Remember the good old days, when thrash metal was just crossing the bridge into death metal?
Pepperidge Farm remembers.
And so does Belgium’s Schizophrenia.
After 2020’s well-received Voices EP, Recollections Of The Insane is Schizophrenia’s first full-length, and it’s the logical extension of that shorter effort. Drummer Lorenzo Vissal (also of Skelethal and Butcher) is Schizophrenia’s engine, pushing all of Recollections along at a snapping pace, giving these tracks a cracking energy beneath the guitar tandem of Romeo Promos Promopolous and Marty VK. I’m not sure which of those two is responsible for which guitar parts, but the tandem is a strong one, with razor-sharp riffing and melo-shred leads traded back and forth throughout these forty-three minutes. Vocalist and bassist Ricky Mandozzi possesses a formidable death growl, clearly legible and nevertheless powerful, walking that same line between the heavier edge of thrash and the first-wave death metal it begat. Produced by Francesco Paoli of Fleshgod Apocalypse, Recollections Of The Insane is shiny and stout, although not so much of either that it loses any power – it’s less raw than many of its influences, given a nice modern sheen by the recording, and even the surprising use of keyboard underpinnings offers a slight symphonic / epic edge that doesn’t feel as out of place as it should.
Opening with the ripping one-two punch of “Divine Immolation” and “Cranial Disintegration,” Schizophrenia immediately lays waste the playing field with back-to-back ragers, microcosmically indicative of the thrashing that follows. From an introductory cacophonous squall, “Divine Immolation” drops into a vicious twin-guitar riff, then through a melodic chorus, and into a chunky Beneath The Remains-y groove for a breakdown. Not content to be outshone, “Cranial Disintegration” melds some Carcass-tinted melodies with a medical theme (including multiple references to surgical steel), all topped off with a damned-near electric breakdown. (That perfectly built swell that leads into the crush groove…? Chef’s kiss.) Later highlights come fast and furious, like the sweet sweep-picked arpeggio solo in “Souls Of Retribution,” which is the highest highlight among Promopoulous’ and VK’s many, or the almost-goth breakdown and then synth leads punctuated by near-grind blasting in “Sea Of Sorrow.”
At the end of the day, death / thrash by nature is probably never going to be the most original form of metal around – at least not now, thirty-plus years later. But Schizophrenia can certainly write riffs and songs, and they embellish their obvious influences with enough twists to make them feel newer – if not innovative, then at least somewhat (re-)invigorated. Should shiny, tight, and ripping riffy death metal get your heart a-flutterin’, then here you go…
