The Angry Scotsman
This album grew on me over time. For this release, the band added Andreas Kisser, (who I think is one of the more under rated guitarists in metal). Schizophrenia moves away from their previous death metal releases, and more towards thrash metal. Don't worry though, there are still plenty of manically tremolo picked, blast beat fueled sections.
Besides a change in musical direction, we also see a step up in musical talent. Instead of pure tremolo picking and off the wall solos, this album displays more riffing and precise solos. The riffing is quite fast and precise. Songs also show more structure and diversity to them.
After the intriguing and somewhat frightening intro, 3 great songs follow. The best song on the album, Inquisition Symphony, than comes up. The next 2 are nothing to write home about, and then we get to The Abyss, a minute long acoustic piece. We are seeing some more creative song writing now! This is then followed by R.I.P. which is the most intense, unrelenting song on the album. Real mind melter. Things end with a remastered version of Troops of Doom, which isn't terrible.
Quick note, Max's vocals are a bit better than earlier releases, but he is still finding himself here. An interesting album, a thrash/death metal mix with some real display of technicality, musicianship, and composition skills.
Don't overlook this album!
Three and a Half Stars