Schizophrenia – Chants Of The Abyss (EP)
Release Date: 10th February 2023
Label: Self Released
Bandcamp
Genre: Thrash, Death Metal, Punk, Deaththrash.
FFO: Slayer, Morbid Angel, Judas Priest.
Review By: Rob Woodhouse
Not content with releasing one of the finest albums of 2022, ‘Deathrash’ superstars, Schizophrenia, are back in no time at all with another release to tear off our fresh little faces. Chants Of The Abyss is a six-song covers E.P. that see’s the band pay tribute to their idols; from the most obvious to the slightly more obscure choices.
The record jumps in feet-first to one of those obvious influences. Fkn Slayer! It’s not such an obvious track selection however, as the band opt for something from the Hell Awaits album. Necrophilia is a stripped back and slightly primitive sounding song from the Slayer back catalogue, but still has all the bile and screeching guitars that we need from the sole member of the Big Four to be represented on this record.
Schizophrenia give the track a little more chunk in the production, and Ricky Mendozzi (emulating Tom Araya with double-duty on the bass and vocals) brings his full death metal roar to this version. The band don’t mess too much with the original, and it’s a belting start to the E.P.
Next up, a flagship death metal track, if there is such a thing; Morbid Angel’s Maze Of Torment. This is one you really have to do justice if you are going to cover it as it’s already pretty perfect with all its wonderful grinding, buzzing vitriolic dirge! Schizophrenia keep that raw and unpolished guitar tone in the production, thankfully, nobody wants to hear a squeaky-clean version of Morbid Angel, do they? The vocals are fast and venomous, the guitar solo howls like wolf at midnight, and it’s a faithful recreation of a stone-cold classic.
Something a little more traditional follows as the band tackle Judas Priest’s Metal Meltdown, complete with all the fretboard wizardry on the most epic of intros. From the aforementioned introduction onwards, things get brutal. This is an ultra-nasty take which is given the full Schizophrenia treatment. And, it works brilliantly!
A shift of gears sees a couple of more punky covers at the rear end of Chants Of The Abyss. The short and sharp blast of Bullet by the Misfits and GBH’s Race Against Time are rapid fire numbers that are only made faster when mixed with Schizophrenia.
There’s a pattern forming here. Schizophrenia take a song, make it all the more nasty and play it at break-neck speed. It seems to be a good formula on the whole. It doesn’t always work perfectly. Strike Of The Beast comes straight out the Bay Area from Exodus’s legendary debut. The original version is a crusty old tune, but the more ballsy, glossy and crisp finish on the cover version doesn’t make it any better. Maybe we like the dusty old version just as it is…
But, let’s not put a dampener on what is a cracking little collection of covers from Schizophrenia. Chants Of The Abyss is a vicious take on some classic tracks. Schizophrenia give their idols the full ‘deaththrash’ treatment with covers that go harder, faster and nastier throughout! Metal Meltdown and Maze Of Torment are two big highlights to check out first, and we would bloody love to see these guys play these tracks live over in the UK sometime soon!!
(4 / 5)
