Sepultura - Schizophrenia

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Free Music Notes for Schizophrenia

Free Music Review: Pure thrash devastation
Hit: 5 Stars

The first thing one will likely notice about this album is how low the production quality is, even in the remastered edition.(I've not heard the original.) It sounds like the jungle boys recorded this album, well, out in the jungle. This is good and bad. A raw feel would be good for this album, and the guitar tone is utterly lethal, but there are very audible distortions and auditory artifacts. In the end, the production is pretty good for the material they've written, though it could be better. Max's vocals are particularly unusual. They sound like they were recorded in the hall outside their studio. They have a sorta black metalish feel to them. Their pretty weird but they work well and suit the album. Igor's drumming is very straight-forward, and very intense. Just what you need for a thrash album.

The material here is wicked fast and pretty brutal by the day's standards. Fortunately it slows it down a bit from time to time, which goes to make the fastest passages that much more effective. The songwriting isn't all that advanced for the most part, but the straight-up series of pummeling riffs is more than effective enough in it's own right. If all the riffs in a song are good, the song will be good. (There are some exceptions to this tendency, most notably Inquisition Symphony and, to a lesser extent, To the Wall.) Frankly, more nuanced and subtle songwriting would probably hurt this album. That's not what it's about.

The first half of this album is utterly classic, comparable to Ride the Lightning in this sense. The second half isn't weak at all either; it's very consistent as a whole. They're all pretty tough to describe, as they're isn't tons of variety but I'll try to get into some specifics. Inquisition Symphony is the real standout, and is the song which goes opposes much of which I've said. It's pretty atmospheric, and has got some nice melody, and is very well structured. Tons of nice leads too. (Andrea's work is great throughout this album, most notably on this track and To the Wall.) It's provides a nice contrast to the chaos and insanity of most of the rest of the album. To the Wall is probably the next best song here. The melodic trem riffs on here are really cool, as is the slower, mellower and strangely melodic interlude they through in before the last two vocal sections. Max's screaming of "To the caps the track off beautifully. The next best track is Escape to the Void, which has a cool chorus and some of the fastest riff here.

Anyway, enough of that. If you like thrash you must buy this.

Schizophrenia Poster