SEPULTURA – Schizophrenia Review

SEPULTURA – Schizophrenia

Cogmuelo Records

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This is probably the most thrash oriented release the band has ever released, and brutal too. The guitars reflect their ingenuity in songwriting structure. A lot of tremolo picking kind of like “Beneath the Remains” and “Arise” before the total and utter fall of the band. This one is about as heavy as its follow-up, though not as catchy. “Beneath the Remains” remains to be my favorite from the band but this one is not far behind. It’s an ingenious release. I like the lyrics as well.

The production is a bit raw and the guitars are a bit sloppy but this is because they’re just establishing themselves or were as a thrash metal outfit. Max you can hardly understand even with the lyric sheet because of his thick Brazilian accent. But the vocals fit the music well. Tempos are fast and furious at times and others more laid back. The instrumentals are good too, acoustic melodies but still very well thought out. This whole album hits home with me.

I’d have to say my favorite SEPULTURA releases are this one, their follow-up and the follow-up to that follow-up the album “Arise” circa 1991. The rest of SEPULTURA’s discography is pretty horrible. They just went mainstream then with the departure of Max and Igor in the 90’s, they just went down the worst path ever. But the early days, when they wanted to do metal, they found their niche with that. This is the worst happening of the band when they abandon their roots. Even their album “Roots” is not nearly as admirable as their old material. It’s really just nu-metalish.

I find that “Schizophrenia” has some really good tracks well they all are but the most that I liked were “From the Past Comes the Storms” and “Troops of Doom”. The leads are blazingly fast and the rhythm guitar is just insane. This beats their follow-up in intensity but not their riff structure. “Beneath the Remains” is catchier. But still, like I said their 3 releases that I mentioned are their best. I don’t think much of their debut but albums 2, 3 and 4 hit home with me totally.

You don’t have to have Schizophrenia to enjoy “Schizophrenia”, that’s like a no-brainer. This album even though it’s raw production is still well recorded. Max talks a lot about the early days started out as a musician him and his brother Igor who’s a year or so younger than him were poor and they didn’t like what they saw growing up in the outskirts of Brazil as well as the fact that they didn’t play for money they played because Max especially was angry with this sort of reality. This album reflects him and his brother’s outlook they both put out a brilliant release here.

Ryan  “Death8699”  Fanucchi