ThanatoSchizO - Zoom Code

I seem to vaguely remember reading nice things about Portugal’s ThanatoSchizO before, though for one reason or another never took the initiative to pick one of their works. Until now that is! I’ve finally stepped forward and made myself acquainted with the band’s eclectic sonority thru their fourth full-length album “Zoom Code” and I can safely state that I’ve been missing an interesting and rewarding experience.
“Zoom Code” is a hard piece to categorise since it detours into many routes, some of them quite challenging and eerie and touches many grounds raging from Doom, Gothic, Folk, Middle Eastern music and free-jazz. Despite the complexity and disparate potpourri of influences, most of the songs flow surprisingly well, bare a few and rare twists like for example some clean male singing that don’t always work in their favour.
The album starts with the Lacuna Coil-styled “Thick ‘n’ Blurry”, a somewhat up-tempo Gothic-Metal template with a vocal interplay between angelic female and gruff male vocalisations similar to the Italians. Next song “L” begins with a Doom-Death Metal approach nodding towards early Amorphis, but soon detours into the more Middle Eastern-inspired moments of Dead Can Dance with its Arabian-tinged violin solo. "(Un)bearable Certainty" delves into the trip-hop ambience of The Gathering circa “How To Measure A Planet” and "Pale Blue Perishes" sees the band leaning towards a more Progressive-Rock mould close to someone like Porcupine Tree. These are just a few examples of ThanatoSchizO’s eclectic, complex and enthralling sound structures.
With someone like Waldemar Sorychta at the production helm to trim down some superfluous exaggerations and enhance some superb arrangements this record would outshine and outclass everything Lacuna Coil have done so far. Nevertheless “Zoom Code” is definitely one of the best and most interesting records spawned in Portugal this year and should not be overlooked. (7/10)

Band info: www.myspace.com/thanatoschizo
Label info: www.mykingdommusic.net