[.ca] Schizophrenia

You've got to buy it sometime:
If you're ready to step over bad (budget?) production, then this record will surely satisfy your thrashing needs.I remember my shock when I was presented a copy of this album somewhere in 1991. "A thrashing band from where? Brazil? Are you kidding?" Upon listening to it, the shock changed with excitement. This fresh blood was needed on the thrash scene. And Sepultura doesn't disappoint here. The recipe for music on this album is simple. Take Slayer's classic "Chemical Warfare", make it sound rough and brutal (this is accomplished by vocal tone and better bass-guitar), substitute SLayer's dissonant guitars with firy melodic solos, and make it more straight-forward. That's it, the "Schizophrenia" CD. The highlights here are songwriting, simple yet efficient and catchy, and dual guitar work. Both guitarists shred with passion and skill. While the drumming is not so spectacular and comparisons to Dave Lombardo seem to me very forced and not in favor of Igor Cavalera, for sure. But he would develop on later records. The instrumental track "Inquisition Symphony" is also phenomenal. If you like brutal energetic metal, then I just can't see how you can go wrong with Sepultura, when Max was still a band-member. This album is highly recommended, along with it's 3 successors. That's classics, people. PS The bonus tracks are produced by the knob-master Scott Burns himself, check out the difference!

Unfairly Underrated:
This album,to me,defines underground metal.The recording quality isn't that great,but neither was "Kill Em All".The true star of "Schizophrenia" is the then new guitarist Andreas Kisser.His solo on my personal favorite,"To The Wall",is unbelievable and secured his place as one the best metal guitarists ever.Seriously,this CD is worth buying for this solo alone.His other lead work is incredible,also.Max's distortion plagued vocals are very effective and really go well with the music,though i prefer the Arise-era roars.The best drummer in the world,Igor Cavalera,pulls off some great fills and double-bass,though the muddy production does obscure some of the more intricate moments of his performance."From The Past Comes The Storms" is another defining moment for the once unstoppable band,with it's furious riffs and unrelenting speed."Inquisition Symphony" is a classic instrumental,as good as,if not better,as any of the Metallica ones.I don't like "Escape From The Void" as much as everybody else seems to,but it is still a great song,easily better than over half the stuff on "Reign In Blood"."The Abyss" is an amazing piece of acoustic guitar mastery,capturing a mood of desolation and doom....I just wish it was longer."Screams Behind The Shadows","Septic Schizo",and"Rest In Pain" are excellent,brutal tracks,if not as memorable as "To The Wall" or "From The Past Comes The Storms".In fact,it is very hard to give this album only 4 stars,but the production muffles part of music quite noticeably,and Max's vocals,while fitting to the music,are weak compared to the aforementioned performance on "Arise".Still,"Schizophrenia" is a must for all metal fans,and beats the living crap out of most other underground albums.While Sepultura would create arguably the best thrash CD ever in "Beneath The Remains$Q,"Schizophrenia" is often overlooked and equally worth your time.For those wanting to hear TRUE metal,buy this and understand what it's all about.

They made metallica run for their money!!!!!:
The best band in the late 80's was sepultura and after being bored to death with the likes of slayer & metalica i was happy i could finnaly hear something difirent from that crap and here it was sepultura's "schizophrenia" by far an awsome album!! To bad Max went to that garbage now known as soulfy and sepultura is still great dont get my wrong but this old days are surely missed!! Down with soulfy up with sepultura because they still making good music!! Sepultura ruless & soulfly suckssss!!

Pure thrash devastation:
This is a truly remarkable thrash album. Their two follow ups, Beneath the Remains and Arise are both total classics, but for sheer riff madness nothing tops this album in my book. And I mean nothing. This is probably my second favorite straight up thrash album by any band, which is quite an accomplishment, especially considering how ridiculously young these guys were. I'm pretty sure none of them were out of their teens, and I think Igor was only 15 years old! 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 Wall!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" 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.

One of Sepultura's best albums:
Every song on Schizophrenia shows how real metal is supposed to sound: Raw, fast, aggressive, and in your face. Max Cavelera's raging hateful vocals and rhythm guitar work, Igor Cavelera's (Max's brother) punishing drum work, the fusing bass of Paulo Jr. and Andreas Kiser's guitar solos just devastate you. Get this album if you're a Sepultura fan. Also check out Max's other band Soulfly, they rock too.

• Intro
• From the Past Comes the Storms
• To the Wall
• Escape to the Void
• Inquisition Symphony
• Screams Behind the Shadows
• Septic Schizo
• Abyss
• R.I.P. (Rest in Pain)
• Troops of Doom