Easily one of my most anticipated releases this year, Coroner’s first original studio album in thirty-two years doesn’t disappoint. It takes everything good about the Swiss trio and translates it to the current day. That should not be too surprising, as Coroner was always ahead of its time both in terms of playing and compositionally, and guitarist Tommy Vetterli has been highly in demand as a producer since the original dissolution of the band in the mid-nineties. And yet, it frequently surprised me how modern ‘Dissonance Theory’ sounds without sounding like that much of a departure for the progressive thrashers.

While it would seriously sell Coroner short to compare ‘Dissonance Theory’ to anything they have released before, it is actually remarkable what a logical follow-up it is to 1993’s ‘Grin’. The album is less overt in its industrial leanings, while the riff count per song is slightly higher and the focus has shifted away from the hypnotism of repetition. ‘Dissonance Theory’ does, however, have a similar cold, mechanical feel, like the final days of some technological dystopia. This is further enhanced by the fact that the commanding bark of vocalist and bassist Ron Broder has lost nothing of its conviction in the intervening years.

Stylistically, it almost feels like ‘Dissonance Theory’ could have come out between ‘Grin’ and its 1991 predecessor ‘Mental Vortex’. Vetterli’s riffs are further removed from what a thrash metal guitarist would traditionally play, though ‘Dissonance Theory’ still feels like a progressive thrash metal album most of the time, and the songs occasionally blend the intensity of thrash metal with the dissonant chords and the compositional twists of modern progressive metal. ‘Consequence’ and ‘Renewal’ are the most obvious examples of this, which certainly justifies that they were chosen as the album’s opening track and its first single respectively.

However, it was actually the album’s second single ‘Symmetry’ that became an early favorite. It starts out as an early-nineties Coroner thrasher, but gets a very subtle melodic death metal vibe as it goes along, and Vetterli’s guitar solo is simply gorgeous. Compared to ‘Grin’, ‘Dissonance Theory’ is surprisingly rich in catchy riffs. ‘The Law’ starts with a crushing one, then one-ups itself when the tempo increases for one of the album’s most aggressive thrash breaks. More progressive and atmospheric moments, such as ‘Trinity’, ‘Transparent Eye’ and ‘Cirsium Bound’, are great as well, and add some dynamics to an already impressive album.

‘Dissonance Theory’ was a long time in the making, which is why I didn’t quite know what to expect. But whatever I had in the way of expectations has been exceeded. Maybe it’s because Coroner was already so ahead of its time, but ‘Dissonance Theory’ is one of the very few comeback albums that should please people who were already fans of the band, whilst having the potential to draw in new listeners who are into the bands that picked up where Coroner left off. ‘Dissonance Theory’ is a must-hear for fans of creative thrash metal, and those who enjoy technical metal bands that don’t forget songwriting exists.

Recommended tracks: ‘Consequence’, ‘Symmetry’, ‘The Law’