Yes, that is a bare breast on the cover, but no, ThanatoSchizo is not a Napalm Records signee. ThanatoSchizo is a Portuguese band offering a blend of black, doom, death and heavy metal that helps them live up to the "schizo" part of their band name. Schizo Level is the band's first full length release, although they have a mini album called Melégnia that came out in 1999. At the very least, Schizo Level should establish the band in the same playing field as other tripped out entities such as Solefald.

The CD begins with a few horns sounding a bit like a high school band warming up. From there, the band takes the listener through a veritable avalanche of styles, from Cradle of Filth styled vocals, slow doomy passages, female singing, upbeat Moonspell metal-goth and more. Schizo Level moves fairly well for a bane attempting to throw many things at the listener and the changes aren't abrupt or entirely unwarranted. The Dani Filth vocals that characterize some of the songs is a bit tedious, but high pitched, reedy, hollow screeching never has appealed to me a whole lot. Fortunately those vocals aren't quite as abundant towards the latter (and better) half of the album and the band offers melodramatic clean vocals and raspy death metallish growls. The majority of the band's music is reliant on guitar, putting more emphasis on heavy than on keyboard drenched goth arrangements.

At the end of the day, ThanatoSchizo isn't quite as weird as the aforementioned Solefald, but there elements the two outfits have in common. Given that ThanatoSchizo is such a young band, Schizo Level is a decent debut that shows some promise and an abundance of talent within the band. Those who enjoy bands who challenge themselves may wish to explore ThanatoSchizo further. Not a perfect debut, but definitely a honorable one.
8/01