Mental Vortex
| Mental Vortex | ||||
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| Coroner's studio album | ||||
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Publication |
August 12, 1991 |
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admission |
April-June 1991 |
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| Label (s) | Noise Records | |||
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Title (number) |
8th |
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running time |
47 min 22 s |
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| occupation |
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Tom Morris |
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Studio (s) |
Sky Trak Studio, Berlin |
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Mental Vortex (Engl. <Spiritual vortex >) is the fourth studio album by the Swiss thrash metal band Coroner . It was released on August 12, 1991 via Noise Records .
Emergence
The recordings for Mental Vortex took place from April to June 1991 in the Sky Trak Studios in Berlin . Shortly before, the band had lost their tour bus due to a fire. The musicians were also dissatisfied with the studio . Drummer Marky Edelmann described the recording room as quite small, which led to problems with the instruments.
Seven of their own songs were written for the album. There is also a cover version . In the run-up to the recording, the musicians could not agree on a song. In their rehearsal room, the band discovered a copy of the Beatles' album Abbey Road . The band noticed the song I Want You (She's So Heavy) , which the musicians say is a pretty powerful song and would go well with the songs they wrote themselves.
The album was produced by Tom Morris, who mixed the album in his Morrissound Studios in Tampa , Florida . Keyboardist Kent Smith and guest singers Janelle Sadler and Steve Gruden can be heard as guest musicians .
background
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The music on Mental Vortex is sometimes slower than before, but according to drummer Marky Edelmann it is also “heavier, deeper, more brutal”. The band wanted to develop further within the Thrash style, they had also noticed that some of the earlier songs did not work live as desired. So you have with Mental Vortex written "for the stage." Only the final Beatles cover I Want You (She's So Heavy) was deliberately no longer Thrash, although it was played a lot harder than the original.
The record cover shows a modified photo of the actor Anthony Perkins in his role as Norman Bates from the feature film Psycho . According to Edelmann, it symbolizes a “moment of absolute confusion”. According to the title of the album, a circular swirl effect was placed over the actor's face. For the intro of the song Divine Step (conspectu mortis) were samples from the horror film Re-animator used. The song is about the moment of death. Marky Edelmann, who wrote all the lyrics for the band's own songs on the album, said that from this moment he was “fascinated” without being tired of life. The text also deals with the question of what exactly happens in the process. At the end of the song Semtex Revolution , samples from the film Moonstruck were used, which are about the assassination attempt on US President John F. Kennedy . The song is also dedicated to the psychological state of an assassin. Pale Sister , on the other hand, explores the question of what motivates a nun to “become” the way she is.
reception
Mental Vortex is considered a classic of the genre. According to Frank Albrecht from the German magazine Rock Hard , Coroner “managed the feat of writing very compact, catchy songs without having to give up the high technical demands”. Albrecht gave the album 9.5 out of ten points in this contemporary review. Eduardo Rivadavia from the online magazine Allmusic described Mental Vortex as the “creative high point in the band's history” and praised the group's “unconventional songwriting”, which “ flirts the limits of heavy metal despite and with jazz and progressive rock ”.
In the book Best of Rock & Metal , which lists the 500 strongest metal and hard rock albums of all time according to the editors of the German magazine Rock Hard , Metal Vortex came in at 128; the best placement of an album by a Swiss band.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Bonvoj Krgin: In a Mental Vortex ( Memento from March 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive ). In: Metal Maniacs , December 1991, accessed September 28, 2012.
- ↑ a b c d e Holger Stratmann: Thoughtful ... , in: Rock Hard, No. 52, July 1991, pp. 72–73.
- ↑ designvortex.com: Mental Vortex ( Memento from March 9, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ rockhard.de: Coroner - Mental Vortex
- ↑ allmusic.com: Mental Vortex
- ↑ Rock Hard (Ed.): Best of Rock & Metal - The 500 strongest discs of all time . Heel Verlag , Königswinter 2005, ISBN 3-89880-517-4 , p. 170 .