My relationship with Coroner’s fourth album ‘Mental Vortex’ through the years has been a strange one. It was released right in between the two Coroner albums that used to be my favorites. Because of that, I used to think it was not thrashy enough to be as good as ‘No More Color’, but also not avant-garde enough to be as intriguing as ‘Grin’. After many years, I have really come to appreciate ‘Mental Vortex’ for what it is. While the Swiss trio does not stray as far from their thrash metal roots here as would be the case on ‘Grin’, ‘Mental Vortex’ does see the band branching out.

One thing that always set Coroner apart from other bands that carried the technical thrash metal tag is that their rhythms were much more laid-back and ‘Mental Vortex’ might actually be the best example of this. For all the intricate riffs and twisted melodies Tommy Vetterli plays, Markus Edelmann’s drums always have a relaxed groove to them even during some of the odd time signatures or when he’s driving the more aggressive sections forward. Vetterli is making better use of dissonant chords here as well in a way that does not sound strange or contrived at all.

Another impressive feat about ‘Mental Vortex’ is how memorable the songs are. When a band crams a large number of complicated riffs into a song, very few – if any – will stick. In addition, though Ron Broder’s bile-spitting vocals aren’t the most melodically memorable, multiple parts of the songs on ‘Mental Vortex’ will remain with the listeners for a long time after they turned off the album. The choruses of ‘Son Of Lilith’, ‘Metamorphosis’ and ‘About Life’ are just so incredibly catchy that the average listener is certain to shout them along. Quite surprising for an album as dense and intricate as this one.

‘Divine Step (Conspectu Mortis)’ is the perfect opening track for ‘Mental Vortex’, as it feels closest to ‘No More Color’ in style, though the presence of dissontant chords sort of serves as a proper introduction for the album’s sound. ‘Sirens’ at times sounds like a progressive rock track recorded by a thrash metal band that also enjoys post-punk, while ‘Semtex Revolution’ is a perfect lesson in dynamics, even incorporating a subtle acoustic guitar in its darkest sections. It also contains Vetterli’s best guitar solo on the album. ‘Pale Sister’ and ‘Son Of Lilith’ contain a few excellent, twisted and typically Coroner riffs.

Ultimately, only the Beatles cover ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’ misses the mark. It is well-performed and the darkness of the original certainly fits alongside the rest of the album quite well, but it doesn’t really add much to the original and I would far rather have had another Coroner composition. Because the seven that are on here are mostly great, often amazing. While ‘Mental Vortex’ does nothing to smoothen the transition to the cold, industrial atmosphere of ‘Grin’, its mildly avant-garde approach to songwriting was definitely something the band needed to get out of its system to make that transition. And once it sinks in, the fact that it’s not ‘No More Color’ or ‘Grin’ only works to its benefit.

Recommended tracks: ‘Semtex Revolution’, ‘Divine Step (Conspectu Mortis)’, ‘Sirens’