Reviews list for Coroner - Punishment for Decadence (1988)

This was my introduction to Coroner way back in 1988/89. I bought the album on cassette & listened to it quite regularly. It was certainly a much classier effort than their debut album "R.I.P." from the previous year but I still found myself struggling a little with Tommy's occasional neo-classical indulgences. Instrumental "Arc-Lite" with its Malmsteen-esque arpeggios was a particularly awkward listen for me as the neo-classical element seems to take away from the darkness of the atmosphere & at times it all seems a little cheesy. The rest of the album is generally quite enjoyable though with "Absorbed", "Sudden Fall" & "The New Breed" being the pick of the bunch. It's definitely a solid release but 80's Coroner never really appealed to me like 90's Coroner did.

After R.I.P. proved that these Swiss thrashers could write technical and entertaining thrash metal, the pressure was on to come up with something special. I think they managed to up the ante when it comes to technicality, while managing to keep the song writing well and truly in control, which is an impressive feat. Once again, Tommy's guitar work is astoundingly brilliant, and he always seems to do it so easily. I've always enjoyed Ron's vocals even though they don't stand out as being overly impressive technically. They just fit the music so damn well I guess and he's always intelligible, which is certainly not always the case with metal.

Absorbed, Arc-Lite, Skeleton on Your Shoulder, Shadow of a Lost Dream and The New Breed are all great tracks but it's Masked Jackal that highlights the album in my opinion. Taking everything into account and after all this praise, I'm still only going to give Punishment For Decadence 4 stars. They would release even better albums after this and while it's consistently entertaining throughout, I always get the feeling that they could do something even more amazing. If you're into thrash metal but like things on the technical side rather than the straight-out brutal side, then Coroner are not to missed!