This was my first time catching Coroner in a live setting. The tour kicked off on March 5^th in Philadelphia and the band has been making their rounds across North America, with previous stops in Montreal and Ottawa. Tonight though, they descended upon the Toronto metal scene, bringing along with them Deceased and local thrashers Korrosive. 

KORROSIVE

The show started around 7:30pm at Velvet Underground, with Korrosive kicking off the jams and blasting a thirty-minute set that ran through six songs of thrash metal bliss. They opened with ‘The Goddamned’ from their second album Toxic Apokalypse, then ripped into a personal favourite of mine ‘Kaos Unbound’ from their latest Katastrophic Creation. All in all, the set was short but blistering hot and got the crowd going right from the start.  My one complaint is the lack of thrashers during Korrorsive’s set. I would estimate about two hundred people showed up, although it was the opening band and many arrive later for the main act only. For the devoted thrashers who came, my hats go off to you in a rousing salute. You got to hear a young band do it right and thrash it up in a big way.

Setlist
‘The Goddamned’, ‘Khaos Unbound’, ‘In The Name Of Destruction’, ‘Hail The Hellfire’, ‘Hijo De Puta’, ‘Under A Vicious Sky’

DECEASED

I was able to get down front to catch King Fowley and his co-horts command the stage and tear it up for another thirty-minute set of deathly thrash metal magic. King was in fine form, belting out those vocals with a fierce attitude; starting with ‘Night Of The Deceased’ from their 1997 Fearless Undead Machines album. This was a great track to open the set because it’s on an album I really love.  King didn’t chatter too much in between songs, but he did his best to acknowledge the small crowd often. At one point, he commented on his age and how he was still going strong for a guy in his mid-fifties. He wasn’t kidding, as that statement was followed up with the title track, ‘Children Of The Morgue’, from their 2024 release. This song was a major gut-punch for the moshers in attendance, and it just proved how good Deceased still sounds four decades later. Then they blitzed right into a cover of Whiplash’s ‘Spit On Your Grave’ before ending the show with another favourite track of mine, ‘Fearless Undead Machines’. They killed it live with this little ditty and I couldn’t have been any happier when they exited the stage.

‘Night Of The Deceased’, ‘Haunted Cerebellum’, ‘Fading Survival’, ‘The Triangle’, ‘Children Of The Morgue’, ‘Spit On Your Grave (Whiplash cover)’, ‘Fearless Undead Machines’

CORONER

As predicted, the venue started filling up for Coroner, and once they came on, the show went into overdrive. I still had some elbow room, at least, despite the occasional yahoo pushing from behind. Regardless, I didn’t let that stop me from enjoying a tight set from these Swiss stalwarts. They delivered fourteen songs of technical thrash brilliance, kicking it off with ‘Golden Cashmere Sleeper, Part 1’ (an unreleased track featured on their compilation album from ’95).

Next, they went into ‘Internal Conflicts’ from 1993’s Grin. The song was expertly played live, but it’s not the balls-out thrasher I was hoping for. Grin is an album that I hardly ever play and it’s too bad that much of this set was devoted to the later period in the band’s discography. The guys then moved into ‘Serpent Moves’ also from Grin before delivering the goods on “Divine Step” from the album Mental Vortex. I finally got to hear a song I really liked, but it was short-lived, as they decided to play a new song from their upcoming release called ‘Sacrificial Lamb’. Again, the musical direction of the song sounds like it could have been on Grin.

The guys got back on track with the song ‘Semtex Revolution’ from Mental Vortex and then gave us ‘Tunnel Of Pain’ from No More Color. I think it was at this juncture the theme of the show revealed itself. This wasn’t going to be a set to bring us pure thrashers from R.I.P. and Punishment From Decadence, but instead gave us slower and plodding numbers. More boring songs from Grin followed, making the show lag a bit in the middle, and I won’t lie, it was a bit of a bummer. We did get ‘Masked Jackal’ from Punishment and ‘Reborn Through Hate’ from R.I,P., but it wasn’t enough for me. The encore was a needless cover of ‘Purple Haze’ and the show ended on the rousing ‘Die By My Hand’ from No More Color. At least they ended the show on banger, but I have to say I wasn’t impressed with the song selection overall.

Setlist
‘Golden Cashmere Sleeper, Part 1’, ‘Internal Conflicts’,’Serpent Moves’, ‘Divine Step (Conspectu Mortis)’, ‘Sacrificial Lamb’, ‘Semtex Revolution’, ‘Tunnel Of Pain’, ‘Status: Still Thinking (w/drum solo)’, ‘Metamorphosis’, ‘Masked Jackal’, ‘Grin (Nails Hurt)’, ‘Purple Haze’, ‘Reborn Through Hate’, ‘Die By My Hand’

Despite sounding great live, it appears we caught Coroner in a more introspective mood at this point in their career. I’m not saying the show was bad by any means, I just wanted to hear the songs I’ve grown to love over the years. This show failed to deliver that, but we still got a technical-sounding band in the offering. That has to stand for something positive.