Band:	Coroner
Album:	No More Color
Style:	Technical thrash metal
Release date:	1989
Guest review by:	Joey Jo Jo

01. Die By My Hand
02. No Need To Be Human
03. Read My Scars
04. D.O.A.
05. Mistress Of Deception
06. Tunnel Of Pain
07. Why It Hurts
08. Last Entertainment

The 'other' Swiss power trio have matured from their sophomore effort with leaps and bounds. Just to name a few; the production gives Tommy Barons' swirling guitar playing a true spotlight that he lacked in their previous, thinly produced albums. Markys' lyrics are much more deep and lacking in juvenile ranting, and while Rons' vocals are still the groups' sore thumb, his vocals are buried a tad under the mix. That small short coming is easily ignored though.

Some of the songs here are slowed down to a mid paced tempo, and that's exactly what Coroner needed all along to get going. Songs like "Die By My Hand", and "Read My Scars" have a lot of room to breathe and have a beefy rhythm section and very complimenting solos to go with it. On the other side of the coin, the faster songs also benefit from this as "Tunnel of Pain" and "DOA" in which the band easily pulls off quick tempo changes without losing the feel of the song. The guitar playing is head and shoulders above the rest of the genre at the time, and still pretty impressive while not resulting to tedious technical boredom. No More Color sounds much more focused and finely tuned than previous releases that seemed to just wander around without any sense of direction. Closing with the keyboard textured (very reminiscent of the Twilight Zone Theme) spoken word piece "Last Entertainment", which foreshadowed some of the atmosphere the band would later experiment with on later releases (particularly Mental Vortex) is the highlight of the album.

No More Color is Coroner's first classic album, and should find its' way into any thrash devotees' collection. While being close to the top of the list for best thrash metal outings of the 80s, they were yet to perfect their craft. Which is a shame since interest in the genre waned after 1989, and a truly masterful band was never fully appreciated.

Note: The lyrics to "Why It Hurts" were supplied by Celtic Frost bassist Martin Eric Ain.