ThanatoSchizO
Origami
CD, Major Label Industries, 2011
ThanatoSchizo is one of the handful of bands who I've witnessed develop over the last decade, albeit from afar. They're in Portugal, after all, and I'm in the Pacific Northwest, which means it's not terribly likely they'll be playing at a club down the street any time soon. Anyhow, in that time, ThanatoSchizo has morphed from a slightly off beat blackened doomy death metal hybrid into a band that doesn't fall under a metal subgenre at all. In fact, in the press release files sent along with this album, it is pointed out that Origami is not a metal album. No doubt a few strident metal fans will immediately tune out, but I'm not sure why anyone would willingly limit themselves like that. Thankfully ThanatoSchizo didn't because Origami is their strongest, and most interesting album to date.
Origami takes the cues from their last album and fully dives into the non-metal elements of their music. This recording tends to focus more on strong singing by Patrícia Rodrigues and songwriting that allows for good dynamic space. The non traditional elements such as electronics, orchestral instrumentation and other items not normally used in a typical rock or metal band are given more prominence, and to good effect. What stands out the most is the very solid melodies and very good singing throughout. Rodrigues sounds entirely confident in her singing and thankfully no male singer feels the need to come in with a growl or death metal grunt. It's 2011. The world is changing. And the current modern world doesn't particularly need much more "beauty and the beast" singing duets.
I've been writing music reviews for the better part of two decades and it's an unsaid requirement that there's got to be at least one comparison to another band in a review. This paragraph is designed to fulfill that requisite. I'd say if you liked what Atrox did on Binocular in terms of stepping away from preconceptions about the band or wish the later Green Carnation records actually featured decent songwriting, ThanatoSchizo's Origami is worth checking out. Each time this band releases an album, it tops the previous one. ThanatoSchizo may have stepped outside of their comfort zone with Origami but I'm happy they did and find this to be a very enjoyable record.
John Chedsey