Metal Forces #43 - October 1989

CORONER

"Paint It Black"

by Rob Clymo

Rob Clymo visits Berlin to investigate 'No More Color', the third album from Swiss trio Coroner. Drummer Marquis Marky provides the details.

For a band always willing to experiment, and who still retain the aggressive instincts of thrash, but with added dynamics, atmosphere and feeling, Coroner deserve ten out of ten for consistency on the vinyl front. Both "R.I.P.", their 1987 debut, and last years "Punishment For Decadence" were highly credible releases, so much so that I still firmly believe the band to be one of the best metal prospects currently doing the rounds.

The Swiss trio also score highly when you examine their track record for live work, unfortunately for all the wrong reasons. Consistency doesn't even enter into it, they must hold the world title for the least amount of gigs performed by a relatively well known outfit! Frustrating is not the word, and it's seemingly unbreakable predicament which has become almost an in-joke between fans of the band.

If you've ever seen this lot live, then you can consider yourself one of the few lucky ones. Only now perhaps is that about to change.

Visiting Berlin's Sky-Trak recording studio a while back I encountered the band laying down material for the third LP, entitled 'No More Color'. It was good to get an insight into the events of the last few months from 'the colorless combo'. Another relatively inactive period as regards to touring, their stint with Sacred Reich the only thing of any real merit.

While guitarist Tommy T. Baron and bassist/vocalist Ron Royce rushed about frantically downstairs due to their studio time running out, upstairs in the temporary living quarters drummer Marquis Marky told me about their exasperating tour problems along with details about the brand new album, due for release on the Noise label world wide on the 25th of September. "The worst thing was that UK tour" states Marky.

Or to be more precise, the lack of one. Apparently something to do with visas right? "Exactly. We got to Dover and they asked us if we had work permits, we said we didn't know, someone should have sorted that out. So they told us we had a choice, either go right back again or go to jail. We'd driven about twelve hours to get there and we decided to stay because we weren't sure whether something could be sorted out. So we ended up in jail and were there for about eighteen hours."

The drummer laughs, recalling the ludicrous situation. "The food was terrible by the way. Ha ha! Fish, I hate fish. Ha ha! We made a lot of phone calls and were told something would be worked out, but it wasn't and in the end we had to go back. So that was the Coroner UK tour!"

If only we'd known, perhaps the authorities would have let 'em play a gig in the cells?!? Oh well. "Then we should have gone on tour with Tankard, but they had such a different image to us and a different audience, so we didn't think it would be such a good idea. What I heard about Deathrow doing that gig with Tankard didn't sound like it went too well (one thirty minute set at the Fulham Greyhound in front of a sparse and largely bemused early evening crowd-RC), and they're great actually, very progressive. I heard that they had a lot of problems getting that over to the audience, which is what we thought would happen if we played, so we cancelled that as well."

And there's still more. "Then we should have had that tour with Rage and Sabbat in March or so, over in the US, but it was cancelled very early on. Now there's talk of a US tour with Kreator, but already it's like we're not sure."

So then Marky, any good news to report? "The good things were that we got to play in France, Paris especially was great, a lot of fun, although we did have that little accident (when Ron Royce got struck by the edge of a cymbal, gashing his forhead). I'd been having a lot of trouble from the cymbals and tried to fix it while I was playing, I don't know what the roadies were doing. The I got angry and smashed it hard, Ron came back to get something to drink and it was like NO!!, the cymbal caught him right on the forehead. So what we must do now is to play live as much as we can, work on it as much as possible because it's still very hard for us, being a trio."

How successful has 'Punishment...' been for the band? "It's always hard to get figures, but I know that in the first three months of it's release in the States we sold about twelve thousand, which is ok and much better than the first one. The promotion was much better as well. I think that the album had a lot of better songs, they were tighter and we used some slower ones with more feeling. It wasn't just to show how well we play, it was just important to show a lot of feeling because we all like different stuff, like Jimi Hendrix or whatever... we wanted to bring that out."

Well that brings us bang up to date and onto the new album, 'No More Color', which sees the band using a new recording/mixing team, something they've changed on each successive album. Why get Pete Hinton to do the initial recording, then Dan Johnson to do the mixing? "The record company suggested we try working with Pete Hinton, it happened the same way as it did with Guy Bidmead (who produced the last album). At first we weren't sure, but now I have to say that he's just great, we've never had recordings that are so good, they're just so clear. We're still looking for the right sound, we weren't quite happy with the first album and it was the same with the second one as well. Originally the mixing was going to be done by Randy Burns, but he wanted to do either the whole thing or nothing at all."

At the time of writing I hadn't heard the finished product, but can only presume such a combination would have produced interesting results.

As chief lyric writer, I wondered what topics Marky had decided to cover this time around. Like it's predecessor 'Punishment...', was there less of an emphasis on all things deathly when compared to 'R.I.P.'? "They're pretty close to the last one. It's still about what goes on inside your head, which is what I go for; that's a real interesting subject. Everything is sort of symbolic once again. It can be hard for me sometimes because I write everything in German first, then translate it. There's a certain sense behind everything and getting that across in English can prove to be very hard. If I show them to someone English they usually tell me what's wrong with them and that's actually a point which is very bad. I'm really trying to get my English to sound a lot better. By the way, some of the lyrics on 'Why It Hurts' were written by Martin Ain (ex-Celtic Frost bassist), he writes very well actually. We're still very good friends, see each other a lot and so I asked him if he wanted to do some lyrics for the new record and he said of course, it's really cool."

I guess experimental would be a good word to describe the sound of Coroner, and I suppose it's good to take some risks, provided that is your fans can move with the changes too. "Yeah, I definitley think that we've been like that all the way through and it's good to keep plenty of space for experiments. Unfortunately a lot of people are scared to listen to music like that, they still prefer to go for the '1, 2, 3, urgh, urgh, urgh' thing, which is actually very bad."

That seems to me not so much bad as just plain sad, but at least it's a criticism you can't level at this particular trio. Talking to Pete Hinton the night before I got the impression that Coroner's music is becoming just that bit more accessible, not so much commercial, just more approachable, true? "For some people it'll probably be like that, just because the songs are better. By better I mean that you can keep it in your mind. A lot of people think that's commercial but I don't think so, we'll never be commercial, Ha! Ha!"

Do many people say they prefer the rougher, rawer sound of your 'R.I.P.' days, because you've developed a lot since those earlier songs? "Yeah that's right. At the time we had a lot of classical influence and that isn't as strong anymore. There are actually a lot of people who prefer "R.I.P." to the last one, but I think people who liked 'Punishment...' will really go for the new one. I prefer the new style we have."

'No More Color' was originally going to feature a cover song and being honest, I'm not too sorry that it's been dropped. "We were going to do a cover of the Kiss song 'Parasite'. We'd been doing interviews and telling people we had this cover version, then somebody pointed out that Anthrax had already done it on an EP. We were like 'Oh No!', we couldn't believe it, the drum tracks had already been laid down, so in the end we had to put the idea away again."

What made you consider another cover anyway? (The band you may remember have already covered "Purple Haze" by Jimi Hendrix). "Well, it was just because we liked the song..."

You mean sort of 'It's our album, we'll do what we like'? Marky erupts into fits of laughter. "It's just the same as with the Hendrix song, we just liked to do it, it's fun, that was the only reason for considering it."

Talking of fun, do you think Coroner get taken a bit too seriously, that despite their name and image, they do have a lighter side? "Probably, yeah. I mean, everything we do is a kind of sarcastic thing. We're not depressive people or whatever, sometimes it just comes out like that. For example, the colours and artwork we use, we just love the colour black and we're going to have that stripe down the side of our new album cover, like the last one. We're going along with that on each one now. The actual idea behind the title, 'No More Color', is that all of us have a lot of information coming into us daily, like commercials on TV, the radio and so on, and you don't get any time to look inside yourself, to get away from the whole thing. It's as if everything is getting faster and faster and you can't take anything in, it's a sort of feeling that's happened to me over the last few years."

A serious topic, but believe me, Coroner do possess a very strong sense of humour even though it might not be readily apparent.

Considering the band have been steadily gaining themselves more and more fans they still choose to remain in their native town Zurich. Surely relocation would be the next logical step? "The reason for us staying in Zurich would have to be the money, because it's very expensive to move. You need some sort of base to go to, which we haven't got right now. We've actually had a lot of financial problems over the last few months, a lot of shit happened. It was like when we did that show in Paris and later one in Poland, the car broke down and we had to live in France for about two months and it was real fuckin' expensive. A lot of things happened like that, as soon as we'd get some money it would be gone again by the next day."

Incidentally, what was it like to play in Poland? "We headlined and there were about 7,000 people there, which is unusual because almost every band that plays Poland can do really well. But the success for us wasn't that great, the people tend to go for stuff like Sodom, thrashy things. Sacred Chao and Protector were also there, Protector were very successful because they're quite close to bands like Sodom musically. We had a lot of fun playing such a big place though and there were people everywhere."

Getting back to the new disc, does getting the album mixed by an American mean the band are looking towards the States for success a lot more now? "Perhaps, yeah, because we've had a really good response from there, we get a lot of mail as well as some very good reviews. It's a market that's very big, but that's not actually the main reason. It's more because we like the work of Dan Johnson, like on the last Death album; I really liked the drum sound. Another reason is that I think it's good to have two people working on the album, one doing the recordings and one doing the mixing; it gives you that bit extra, a fresh feeling."

Personally, I don't think Noise Records have fully realised the full potential of Coroner as yet, and talking to the band I got the feeling they felt the same. So are they somewhat dissapointed with things? "Yeah, we are. I was really happy when I heard bands like Helloween went off to EMI for Europe (a deal which gives bands a better distribution/marketing system. It also applies to Running Wild, Celtic Frost and V2). So I expected then that they'd have more time for bands like us. But what has happened is that Noise have been taking on a lot of new bands. Almost every week I hear that another band is with Noise as well. It's like the same thing with the studio, everything's really under pressure. I mean, it's the third album and we'd expected to have had much more support. We've had a lot of help from people like the press staff, but there are still some points that are very dissapointing."

Clearly the band feel a little let down, perhaps justifiably so and I only hope it can be improved upon before it's too late. Anyway, to finish on a lighter note I asked Marky how his skull collection was progressing? "Ha! Ha! What I heard is that Peavey (bassist/vocalist with Rage who was in town at the same time, see last issue) has got 50 skulls!! We have the same hobbies. Ha! Ha! I haven't seen them but he told me about it yesterday, it's really bad. Ha! Ha!"

Any new hobbies then Marky? "Ha! Ha! Ha! I've actually started to read a lot more books than I did before. Right now I'm into a French underground writer (whose name is undecipherable on my tape) and he's writing some great stuff, really good stories and some brilliant poems. I can think of at least two of his books that have been banned and he had to go to jail because he's writing a lot about sex, or crimes, stuff like that and really going to the point. I think that our lyrics this time are probably a bit influenced by him."

Marky also wants to say a few words to those of you who wrote to the bands fan club for information. "A lot of people ordered stuff from the Death Cult Lodge. We've had a lot of problems getting the shirts ready. First of all there was a delay of about two months before we got them, along with a lot of other problems after that. People have asked us what is going on, they paid their money and hadn't got anything. We'd never do that, take their money and get out. So for the peole who haven't got their stuff... give us a chance."

Right. Well, we've got album number three, now can we please have that tour to follow!

Reprinted without permission from Metal Forces #43 October 1989.
Transcription by Rehabitat.

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