UMUR "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.

Kingcrimsonprog Coroner were one of the more unique Thrash Metal bands. While their earliest material was a bit more pure-Thrash, with each new release they became more technical, more progressive and more unique.

By the time of their final full-length studio album, 1993’s Grin, they had pushed the envelope so far, most of the album is hardly reminiscent of pure Thrash at all.

It opens with the hypnotic tribal “Dream Path” intro, which sounds more like Lateralus-era Tool than it does Reign In Blood or Darkness Descends. That should be the first sign this isn’t your average full-speed-ahead thrasher. After the brief intro, the record bursts into the first full-length song, “The Lethargic Age” which has a bit of a Beg To Differ era Prong feel to it. There’s still crunch and direction to the riffs, but it also intermittently gives way to jangly post punky ringing too.

That’s followed by the faster “Internal Conflicts” which picks up the pace, but also has a bit of a Ministry-Meets-White Zombie vibe, with its stop/start song structure, bouncy chorus, samples, but tight mechanical verse riffs. That then gets capped off with a sweepy Dream Theater sounding guitar solo.

“Caveat (To The Coming)” which follows, opens with a Beatlesy psychedelic jingle jangle intro, before evolving into a sort of proto-Nu Metal groove. Very bass driven and not as fast as you’d think of when you think of the word “Thrash.”

I won’t get into a full track-by-track but you get the picture, the band are expanding their style, looking in many different directions, trying new styles. It is the 90s after all, and very few Thrash bands are keeping it simple and sounding like its still 1986.

As a bit of a Thrash nut, I’ve spent most of my teens and early ‘20s with a sort of “80s rules/90s sucks” mentality when it comes to this sort of music (aint nobody gonna tell me Green is a better album than Forbidden Evil for example), but as I grew older, I definitely began to appreciate the sometimes underrated 90s releases from 80s bands a bit more. I’m sure if I’d have heard Grin when I was younger, I’d have balked a bit when hearing it. As I didn’t discover Coroner until much later, it just seems like another excellent album from the ex-Celtic Frost roadies. Being a Prong fan first also definitely helps.

I think there’s enough of what makes the previous Coroner albums great. There’s the technical prowess, the willingness to explore and the ambition in general. The vocals are still the same as the early albums (don’t expect any Cobain-isms or Alice In Chains-esque harmonies). The lead guitar is excellent - in fact, I’d argue that some of the band’s best solos to date come on this album and the band in general never fail to be interesting. The only thing that’s missing really is the breakneck speed or the warm fuzzy feeling of classic Thrash charm.

If you want a taster track to see if the album is for you, try the 8-minute, multiple-time signature “Paralized, Mesmerized.”

Overall; is this an appropriate album for adding to a Thrash playlist alongside Pleasure To Kill, The Legacy and Bonded By Blood? Honestly, no, probably not. However, if you are already a fan of ‘80s Coroner, should you shun this album because it is different? No, definitely not.

Warthur 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.

bonnek After perfecting their Technical Thrash on 'Mental Vortex', Coroner found themselves in a changed musical landscape. It was 1993 and Grunge had swept clean the earth. Both the long-standing Thrash acts as well as new metal bands had scaled down their latent progressive ambitions towards more accessible melodious Thrash, Alt Metal, Groove metal, Death-Thrash and so on. Coroner did a make-over as well, but not entirely into more accessible directions.

'Grin' is a very eclectic album, the slower pace and almost repetitive rhythmic drill marks a certain move towards groove metal. With the use of the spoken voice samples, there's almost an industrial edge to it. The vocals remained the same old merciless snarls, but the guitars often abandon typical thrash riffing in favor for more complex and chromatic progressions that I find similar to Voivod and Rush. Then there's the spacey and/or jazzy elements in some of the leads and solos and the attention to building up a more atmosphere setting in the instrumental sections (the intro of Caveat for instance). Add that all up and you arrive at what's for me one of the defining albums of Progressive Metal (the non-Dream Theatre kind that is). Alas, the album went by unnoticed and it was the more mainstream melodic approach of Dream Theatre that inspired whole new generations of Prog Metal bands. A damn shame if you ask me.

'Grin' is difficult album and it's hard to categorize. It even alienated some Coroner fans instead of luring in massive new hordes of them. Nevertheless, this is one for my top 10 and my favorite Thrash album next to Megadeth's RIP. An absolute masterpiece, but it sure has cost me some years till it completely grew on me.