ThanatoSchizO

ThanatoSchizO is a metal group from Santa Marta de Penaguião (Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal), founded in late 1997. Practicing a sound associated with progressive death metal, the band makes various incursions through other musical genres such as black metal, doom metal, world music, progressive rock, atmospheric and electronic music, thus being generically included in the avant-garde musical range.

Initially having the name Thanatos, the discography of the group includes four albums (Schizo Level, InsomniousNightLift, Turbulence and Zoom Code), an EP (Melégnia) and a demo. The band has been in many international labels (Rage of Achilles, Divenia Records, Burning Elf Records, Misdeed Records), which have edited their releases worldwide. In Portugal the group is currently represented by independent label Recital Records.

The collective was considered as the second best Portuguese metal band in LOUD! Magazine’s January 2005 edition ^[1], thanks to their third release Turbulence (chosen as the best 2004 record), the subsequent promotional concerts and the members’ strong charisma.

Recently the group released their fourth full-length album Zoom Code through the Italian label My Kingdom Music. The cd was produced by Luís Barros (Tarantula), mastered by Tommy Newton (Conception, Helloween) and features guest appearances by Timb Harris (Estradasphere, Secret Chiefs 3) and Zweizz (Fleurety, ex-Dødheimsgard).

Contents 1 The early years (1997–2000) 2 The experimentation era (2001) 3 Adulthood (2002-2003) 4 The return to a heavier sound (2004-2005) 5 Decoding (2006-2007) 6 Zoom in (2008) 7 Band members 7.1 Current members 7.2 Previous members 8 Discography 8.1 Thanatos (earlier name) 8.2 ThanatoSchizO 9 Appearances on compilations 10 Trivia 11 References 12 External links

[edit] The early years (1997–2000)

The band started its activity in late 1997 given continuity to a previous cover project, Blind & Lost. To the founders Guilhermino Martins, Paulo Adelino and Marco “China”, the vocalist Tómané joined forces.

After a regular series of rehearsals during three months, the group decided to make its first demo. Recorded in the studios of Rádio Universidade (Vila Real), this Demo ’98 included three themes with a weak and blunt sound, despite the musicians’ good execution skills. It was only used to make the band able to enter a circuit of modern music concerts/ contests, in order to earn necessary experience and credit (it’s a fact that some music contest awards were collected throughout the country) for the forthcoming years.

In August 1998, the group was invited to be the opening act for the Swedish Clawfinger and the British Senser in Festival Internacional Praias in Praia de Mira.

In late 1998, the Northeastern band went to Rec’n’Roll Studios to record the EP Melégnia in three days (it were, in fact, three mornings and two afternoons for the recording and one more afternoon for the mixing). All the material was practically recorded on the first take and resulted on six themes (three of them came from Demo ’98 but now with better arrangements and interpretation), which had an overall more defined sound and couldn’t be categorized.

The EP was totally self-financed by the group and released on February 1999. It was distributed by many national and international entities and received very positive critiques, mainly because it was a breath of fresh air in a scene that was too attached to the clichés of the symphonic black metal, very trendy in the middle of the last decade.

The fact that the band was so hard to categorize erupted some harsh comments, in which people accused the band of not even practicing metal. The band couldn’t be happier since this kind of polemic was precisely what they were looking for. From the beginning they wanted to create something unique, new and revolutionary.

By this way, in a Top 20 elaborated by the national radio show “Holocausto”, the band reached an 11th place, was the best Portuguese band and was above some acts as Dimmu Borgir, Immortal and Primordial. IX Equilibrium by Emperor was considered the best album of that year.

Melégnia’s promotion on the road gathered more than 60 concerts side by side with bands such as Sinister, Asgaroth, Pandemia, Purgatory, Tarantula, Sirius and Aborted. One of those concerts was the Steel Warrior’s Rebellion – Barroselas Metalfest, which was surrounded by an intense curiosity, because the power was frequently cut off during the festival. While other bands were forced to stop playing (in some cases more than one time in a song), Thanatos chose a different approach and continued to play even when the light was off.

During the Chaos & Disorder Tour (Melégnia’s promotional concerts) and mainly during the rehearsals where the new material was being composed, it was obvious that a change had to occur, in order to prevent a feared stagnation. Therefore, the group suffered an important rupture after the Hard Club concert in October 2000: Guilhermino and Paulo stuck together, Tomané and Marco (this one for health issues) left the band.

[edit] The experimentation era (2001)

With the new material practically ready to be recorded and in order to put an end to so many indecisions, Filipe Miguel and Patrícia Rodrigues joined the group as a keyboard player and a singer respectively. They had been collaborating with the band in the past, so their entrance was perfectly normal.

For the part of lead singer, the band invited Eduardo Paulo, an old friend who had previously had a place in the project Blind & Lost. Therefore, the final line-up, which would record the first album Schizo Level, was found.

After some rehearsals and a brief pre-production, the group returned to Rec’n’Roll Studios and recorded its first album during almost a month. Schizo Level is a completely atypical CD: it starts with an aggressive black metal tone and then wonders through the paths of atmospheric music, doom metal, world and electronic music. The necessity to create something really unique lead to the decision to invite some musicians that could play trumpet and horn in the opening song RAW, which resulted in a cacophony of extreme black metal with wind instruments; or, in another case, a flute in Nightmares Within, which created one of the best moments in ThanatoSchizO’s career.

After finishing the recording process, the band started to look for a bassist to fill the vacancy. Guilhermino recorded the album’s bass lines but it was time to find an element that would identify himself with what the band had been doing, so he could play the material on the stage. Therefore Miguel Ângelo joined the group and his way of facing the bass would become very important and clearly noticed in future records.

Schizo Level’s release was taken care of by Misdeed Records, a recently formed independent label that had previously worked with the band’s EP in terms of distribution.

When the CD was released (in digipack), it was very well received but probably misinterpreted. When confronted with the album, the critics analysed it under a monochromatic perspective and many opinions indicated that this was a black metal album, which was a proof that they had only listened to the first three tracks (these were indeed black metal songs) and neglected the rest of it.

Anyway, a first place was reached in a listener’s poll for the best international album of 2001, once again on the Portuguese radio show “Holocausto”. On a poll counting the votes of the producers from this radio show, Schizo Level obtained a fifth place. Moreover, the album was included in a top 20 list voted by the readers of the Portuguese magazine LOUD!^[2].

Nowadays it is one of the band’s most wanted releases and includes some of the tracks that are most avidly requested by the live audiences: Suturn is the best example.

Few concerts were played, because the band was always looking for places that would allow good sound performances. Taking this into consideration and the fact that the country offered very few decent clubs to play in, only three concerts were given.

Above all, the group was already thinking about its next step – the second album -, which began to be written shortly after the recording of Schizo Level.

[edit] Adulthood (2002-2003)

If Schizo Level’s material was practically composed when Eduardo joined the band, the same couldn’t be said about InsomniousNightLift. He started to take his acoustic guitar to the rehearsal room very early and suggested many riffs, which made him the band’s main composer.

Almost unconsciously trying to get rid of the black metal stereotype brought by the previous album (too narrow to the members’ eyes), the band started to compose very homogeneous themes somewhere between the progressive doom/death metal. The musical ambiguity from the past was now followed by a very consistent work, maybe a more adult one.

From this point on the band started to value the “song” format and to pay more attention to the voices. Eduardo began to make more use of his clean vocals and Patrícia became more important in the group’s sound. If the previous tendency was to deconstruct, the idea now was exactly the opposite.

Maybe as a product of the tenuous frustration felt by the low live activity that came along with the first album, the velocity of the themes was decreased and they became slower with an intense rock feeling. Of Lunar Water... or The Journey’s Shiver broadened the band’s creative horizons, which took their compositions to paths never travelled before.

In early 2002, the recording of InsomniousNightLift’s began at Rec ‘n’Roll Studios and Luís Barros was once again the producer. The whole process took about two and a half months, during which the band signed a contract with the British independent Rage of Achilles and thus assured the worldwide release of the album in January 2003. The Portuguese land would have access to a pre-release in September 2002 through Misdeed Records.

The way the band used and abused the acoustic guitars, the psychedelic atmospheres and the manners usually associated with progressive rock raised the interest around it. Miguel Ângelo’s distinct work was noticeable due to all its class and the group began to raise some curiosity outside the metal nucleus. For example, the progressive rock fans showed a lot of enthusiasm with this new work and finally discovered the avant-garde side of Schizo Level.

Kerrang and Metal Hammer (both British publications) valued InsomniousNightLift with 4 out of 5 possible stars. This last one even wrote that the future of the doom/death metal would cross ThanatoSchizO’s freshness and originality.

When the national press made a balance in the end of the year 2002, the northeaster group reached an important first place in the list of the best national/ international albums in the now dead site “Metal Open Minded” and in Loud! magazine 5 out of 7^[3] collaborators selected InsomniousNightLift as one of the best national albums. The Portuguese edition of Rock Sound emphasized the group in a poll for the best albums^[4] (voted by its collaborators) and referred Miguel Ângelo (bass) and Filipe Miguel (keyboard) in the top 10 musicians’ pool of that year^[5].

The promotion of InsomniousNightLift was very intense, which allowed the group to conquer a supporting act position when Katatonia and Finntroll played in Portugal in April 2003.

In February 2003, the band was for the second time in full Hard Club and this was a memorable experience for both the public and the members.

The group also wanted to present the themes of the album in a semi-acoustic version in several Fnac stores throughout the country. It was one more challenging task that culminated with showcases full of fans and curious observers.

[edit] The return to a heavier sound (2004-2005)

Having the same line-up as the previous record for the first time, the band felt the necessity to sharpen its death metal side. Baring their mind on that, the members started to compose Turbulence, the third album.

Eduardo changes from acoustic guitars to electric ones, reinforcing its importance in the band’s sound. Now the dynamic of the themes are crucial and Filipe starts to orchestrate even more carefully his keyboard lines, thus transforming the final sound into something more powerful. Patrícia reinforces the subtlety of the music by interpreting the themes with a growing confidence. To the progressive sensitivity, new elements were added: on one hand a more aggressive and direct death metal shows up and on the other hand the ethnic tendency becomes even more evident.

From late 2003 to April 2004, the band returns to Rec’n’Roll Studios. Tommy Newton, a well known German producer, was in charge of the masterization process. Both the production and the masterization enriched the album’s sound, enabling it to be stronger, addictive, appealing and presenting numerous details and layers.

The record had a special pre-release in Portugal through Misdeed Records in July 2004. Limited to the national territory and in a digipack format, it included a multimedia section with a studio diary, many promotional photos and a video with several episodes shot during the recording process. The international release was taken care of by the Australian Burning Elf Records and not by Rage of Achilles, which ended abruptaly.

Turbulence was very well received by the fans and the specialized critique, maybe because of its great timing, one in which a definitive awakening of a progressive conscience in the extreme music world occurred.

The high point occurred in January 2005, when Loud! magazine published the votes for “the best of the best” from the past year: the readers chose the album as the best national release, the band as the second best Portuguese group (right behind Moonspell) and Guilhermino as the third best national musician.

Moreover, the radio show “Holocausto” nominated the third album of the group as the second best international release of 2004, while Songs of Darkness, Words of Light from My Dying Bride won the first place. Also, the Portuguese magazine Underworld - Entulho Informativo emphasized the group in a poll for the best albums of 2004^[6] .

In what concerns live activity, the band repeated the showcases in the Fnacs. This time the challenge was even greater, since Turbulence sounded much heavier. However, the results were more than satisfying, mainly because the public reacted extremely well to the acoustic versions.

In addition to all of this, the band headlined some events, was the opening act for the Swedish Nightrage in Festival Outubro Negro 2005 (organized by Fnac, in Lisbon) and was invited by the well-known Portuguese journalist António Freitas to be part of the itinerant Festival Alta Tensão, side by side with Moonspell and Ramp. The concerts had more and more public and the reactions were very enthusiastic, allowing the group to have a clear perception of its growing success.

[edit] Decoding (2006-2007)

It was time to rest and carefully think about the next step. The band decided to take some time inside the rehearsal room and start the composition of the next album. It was decided that no concerts were going to happen during that period, so the members could be totally focused on this process.

Most of the themes for the new record came up in the summer of 2006, after the band had given up five previously composed themes, in which Eduardo was already fully integrated as a guitarist. Above all, it was important to create something that would please the six members and that wouldn’t be a remake of what was done on the previous albums.

Thus, in September, the band went to Wagner Studios in Chaves to record the drums for the pre-production of the new album. The remaining instruments were recorded at the band’s own Blind & Lost Studios. This process took nearly six months and in February 2007, it was time to return to Valadares, in order to start the recording of the fourth album.

ThanatoSchizO recorded Zoom Code at Rec'n'Roll Studios (Portugal) between February and May. The masterization process was held by Tommy Newton at Area 51 Studios (Germany). It’s possible to follow this evolving process through some Vlogs (video-reports) in the band's Youtube Channel, which were made available by the band.

The group was also the opening act for the Israelite Orphaned Land (Lisboa and Braga, 6th and 7th July respectively) and the Swiss Samael (Corroios, 14th July) in their portuguese gigs.

Moreover, Gauchos de Acero – the Argentinean group aged between 10 and 14 that became famous through Youtube, due to their Sepultura and Iron Maiden covers – made an interesting interpretation of the song Suturn from ThanatoSchizO’s first album Schizo Level^[7].

[edit] Zoom in (2008)

ThanatoSchizO have inked a deal for the release of their fourth album Zoom Code with My Kingdom Music. The worldwide release date was April, 11. Zoom Code was produced by Luís Barros (Tarantula), mastered by Tommy Newton (Conception, Helloween) and features guest appearances by Timb Harris (Estradasphere, Secret Chiefs 3) and Zweizz (Fleurety, ex-Dødheimsgard).

Last May, 9th, Mexican label Sun Empire Productions released a special deluxe edition of ThanatoSchizO's first album Schizo Level. The album comes in a digipack format with a new front cover and a golden highlighted logo.

On the 17th of May, ThanatoSchizO celebrated their 10th anniversary at Liperske IV Festival which also featured Before the Rain, Pitch Black, Daemogorgon, Loss Spectra of Pure, My Eyes Inside and Primordial Melody. The band performed songs from all their releases (including the Melégnia EP) and played for almost two hours.

That same week Zoom Code went straight to the first place of the metal magazine Loud! Broadcast Top List^[8]. This pool shows the albums that had more playtime during the last month on the Portuguese metal radio shows.

[edit] Band members

[edit] Current members

• Eduardo Paulo – vocals, guitar, percussion
• Filipe Miguel – keyboard, sampling
• Guilhermino Martins – guitar, sampling, vocals
• Miguel Ângelo - bass
• Patrícia Rodrigues - vocals
• Paulo Adelino – drums, percussion

[edit] Previous members

• Marco "China" - bass
• TóMané - vocals

[edit] Discography

[edit] Thanatos (earlier name)

• Demo '98, (Demo) ) - 1998
• Melégnia, (EP) - 2001

[edit] ThanatoSchizO

• Schizo Level - 2001
• InsomniousNightLift - 2003
• Turbulence - 2004
• Zoom Code - 2008

[edit] Appearances on compilations

• Entulho Sonoro 5 - L.
• Lusitania de Peso – Vol I – Sweet Suicidal Serenade
• Arauto Metálico - Vol II - Freedom Subways
• Pure Underground - Necromance Records Compilation Vol.13 - Of Lunar Water...
• Rock Sound nº6 (Portuguese edition) "Sampler CD" - Sublime Loss
• Thrash Publishing "Promo Compilation #4" - Withering Art and Nausea
• Riff nº23 "CD Vol. 6" - Suturn
• Abadon Cryptic Scripts II "Sampler CD" - Love & Death
• Thrash Publishing "Promo Compilation #1" - Raven
• Dismal Whispers... "Chapter II" - Raven

[edit] Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• Demo ’98 has never had an official distribution. The band used it to participate in modern music contests and sometimes to schedule new concerts.
• Concerning the Melégnia’s release, the band had an intense internal discussion about the physical support it should have. The final decision was the CD format instead of the very used cassette tapes. By this way, ThanatoSchizO was the first metal group in Portugal to release a self-financed CD, thus opening new doors. Since then this became common practise.
• Many questions are made concerning the origin of the name Melégnia, but the group has kept the secret on this matter. The only certainty is that it came out on the second day of its recording, during a joyful conversation between the four members of the band in the outside yard of the Rec’n’Roll Studios.
• The recording of Schizo Level was filled with intense moments and hilarious situations such as Suturn’s recording, in which a friend of the band, Joca, questioned himself if he had screamed “Satan” or “Suturn” in the chorus part. In fact, he screamed “Satan” but the other voices managed to disguise that little mistake.
• The songs Suturn, Patheon, Tiger’s Doom and Thanatos (all from the first album Schizo Level) were still composed during the pre-ThanatoSchizO phase and some of them were even played live with the first vocalist of the band. For example, Suturn was firstly called Morag.
• Eduardo, ThanatoSchizO’s vocalist, was also the first vocalist of Blind & Lost and had been a member of many local death and black metal groups. During the first years (Thanatos phase), he went often with the band on the road as a roadie.
• Filipe, ThanatoSchizO’s keyboard player, joined the band while it was still called Thanatos and played in some concerts from Chaos & Disorder Tour. Until then he played in other bands in Vila Real.
• Patrícia’s first participation on the band occurred by chance during Melégnia’s recording, when someone suggested that she sang a part from the theme Dream of Eternity. Her voice convinced Luís Barros, who immediately suggested that she should record that part.
• Paulo Adelino had a parallel project in the late 90’s called Alien’s Dark, which had a groovy death metal oriented vein. This was the opening act to one of the Thanatos concerts in Régua (Portugal).
• Guilhermino was the The Anti-Frog Project’s guitarist, a joke band with members from Holocausto Canibal, Amor-te and Fetal Incest, which performed a live concert in 2002 and split right after.
• The band’s name is many times misspelled in posters and references in the press. The most common mistakes are ThanathoSchizO and ThanatoShizO. The name of the second album is also frequently misspelled: sometimes it has spaces between words.
• There is also certain confusion about the release year for InsomniousNightLift. This record was released in January 2003 by the British Rage of Achilles. In the Portuguese market, there was a pre-release through Misdeed Records in September 2002.
• Guilhermino has recently engaged in the album production adventure and produced his first two demo CDs, which are from the brutal deathsters Encephalon (Vila Real) and the thrashers Primordial Melody (Chaves).
• The group organizes Liperske, an annual festival, which takes place in Santa Marta de Penaguião and gathers seven metal groups from various subgenres. The festival’s name comes from a private joke between the band‘s members, concerning their supposedly official drink.
• ThanatoSchizO’s first contact with their all time producer occurred in 1998, when Tarantula (the band in which Luís Barros is the drummer) played in Vila Real (Portugal) in the prestigious Copos & Rezas. Since then Luís has produced all the records of the band, except for the initial Demo ’98.
• In 2000 the band initiated the Chaos & Disorder Tour side by side with Holocausto Canibal and The Firstborn. This tour included a list of 20 concerts that established an itinerary of show rooms in Portugal.
• The band’s name comes from Sigmund Freud’s Thanatos and his interest for the human impulse towards the abyss (an urgent impulse towards death). The suffix ShizO is related to the mental state schizophrenia.
• It’s recurrent to refer the importance of the group in the creation of a so called “musical scene” in the northeast of Portugal, due to the many events and activities organized and co-organized by its elements. Liperske Festival, Vilametal and Blind & Lost Music School are the best examples. The stigma that an inland band (and therefore away from the big metropolitan centres) could not make it in the music world was broken and a fresh motivation was inspired.
• The band has played in Festival de Carviçais for three times – in 1999, 2000 and 2004 – and played with Moonspell, Mão Morta, Durutti Column and Anger for example.
• It’s usual for the band to play live some improvised excerpts from other bands such as Pink Floyd, Survivor or Mão Morta