Coroner "Mental Vortex (Japan, Victor Entertainment, VICP-5114)"

Mental Vortex is the fourth album by the Swiss thrash metal band Coroner, released on August 12, 1991.

Mental Vortex continues Coroner's experimental approach established in its predecessor, No More Color (1989), blending thrash metal with progressive, jazz fusion, and avant-garde influences. About the album's direction, Eduardo Rivadavia of AllMusic claims, "Unbridled speed and aggression were replaced by highly technical and unconventional songwriting."

After being out of print for many years, Noise/BMG reissued the album in 2018, remastered with the same track list in a digipack cd case, with additional photographs of the band and memorabilia.

Track listing

All lyrics are written by Marquis Marky, except where noted.

1. "Divine Step (Conspectu Mortis)" Baron, Royce 7:05
2. "Son of Lilith" Baron, Royce 6:55
3. "Semtex Revolution" Baron 5:31
4. "Sirens" Baron, Royce 4:56
5. "Metamorphosis" Baron, Royce 5:35
6. "Pale Sister" Baron 4:55
7. "About Life" Baron 5:18
8. "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" (The Beatles cover) Lennon, McCartney   7:15

Total length: 47:30

• The intro on "Divine Step" (the "Emergency Room intro") is from the movie Re-Animator.
• Lilith is a female demon of the Mesopotamian mythology.
• The sample at the end of "Semtex Revolution" is from a Dallas news broadcast covering the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
• Semtex is a type of plastic explosive.
• 'About Life' samples the line 'We have to see, we have to know' from the film Hellbound: Hellraiser II.
• The cover image is a modified photograph of Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates in the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho.
• A music video was made for song "I Want You (She's So Heavy)".

The cover is from the novel "Psycho" originally written (and designed) by Robert Bloch.

Music video:

- I Want You (She's So Heavy)

Recording information:

Recorded at Sky Trak Studio, Berlin in April and June 1991.

Mixed at Morrisound, Tampa (Florida).

Tom Morris – producer, engineer, mixing

Sven Conquest – second engineer

Karl-U. Walterbach – executive producer

Martin Becker – photography (cover and sleeve)

Maren Lotz – typography

Robbie Müller – digital image