Review by Sonny for Coroner - R.I.P. (1987)

Coroner's debut, whilst still being almost universally lauded, has been overshadowed a bit by their better produced and more technically focussed releases that succeeded it. Whilst that is understandable as they are great records, this less polished and more reckless-sounding release should not be ignored by anyone who considers themselves a fan of either Coroner in particular, or thrash metal generally. For a debut release this is supremely confident sounding and the playing is technically adept to such a level that it puts a lot of their contemporaries to shame, the sheer pace of a song like Suicide Command would ensure it descended into a bit of a mess in less accomplished hands. The style for most of the album is pretty much straight-ahead, uptempo, neckbreaking thrashing, incendiary solos firing off with regular abandon at a thousand notes a minute. I also love Ron Royce's vocals, they sound a lot like Iron Maiden's Paul Di'Anno, a singer who, for me, embodies the power and aggression demanded of metal vocalists and sound perfect here.

1986/87 was arguably the high water mark for thrash metal and Coroner's debut is a release that is well at home in the company of those other legendary releases as well as being a really solid building block for their more technical and accomplished subsequent releases. Unfortunately this passed me by upon it's original release and it would be much later before I got into Coroner, which is a great shame as this would really have appealed to a 25-year-old me.

Interestingly, later editions of the album have a bonus track, Spiral Dream which was written by Celtic Frost's Tom G. Warrior who had a close connection to the band, even performing vocals on 1986's Death Cult demo and indeed, seems to have been a big influence on the band's style. One of the better and more accomplished debuts from the world of eighties' thrash metal and a great place to start if you want to explore Coroner's discography.