### Schizo: Main frame collapse

#### 26/04/12 || Habakuk

Today’s fun quiz: Which of the following things doesn’t match with the rest? Pizza – Fine band names – Pasta – Romans – Great black/thrash Correct! The answer is: they all match. Of course you knew that. Or haven’t you heard Schizo yet?

Apparently they are an important band in Italy’s process of adopting black and thrash metal – alongside a few other acts which I actually didn’t enjoy too much and will therefore spare you here. Wait a minute,… did Italy ever adopt any kind of good metal? I’m having my doubts. Anyway, Schizo definitely can’t be held responsible for the symphonic excuses for metal bands the country has spewed forth much to the dismay of sane metalheads around the globe.

First of all, Schizo have a great album cover, which always helps. Take a minute and look at that beauty. London is about to be burnt to the ground (…why would anyone want to do that?), and the dude off Coroner’s ”Punishment for decadence” finds himself puzzled: clang clang “How am I gonna play ma fiddle wid this shit!” No, it really looks pretty damn fine, as you can see. And lo and behold, the music is good, too.

Its year of release is 1989, which is a time well within my metal comfort zone and delightfully devoid of any modern abominations. Schizo serve us a fine mixture of raw black metal, blastbeats and throat-wrenching vocals included, as well as thrashy songwriting goodness and the compulsory dose of Celtic Frost-isms that take turns with variations of that standard two-note black metal riff. Expect no detours from the full-frontal delivery. Those weren’t invented yet, or passed by in frantic speed.

Nevertheless, the band manage to keep their music engaging by always giving the listener something to cling his eager ears to; be it the vocals which are nicely offset in tone from the instruments, a classy half-time riff (say ciao to Tom G. Warrior), gang shouts, or one of countless awesome scream-along choruses à la Delayed deaaath!! (x2). And all of it is presented in a great, earthy production that combines lo-fi feel, a sharp edge and an overall sound that’s simply good, hands-down. You can even hear the bass. Gasp.

Yes, that’s right. I’m really telling you that this is an Italian metal album you should check out for some old school goodness. It was actually re-released sometime around 2006, so you should even be able to find it fo’ real. What what, all the way down to the last paragraph, and still no joke on the Italians? Well… the singer’s name is Ingo, but that’s all I found.

- Information
- Released: 1989
- Label: Crime Records
- Website: Schizo MySpace
- Band
- Ingo: vocals
- S.B. Reder: guitars
- Alberto Penzin: bass
- Carlo F.: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Violence at the morgue
- 02. Threshold of pain
- 03. Make her bleed slowly
- 04. Epileptic void
- 05. Removal part 1 & part 2
- 06. Psycho terror
- 07. Sick of it all
- 08. Manifold hallucinations
- 09. Behind that curtain
- 10. Main frame collapse
- 11. Delayed death