Dissonance Theory
Artist: Coroner
Genre: Thrash Metal
Record Label: Century Media Records
Release Date: 17 October 2025
Swiss thrash metal group Coroner released their sixth studio album “Dissonance Theory” via Century Media Records 17 October 2025. “Dissonance Theory” is their first studio album since 1993’s release “Grin”, and also offers an album debut for the group’s drummer, Diego Rappacchietti, who joined in 2014.
Coroner are: Ron Broder (Vocals / Bass), Tommy Vetterli (Guitars / Backing Vocals) and Diego Rapacchietti (Drums). Originally disbanding in 1996, Coroner reunited 15 years later with a series of 2011 festival appearances, including Bloodstock Open Air and Hellfest. Despite teasing new material, their first new single “Renewal” didn’t release until 15 August 2025 – three decades since their last release of any kind of material. On the same day of the new single release, the band announced the new album “Dissonance Theory”.
The album opens with “Oxymoron”, which is a short instrumental piece of just under a minute long, serving to introduce the album and build a sense of suspense. The female whispers work alongside the spooky instrumentals to create an atmosphere that leads straight into the second song of the album “Consequence”.
“Consequence” begins instantly, as it is blended seamlessly with the first track, which serves as its intro. The instrumentals and vocals are the epitome of classic thrash metal straight from the off – there’s some really strong parallels to be found with the work of Metallica in this track, with regular tempo changes and drawn out, intricate guitar work. The guitar solo is really good old school fun, which is something we continue to see throughout the album.
The third track is “Sacrificial Lamb”. This track is a slow starter, with a gradual ascension to a harmony of heavy guitar led riffs and thumping drums that are accompanied by raspy and passionate vocals. “Sacrificial Lamb” is a technically impressive song – the instrumentals are flawless in moving between the previously mentioned harmonious riffs and the well developed extended guitar solo. Fans of Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath will all find things to love in this track – Coroner have done an outstanding job of blending some of the best of both these metal legends into this piece. Guitar solos like that in this track have been done so so many times through out rock history, so we were impressed that Coroner still kept it fresh and interesting while staying true to their metal roots here.
The fourth track is “Crisium Bound”, which follows the same sort of formula as the first few tracks, in that, after a slow start, it steadily ups the volume and intensity before slowing back down to emphasise the vocal work and kicking back in again with the guitar solo to lead into the close. Fifth track “Symmetry” does depart from this formula slightly though, and we enjoyed how the intro to this track started with immediate intensity – all instruments from the outset rather than a slow buildup with just the guitar. It does still feature the mid-song slowdown and the vocals present in very much the same rough and raspy style. While the individual tracks so far are enjoyable, as an album we are still looking for a little variety to avoid it all blending together too much.
The sixth track is “The Law”, which has an almost Eastern feel to it with the rhythms and tones of some of the guitar and drum work. This doesn’t mean the heaviness is turned down at all though. Continuing the theme and sound heard throughout the album so far is seventh track “Transparent Eye”. A thumping intro and distorted guitars lend a slightly sludgier sound to this track, while we particularly enjoyed the breakdown that comes in around halfway through, which is capped off by a screeching guitar solo. The well defined heavy rhythm in this track makes for some great head banging potential, with “Transparent Eye” in our view being one of the stronger tracks on “Dissonance Theory”.
Eighth up is “Trinity”. As we’ve been led to expect from previous tracks, there’s another slow string-based start, leading up to a satisfying crescendo. The vocal style is still rough, raw, raspy and gritty which again remains consistent with the remainder of the album. The instrumental style in this track gave us strong hints of “Enter Sandman” by Metallica, which certainly highlights the point in the musical timeline that Coroner appear to be pulling the bulk of their inspiration for this album from.
The ninth and penultimate track is “Renewal”, which we found to be the heaviest piece on the entire album. It’s a great showcase for the album as a whole, so we can understand why the band would release this one as a single to build hype in preparation for the album release. Construction and sound-wise, it doesn’t differ particularly heavily to the other tracks across the album. Within the song itself, the rhythm and melody remain pretty much the same throughout too. The breakdown is pretty catchy though, and we did find our head bopping along to it – another one of the better points on the album.
The tenth and closing track of the album is “Prolonging”, which is blended in to form an extended outdo for “Renewal”, in much the same way that “Oxymoron” introduces “Consequence” at the opening of the album. This did take us by surprise, as we didn’t realise that the solo within “Renewal” had actually progressed into an entirely different track. This piece is a guitar-led, largely instrumental, piece throughout, which evolves to end in a similar style to how the first track “Oxymoron” began. We thought that this was a smooth and clean touch, ending the album intelligently by looping it back around to the beginning.
While we found “Dissonance Theory” an interesting first listen, and certainly a nostalgia trip; we must admit that we did find this album to be pretty formulaic throughout, with not an awful lot in the way of variety or surprise. The guitar work in every track was well done and good fun – Coroner continue to embrace their 80’s and 90’s metal roots in this regard, which will appeal to more old school fans of the genre. With this in mind, it’s hard to deny that Coroner have understood their target audience, and this album will do a very good job of taking their long-term fans back to when thrash metal was at its best. For us, many of the tracks were a little samey; we don’t find much that really stood out or that we’d be keen to replay, and what’s on offer might not be enough to win over much in the way of a newer fanbase. All in all, it’s great for fans that Coroner are back after such a long hiatus – we’d just love for a few more risks to be taken next album around.