Schizophrenia

First of all, I’d like to say that even if they were immature and they did a quite death/thrash mess, I like the first two Sepultura efforts a lot. With “Bestial Devastation” and “Morbid Visions”, Sepultura were still very raw and not great musicians; but with this great album, “Schizophrenia”, they finally proved that their immature approach to the music was definitely over.

This album is terrific! This is a total riffs assault! On this new album they also changed a bit their music that now is less death metal in the production and in the guitars sound. Their distortion is thrashier, but a bit down tuned, just to give something more extreme to the sound.
Since the first two albums I've always liked Igor’s way of playing drums a lot, but with this album he definitely improved his technique and speed. Here the drumming is surely more various and inspired.

We must say that there has been a change of guitarist too. Yes, the new lead guitarist is the great Andreas Kisser that replaced Jairo T. The newcomer is surely a better musician than the former one, giving a new inspiration and variety to their sound, than now is more complex and, at the same time, always brutal.
His solos are very fast, but able to create a good “melody” that can be remembered. The Jairo T. ones were just noisy and senseless.

Like I said before, this assault is based on true fucking heavy guitar riffs, while Max’s vocals are still very raw but not so brutal and exaggerated like in the past.
This album contains all the Sepultura’s classics, like the great Escape To The Void, where a mayhem intro of drums and guitar ends into a big thrash riff. The refrain is so fast, and the guitars always change tempo. Mid-paced riffs, fast parts, raw, schizophrenic solos and a big dose of thrash/death metal.

Another classic is To The Wall, where the lyrics were written by another good Brazilian metal band, Chackal. This song, at the beginning is quite mid paced, but after a death metal riff takes dominion, followed by the screamed, desperate and angry voice of Max. The drums here are incredible, alternating fast parts to other slower ones…just incredible. The solos here follow the rhythmic guitar lines, to create a disturbing melody. The violence in the music and in the lyrics of this song is incredible…TO THE WAAAALLLLL….AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Inquisition Symphony is an acoustic song, of about 7 minutes…incredible for a band that just one year ago didn’t seem to play an instrument as it was meant to be! Here the thrash riffs are amazing, among an infernal mix of different tempo parts and various disturbing guitar melodies. Schizophrenic!!
The Final song R.I.P (Rest In Pain), a part from being a masterpiece, ends in an incredible way: the drums and the guitars play a circus melody that actualy is very funny and reaches the top after, when a mess of screams and distorted instruments puts an end to this masterpiece.

The whole album is an incredible masterpiece of riffs and it's difficult to mark out the best songs. I cannot say that. At the time, I guess that nobody expected an album like this by Sepultura after their early works…simply a schizophrenic pleasure for my hears.