Press - Reviews
08th May 2002
schizo level review, DEADTIDE.com WebZine

schizo levelTHANATOSCHIZO
SCHIZO LEVEL


This chaotic project marks the debut of ThanatoSchizO, a band from Portugal that draws influences from a variety of metal bands without creating a distinct sound of their own. Best described as "horror metal", ThanatoSchizO put a lot of effort into creating an evil atmosphere with screams, samples, a church organ and Black Sabbath riffs. And yes, that is an exposed breast on the cover.

With a purple nipple, no less...

ThanatoSchizO does have a female vocalist on the roster, but you won't hear her do too much, she sings a few scales [poorly] and redeems herself with a gutsy performance on Nightmares Within, with vocals sounding like the singer from Drain. It's easy to determine this is a debut release, as the the band's timing is slightly off throughout, but the big surprise arrives on track 9, A Day - which is a blatant Anathema rip-off. Not only does it reuse a chord progression from Eternity, but it uses [or tries to] the same guitar style, and the singer even adopts Vincent Cavanagh's mournful "I'm crying as I'm dying" vocal style as he fumbles through a weak imitation of Anathema's pathos-laden lyrics.

It's one thing to be struggling to establish your style as a new band, and every band has been influenced by other bands in creating their own music. But a band that can't produce distinct work of its own isn't going to earn much respect in this genre until they've developed to the point where they can make an album that is at least somewhat their own. BITTER

STANDOUT TRACKS
Withering Art
Nightmares Within
Nausea
5 CDs + 1 EP
€45.00 / $58.50
Qty: