in years and years and years. It’s seriously fantastic.