Press - Reviews
23rd January 2003
InsomniousNightLift review, Silent Scream webzine

InsomniousNightLiftArtist: ThanatoSchizO
Title: InsomniousNightLift
Record Comp.: Rage of Achilles
Year: 2003
Lenght: 66:48
Genre: Gothic/Doom
Vote: 7/10


Thanatoschizo are a portuguese six piece that with this "Insomnious Night Lift" got to the second opera in the long distance, the first for Rage of Achilles, label that will also re-release the first effort of the band during this 2003. They make charge of a rather complex project, articulated along a sort of really developed gothic metal, on the trail of the most classic works of bands like Paradise Lost, but enriched of different influences that move from doom to progressive woofs. The songs are all rather various, filled up with atmosphere and tempo changes, with ethereal openings as counterpart of a doomy riffing that's inspired and complex: then the result is not always easy to follow. This "Insomnious Night Lift" is the classic work that must be heard with calm and attention, and that maybe needs long time before reaching the heart of the listener. The musicians undoubtedly own a good individual technique, and are rather clever songwritingwise as well: thanks to such characteristics the songs, that move between the four and the nine minutes, develop like little simphonies, in which it's never easy to find the path among the different moments that follow the one another, moving from the rhythmical mid tempo to the fast one, with the continuous alternance of female and male vocals to remark the different moments. The feelings the work offers are different: in some passages Thanatoschizo result very involving, weaving intense bridges that are built upon rocking riffs and on a various and accurate rhythmical section, in other episodes Patricia Rodrigues's voice creates dreamy almost angelic situations, in further others the acoustic guitar arpeggios recall the folk atmospheres that are tied to their originary lands. There's an enormous rich of sounds and solutions but, if on one side that can be considered as a good point for a band above the average, in long terms this variety damages the fluid running of the work, and a certain tiredness starts hitting the listener, that maybe would enjoy the same album three quarters of hour long. Thanatoschizo are clever, undoubtedly, and so the judgement about the album results hard: maybe the band would need to remark the synthesis skills in spite of the tendency to self celebration, in a way to create easier compositions that can exhalt their big abilities. The vote is fitting the validity of the work, and it's an attempt to find the middle way between their instrumental abilities and the highest vote one can give to their excessive prolixity. To keep in sight.

Giorgio Fogliata
5 CDs + 1 EP
€45.00 / $58.50
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