Coroner

Coroner was a Swiss heavy metal band that issued a 1986 cassette album on Rip Rec, followed by five albums on Noise International, including the 1987/88 titles R.I.P. and Punishment for Decadence.

Members: Marquis Marky (drums, 1983-2014), Tommy Ritter (guitar, 1983-84), Phil Puzctai (bass, 1983-84), Pete Attinger (vocals, 1983-84), Oliver Amberg (guitar, vocals, 1984-85), Ron Royce (bass, vocals, 1985-present), Tommy T. Baron (guitar, 1985-present)

Background

Coroner formed in 1983 in Zürich when drummer Markus “Marquis Marky” Edelmann and guitarist Oliver Amberg renamed their band VoltAge. The lineup also included singer Pete Attinger, bassist Phil Pusztai, and guitarist Tommy Ritter. Pusztai proposed the name Coroner.

Edelmann took childhood piano lessons and took up drums in 1980 with a guitarist girlfriend. Amberg started on bass and taught himself guitar. He recruited Edelmann into VoltAge at a music shop where the drummer tried a guitar and amplifier. Coroner wrote original songs and recorded the 1983 demo Depth of Hell in a single day at a Zürich studio. The group played several shows, including a bill with Zürich band Junk Food in southern Switzerland. When Edelmann left in 1984 for four months of military training, the other members disbanded Coroner.

Edelmann rebuilt Coroner in 1985 with bassist Ron “Ron Royce” Broder and guitarist Tommy “Tommy T. Baron” Vetterli. Broder took up bass at seventeen and played with Vetterli in the Zürich hard-rock band Diamond. Vetterli took about four years of violin lessons from age eight and switched to guitar as a teenager. The pair left Diamond after several gigs and contacted Edelmann through the local concert circuit. The trio first rehearsed on April 1, 1985, under the Coroner name.

Coroner wrote faster material and sought a singer and second guitarist. Edelmann asked his friend Tom G. Warrior (Thomas Gabriel Fischer), singer–guitarist of Celtic Frost, to sing on the demo Death Cult. The group recorded the tape in October 1985 at Magnetix Studio. Fischer wrote the lyrics and sang three of the four tracks. Coroner completed the program with the instrumental “Aerial Combat” and issued 250 cassette copies in 1986 on the Rip Rec imprint.

Edelmann joined the Celtic Frost road crew in 1986 with Vetterli for a North American tour. The pair gave Death Cult cassettes to fanzine writers who interviewed Fischer at the shows. Coroner played on November 16, 1986, at the Zürich Volkshaus on a bill with Celtic Frost and German thrash band Kreator.

Fischer introduced Coroner to Berlin label Noise International. Broder assumed lead vocals on a subsequent rehearsal tape that the group mailed to Noise founder Karl-Ulrich Walterbach. Coroner signed with Noise in early 1987 and entered Berlin Music Lab with producer Harris Johns for the debut album R.I.P.

Discography:

• Death Cult (cassette, 1986)
• R.I.P. (1987)
• Punishment for Decadence (1988)
• No More Color (1989)
• Mental Vortex (1991)
• Grin (1993)

Sources

• Markus Edelmann — interview, Part I, March 12, 2021. Piano lessons, first drum sessions, recruitment into VoltAge, original lineup, and Pusztai naming Coroner. (Rattle Inc.)
• Oliver Amberg — interview, March 9, 2021. First instruments, VoltAge membership, the original lineup, and the one-day Depth of Hell session. (Rattle Inc.)
• Markus Edelmann — interview, Part II, March 13, 2021. Early shows, military-service breakup, recruitment of Broder and Vetterli, and the Celtic Frost tour. (Rattle Inc.)
• Ron Broder — interview, June 22, 2015. Diamond, the April 1 rehearsal, Fischer’s demo contributions, and the Noise introduction. (Artists and Bands)
• “The Return of the Vortex” — Ron Broder interview, 2015. Broder identifies seventeen as the age he took up bass. (Bass My Fever)
• Tommy Vetterli — interview, April 19, 2017. Childhood violin lessons, teenage guitar interest, and demo distribution on the American tour. (rockmetal.pl)
• Coroner — Death Cult, original cassette entry. October 1985 session dates, personnel, four-track program, and Rip Rec release details. (Encyclopaedia Metallum)
• Matthias Mader — Death Cult reissue notes. Vetterli interview material, 250-copy duplication, and the rehearsal tape with Broder on vocals that secured the contract. (High Roller Records)
• Coroner — R.I.P. reissue notes. Early-1987 signing and Walterbach’s arrangement of Music Lab sessions with Harris Johns. (High Roller Records)
• Celtic Frost / Kreator / Coroner — November 16, 1986. Date, venue, and shared Volkshaus bill. (Concert Archives)