Coroner were always something of a cult band, being highly technical in the days before that was cool, if it ever was cool. They produced albums now recognized as classics like Punishment for Decadence and No More Color, even if they never made as much of an impression on the scene as they deserved to. They lost their momentum entirely in the '90s with a groove-influenced album in 1993 and that was it except for some compilations. Now, 32 years after the divisive Grin, we get the comeback album I never thought I would see. With Ron Royce and Tommy Baron joined by a new drummer, Coroner are still a power trio to conjure with.

After all this time, I was not sure what we would get here, as other bands from the glory days have come back and produced albums that don't hold up to their legacy. I expected this to sound different, and it does. These songs are more melodic, longer, and more involved than in the old days. Coroner have left aside some of the energy and anger of their youthful albums, and produced an album that is dense, multilayered, and still remembers to kick ass. This doesn't really sound a lot like any kind of Thrash anymore, though to be honest, Coroner were always an edge case and got lumped in with Thrash when they were really doing something different.

This doesn't have the same aggression and direct hooks of the old albums, but it is very much the sound of Coroner maturing without losing their edge. Royce's vocals go a long way toward making this sound like old times, but the songwriting style is a very different beast from what it was before. It's not a sequel to the old stuff, but a development more than 30 years in the making. A worthy album.