We finally made it to a New Year and we greet 2026 with our #1 for BravePicks 2025! It could only be Swiss technical thrash pioneers, Coroner, who are celebrating the release of Dissonance Theory, the first full-length offering from the band in over three decades.
In his review, Nick Balazs wrote:
In the land of thrash comebacks, Coroner finally returns from the lab with their first studio album in 32 years. Dissonance Theory is a calculated and cold effort. Somebody call the doctor! Where other thrashers set out to rip your head off, Coroner strikes with surgical precision.
The trio slaps on their gloves and go to work with an album that won’t hit with immediacy. It’s a grower with a modern production effort, technical but not over the top, and progressive with gothic undertones. It’s a natural path followed on from Mental Vortex and Grin and has the feel of stepping into a steely, icy laboratory.
Read more here.
Stay tuned for BraveWords’ writers’ individual Top 20s (new studio albums ONLY), Top 5 Concerts, Top 5 Brave Embarrassments (a fan favorite!), Thoughts On 2025, What/Who Needs To Stop In 2026? and Metal Predictions For 2026.
Thanks for reading BraveWords! Happy New Year!
1) CORONER – Dissonance Theory (Century Media)
Guitarist, songwriter and producer Tommy Vetterli spoke with BraveWords about the band’s return and the making of the album, with Vetterli revealing that some of the song ideas making the cut for Dissonance Theory date back as much as 10 years:
“I remember writing the opening riff and part of the verses for the new song ‘Renewal’ in 2015,” he says, “because I wrote it when I was in Thailand on holidays. Ron (Broder / bass, vocals) and Diego (Rappachietti / drums) didn’t like it too much – they said it didn’t sound Coroner enough, that it sounded too much like Slayer or Metallica – so I put it on ice, but it became the last song we recorded for the new album because we were short one. I came up with a new verse, pre-chorus, chorus and the whole middle part in two hours. So, the oldest song ideas are from 2015, and from there I think I wrote some stuff every year when I took off to the mountains for a break from producing. Every time we sat together and worked on the new songs, it was a very creative situation. It was just a question of finding the time to work together. That was the biggest challenge.”
BravePicks 2025 Top 30
1) CORONER – Dissonance Theory (Century Media)
2) TESTAMENT – Para Bellum (Nuclear Blast)
3) SACRIFICE – Volume Six (High Roller / Cursed Blessings)
4) PARADISE LOST – Ascension (Nuclear Blast)
5) DESTRUCTION – Birth Of Malice (Napalm)
6) AMBUSH – Evil In All Dimensions (Napalm)
7) HELLOWEEN – Giants & Monsters (Reigning Phoenix)
8) CENTURY – Sign Of The Storm (Electric Assault)
9) ARCH ENEMY – Blood Dynasty (Century Media)
10) SMITH/KOTZEN – Black Light/White Noise (BMG)
11) SAVAGE MASTER – Dark & Dangerous (Shadow Kingdom)
12) DREAM THEATER – Parasomnia (InsideOut)
13) LAMP OF MURMUUR – The Dreaming Prince In Ecstasy (Wolves Of Hades)
14) SLAUGHTER TO PREVAIL – Grizzly (Sumerian)
15) SODOM – The Arsonist (Steamhammer)
16) WINGS OF STEEL – Winds Of Time (High Roller)
17) NATTVERD – Tidloes Naadesloes (Soulseller)
18) WYTCH HAZEL – V: Lamentations (Metal Blade / Bad Omen)
19) AMORPHIS – Borderland (Reigning Phoenix)
20) PHANTOM SPELL – Heather & Hearth (Cruz Del Sur)
21) WARMEN – Band Of Brothers (Reaper Entertainment)
22) CALVA LOUISE – Edge Of The Abyss (Mascot)
23) CRYPTOPSY – An Insatiable Violence (Season Of Mist)
24) DEFTONES – Private Music (Warner / Reprise)
25) BENEDICTION – Ravage Of Empires (Nuclear Blast)
26) CONDITION CRITICAL – Degeneration Chamber (Independent)
27) ARCHITECTS – The Sky, The Earth & All Between
28) INHUMAN CONDITION – Mind Trap (Listenable Insanity)
29) THE HALO EFFECT – March Of The Unheard (Nuclear Blast)
30) LIK – Necro (Metal Blade)
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