Thrash Metal Magazine

CORONER

All Dead, All Dead

Interview with Marky

September 1990

by Clay Menzik

Mediocre albums and bands emerged endlessly during 1989. There was thrash and more thrash everywhere, all indistinguishable from the rest, as well as a horde of hard rock bands that sounded like Aerosmith and Guns N'Roses. But amid all the darkness there shined a light -- Coroner.

Coroner's new album "No More Color" is a powerful vinyl effort that stands out with its own identity amongst the debris of less-original competition. Produced in Berlin with Peter Hinton (Saxon, Batfish, Demon) and mixed by Dan Johnson (Whiplash, Death, Crimson Glory), Coroner's third outing really shows off their musical skills and inventiveness.

The careers of guitarist Tommy T. Baron, bassist/vocalist Ron Royce, and drummer Marquis Marky began back in 1986 when they signed with Noise International Records. This came about as a result of the band's Death Cult demo, which happened to feature Celtic Frost's frontman Tom G. Warrior on vocals as a favor to the band. Once signed, the band immediately began work on their first album, "R.I.P.". Released in September of 1987, "R.I.P." received a fair amount of coverage from the world's rock critics. This album marked the beginning of Ron handling the vocal chores.

The band's second album "Punishment for Decadence", received rave reviews, and fans flocked to them. Their first video, "Masked Jackal", also got airplay on MTV and contributed vastly to the band's growing success.

With the release of "No More Color", Coroner did a brief tour in the U.S. -- their first tour ever -- with the German thrashers Kreator. Right after the tour I had a chance to speak with Marquis Marky about the tour, the album, and the band's future.

MARKY: Pretty good. It was very good for us to tour with Kreator. We're very good friends and we didn't have any problems. (Both bands shared a tour bus.) We played 43 dates in all. We toured through the US, Canada and Mexico. This is actually the first tour we have ever done. We have only played like 18 shows in more than three years. So touring is very good for us.

THRASH: Why hasn't the band toured before, seeing as how this is your third album?

MARKY: There was a lot of shit that happened to us in the past. We were supposed to go on a UK tour and we went to Dover and got arrested for 18 hours for not having a work permit! Plus we didn't have any management. Without management, it is almost impossible to put a tour together. We're really happy that we got to do this tour with Kreator.

MARKY: Well, there was one. We were in Middletown and we threw a big party that got out of hand after a show. When the hotel manager went to look for us, he only found our soundman. So he called the police and placed him under arrest until the damages were paid for. It was pretty funny.

MARKY: Yeah. We experimented a lot on it. For example, the song "Mistress of Deception". We had congos on it. We wanted to make things different. We don't want to sound like anyone else. Our songwriting is much better now, and so are Ron's vocals. The lyrics are a lot better, too. This album is along the lines of our last record, only better.

THRASH: Does the band stick to a formula when writing the songs? Do you intentionally try to make the music different from other bands?

MARKY: No, not at all. When we start writing, someone will have something they'll want to try. We don't sit down and say, "Let's write a song that sounds like this." We just write what we feel. We don't try to make the music technical or whatever. It's just the way it comes out. It's due to our musical influences.

MARKY: We have a lot of influences. Every member of the band has many musical styles that he listens to. We have influences from jazz music to classical music to even psychedelic music. Actually, everything influences us. Everything we listen to. I think it's one of the main problems now that thrash bands only listen to other thrash bands in their spare time. Most bands listen to Slayer, Metallica and Anthrax, so they're going to end up sounding like them. I think it's a lot of fun to experiment with other styles of music. That's what makes Coroner so different.

THRASH: Since Coroner isn't a typical thrash band, do you think that many thrash fans will appreciate your music?

MARKY: I hope people are open-minded. Sometimes a lot of people don't know what to think of us when we play because it's not the usual thrash music. You have to listen to it and you have to be open-minded to like it. You can listen to our records a lot of times and still not get bored.

MARKY: On the first album I wrote mainly about death. Now I write about everything. "Die By My Hand" I got from a movie, I think, and it's about a guy who kills his wife because he wants to have her for eternity. He's scared someone else will have her so he kills her. It's not your typical death song. "Last Entertainment" is about watching violence on TV shows -- stuff like police shows. I like to write about the dark things of life.

THRASH: Many thrash bands today are becoming more mellow with the making of each album. Many are even writing ballads since they realized bands like Metallica and Testament could get big from them. Will Coroner ever mellow out?

MARKY: I don't think so. I think the new album is even harder than the last one. I don't think we'll ever be commercial. Not at all.

MARKY: At first we tried to get a fourth member -- a guitarist -- but we couldn't find one. Later we tried to get a singer but the same thing happened. I have to say that we feel very good as a trio. I'd like to remain a trio, but if we could find a singer who could perfectly fit into the band then we'd get him. But I like Ron's voice.

MARKY: We try to play as close as we can to the record and be as powerful as we can. We try to get the crowd going too. If the crowd is into the music it makes you that much better.

MARKY: At first it was pretty hard, but now it's really not. Sometimes we have to change some things to play live, like a part on the record that has three guitars playing. Little things like that are the only problem.

MARKY: Well, Noise is going to re-release our debut album in the States. We're also going to do a video then we'll return to the US to tour some more.