ALBUM REVIEW: Recollections Of The Insane – Schizophrenia
French fries and mayonnaise. Manneken Pis. Kevin De Bruyne. Belgium has provided some phenomenal exports and creations over the years, and hoping to join the list is SCHIZOPHRENIA, the death-thrash four piece out of Antwerp. They burst onto the scene back in 2020 with their self-released EP Voices to fair acclaim. Now they present Recollections Of The Insane as their first full-length record that sees them further meld the likes of MORBID ANGEL, SLAYER and early SEPULTURA into one acerbic brand.
Album opener Divine Immolation is a promising, if somewhat safe start to proceedings. You will have heard it all before, but the way SCHIZOPHRENIA navigates from thrash-tinged death metal verses into a chugging thrash final third is masterful. Later in the album, the band flexes their tech muscles on Souls Of Retribution, with fluttering guitar sweeps littered throughout, and a drum track that sounds as if there are suddenly four drummers in the room.
Cranial Disintegration could seriously be a contender for the ‘Best Song of 2022’ conversation. What starts as (seemingly) a straight-forward snarling death metal beast, unveils itself to carry layer upon layer of texture and innovation. Taking thrash’s ability to create a solid chorus amidst the maelstrom, combining it with mathy turns of phrase and changes in tempo, and tying it all up with brutality and technical proficiency, it’s a riptide of a track that pulls you in all directions. Coming the same week as UNDEATH’s phenomenal Head Splattered In Seven Ways, the bass groove and the experimentation in these four-and-a-half minutes means that SCHIZOPHRENIA may well win the ‘songs about head destruction’ battle this year.
At a certain point though, it becomes clear that there are some baffling decisions on Recollections Of The Insane. Sea Of Sorrow sounds at times as if the band are playing two different songs at the same time and makes for a wholly incohesive experience. Inside The Walls Of Madness is a wash of bass that completely drowns out any lead or rhythm guitar work, and drums are so faint at times that it may as well just be vocalist and bassist Ricky Mandozzi on the track. Most bizarrely of all, the opening of this track is practically identical to that of Monolith. And of course there have been a thousand songs in the past few years that open with rolling-thunder drums and blasting riffs, but to have such identical starts just three tracks apart is an eye-rolling oversight. Then there is the question of sequencing: album closer Stratified Realities, while a solid song in its own right, just sort of fades to black in something of a non-event.
To their credit, SCHIZOPHRENIA have clearly tried to bring in textures and ideas to separate them from being just another death metal band. Always trying to do something interesting with an over-saturated genre, but never quite going far enough with it, or going wholly too far and ruining something that could have worked so well. As a result, Recollections Of The Insane is a record that delights and frustrates in roughly equal measure.
Rating: 6/10
Recollections Of The Insane is out now via self-release.
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