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Class 6(66)
Coroner: Punishment for decadence
13/12/12 || Habakuk
Introduction
Arguably, Finland is quite the metal country. One thing though: How can it be that I walk into a record store in 2012 and find a first press version of this album in plain view on the shelf? Has no-one bought this for 24 years? Has all your money been spent on Nightwish, my dear soumalainens? Well, one thing is certain: That CD is not there anymore and will soon be transferred out of your country by its new owner, ME, and will be placed next to the “Grin” copy I found in Australia. I wonder where I have to go to find “No more color”… Yes, I like Coroner.
Songwriting
After a short intro reminiscent of Celtic Frost’s screaming intro into “Morbid Tales” – however well-done and not annoying – “Punishment for decadence” is basically a continuation of what had begun on “R.I.P.”. Groove-laden mid-pace sections alternate with frantic guitar work that, once let loose, probably warrants the cautious use of the term “neoclassical”. A prime example for this the instrumental “Arc-Lite” (also in good “R.I.P” tradition, see “Nosferatu”) which moves from fretboard acrobatics into rhythm dominated passages through abrupt, but calculated transitions. And how that all works together through the weirdest of proceedings is the true feat of this disc.
Unlike between some of their later works, Coroner’s progression from “R.I.P.” to this album is rather timid. Still, it is substantial. “Punishment…” in my book manages to connect its ideas better, and the band match their high speed /thrash proficiency with high riff memorability and some parts of driving groove (Masked Jackal). Still, a few songs sound like they could have been taken straight off “R.I.P.”. Which is a great album, don’t get me wrong. Yet where it left some room for improvement, the band now delivers exactly that with their sophomore.
Production
7. A huge step up from “R.I.P.”, but still dated and desperately lacking in punch, which affects the low end worst of all. The kick drums sound like a cardboard box. However, and that’s why this still gets a good grade, at least transparency is high and it’s easy to make out the bass crystal clearly, which is a huge bonus, see below.
Guitars
8.5. Tommy Vetterli, … excuse me. Tommy T. Baron is a great guitarist, no doubt about that. One thing I want to get out of the way right away though. He plays the same solo motif all the fucken time on this album, as if he hadn’t already abused it on the predecessor. Luckily, someone else has already taken the effort and made that into a YouTube video to illustrate my point. WUEEE-WAHWAHWUEEE – and those excerpts were only from “R.I.P.”. After “Punishment for decadence”, that bit has never been used again, at least.
So, relying solely on bass backing, Vetterli T.Baron!!!
is free to shred his way relentlessly throughout the album and drives
the music forward, pulling the listener through tempo and rhythm changes
effortlessly. Apart from those little solo annoyances – each solo for
itself is still great, mind you – this really is a top notch performance
of an innovative and damn skilled player. Unfortunately, the first half
of this section dealing with the tiny black spot on his otherwise
pristine vest is now longer than the second covering the positive sides,
so to avoid a false impression, I’ll just write a few more words to at
least even it out. There.
Vocals
7.5. Ron Royce, yes they all have crappy stage names, seems to never separate his jaws from each other and hisses the lyrics through clenched teeth. Sounds pretty cool when things get thrashy, but you might not understand all that much during your first few listens. Still, in general the guy shows a fairly good grasp of English, so there are no utterly weird moments. And the most important thing is that the vocals fit well with the music. Except for that Hendrix cover, where there is a SUDDEN! FAAAAAALL of quality. scusemeeeeewhileIkissdesky just doesn’t work. I skip that song more often than listening to it, and that’s not because of the music.
Bass
9. As always the instrument easiest to omit, bass is definitely a true monster here. What’s happening on Ron Royce’s four strings is absolutely mindboggling. The guy plays with his fingers, which makes the way he follows anything from the (comparatively) simple triplet to whirlwind-like lead guitar fretboard acrobatics nothing short of amazing. Not just that, but everything stays perfectly tight. Everyone who’s held a bass the right way (and those who’ve held it the wrong way probably even more so) knows how blurry a song becomes when the bass does a little too much, yet not precisely enough. Not. happening.
Sure, one could say the only thing bass does on “Punishment for decadence” is to provide low-end. However, Royce mirrors the guitar in everything it does – which is a lot – with perfectly tight results. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a fucken feat. It makes a second guitar absolutely unnecessary thanks to the snarly-edged and punchy tone of the bass and speaks volumes of Mr Royce, who also pulled most of this shit off live while handling the vocals. Haaaats – off!
Drums
8.5 Hampered by the production, Marquis Marky (if there was a rolleyes-smiley, it would come here) still manages to show that he is a great drummer. He uses double bass more and especially more creatively than your run-of-the-mill 1988 thrash drummer, but it’s more his general rhythmic work that deserves some attention. While Vetterli does his thing on guitar, and does it well, that only works because of the bass backing and the great help in structuring the riff flow from Marky’s cymbal accentuations. Plus, his playing rarely resorts to standard patterns – which means, when things get back to a standard 4/4 beat, that one actually feels a lot more driving thanks to the contrast. (See “Sudden Fall” at 2:41, for example) Overall, this guy does exactly what is needed of him, and provides just that one third required in a three piece to make it work, which sounds easier than it is.
Lyrics
Social commentary, drugs, metaphors on relationships, a bit of science fiction. It’s actually all pretty good! Also, there is this weirdly current sample on convoy bombings in Afghanistan in “The new breed” which is a bit like time travel. No really. Time travel I tells ya.
Cover art
8.5 Iconic as it is, it is probably the Coroner shirt design most notoriously found, until today, also adorning my shelf. Sure I miss the awesome “Corporate identity” stripe of the later albums, but this looks awesome by itself. Also, it’s continuing the circlical layout from R.I.P., which is nice.
All of this makes good sense, but did you know there actually was an alternative cover that turns all I just wrote upside down? Well, here it is:
Make up your own mind about that issue, but I actually like both versions. Noise Records apparently decided to change the artwork for the CD release without the band. That would also explain why Marquis Marky is still credited for “Photo credits” in the booklet. Anyway, from a purely visual standpoint, in hindsight that probably wasn’t such a horrible label intervention. One might however say that Coroner were ahead of their time in that respect also, thinking already of a new design standard for their records while their label decided to stay stuck in the same old rut. Not a terrible effort by all means though, since Noise clearly were trying to establish a tradition of their own, however starting at “R.I.P.”. And yeah, the skeleton man sure works better on merchandise.
Logo
9. Coronörhead? Who cares, bent gothic rocks. I could spend the rest of my life looking at bent gothic fonts. Come time, heäven’s gate will be adorned by bent gothic as well, I’m sure.
Booklet
7. Lyrics, thank yous, lots of coroner icons, and one song title cut short by layouting. Plus, while most pages have only one song text, the last one has two crammed underneath each other. Well, I guess the concept didn’t work so well at the printer’s after all. Still, this is better than most booklets.
Overall and ending rant
I’m not gonna lie – this album is tough to love on first listen. Give it a couple of listens though and you might just agree with my rant above. As I have hopefully laid out, I believe this is a definitive classic. Like all of Coroner’s material, this is mandatory for any thrasher that employs a brain cell or two.
- Information
- Released: 1988
- Label: Noise Records
- Website: www.offspring.com
- Band
- Ron Royce: vocals, bass
- Tommy T. Baron: guitars
- Marquis Marky: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Intro
- 02. Absorbed
- 03. Masked jackal
- 04. Arc-Lite
- 05. Skeleton on your shoulder
- 06. Sudden fall
- 07. Shadow of a lost dream
- 08. The new breed
- 09. Voyage to Eternity
- 10. Purple haze (Jimi Hendrix)
