The band was brought into life in early 1998 by four fecund minds under the moniker: Thanatos. It all began with the necessity and the urge to make something different in nowadays predictable music world. Thus, their main purpose was to produce a pattern of sound, which could fetch a long lost originality. Therefore and since then, they started to work intensively in order to create their first masterpiece and «Melégnia» was released in 1999. This E.P. was self-financed and obtained excellent reviews by the worldwide press. Furthermore, some zines recognised the originality of the band’s sound and claimed «Melégnia» as a refreshing revelation.
The founding challenge was surely attained and their strong will kept on stimulating them to move further. This was specially felt after the band was considered to having released one of the best international albums of 1999. Thanatos reached the 11th position (ahead bands such as Dimmu Borgir, Immortal and Primordial) in a list of twenty and were the third best Portuguese band. This contest was launched by a radio of national audience and the winner was Emperor (“IX Equilibrium”).
During the promotion of «Melégnia», Thanatos made around 60 gigs, in which they played side by side with bands such as Sinister, Asgaroth, Pandemia, Purgatory, Tarantula, Sirius, Symawrath, Malevolence and Aborted. In fact, about its performance, the band got wonderful reviews in which the strange/theatrical ways and true feeling were widely praised.
However, the band was not completely satisfied. Its members wanted to “shake the scene” even more. By this way, the band’s name changed to ThanatoSchizO and a full-length album was recorded. «Schizo Level» is the materialisation of an old dream and represents the continuation of the band’s own style. Generally, this album brings a much powerful (reinforced by a coherent production) and mature sound with an emphasised multi-ethnical content. The recording process (after a long period of pre-production) occurred in “Rec’n’Roll Studios” (Oporto) in the final days 2000 with production, mixing and mastering by Luís Barros (drummer of AFM’s Portuguese band Tarantula).
Listening to «Schizo Level» (which was released in July 2001), the prevailing idea is that the band managed to reach a level where melody and brutality are successfully connected and different styles (from brutal death to atmospheric avant-garde metal, joining raw black metal with some psychedelic rock) are gathered. In their debut album, ThanatoSchizO reveals an impressive open--minded feature, testifying that Art has no boundaries and that originality is still a reason to be proud of. A visit to the official site of the band is highly recommended, so that various reviews (all very positive) made to the «Schizo Level» album by specialized media worldwide can be read.
Thus, a first place in the poll of the best international album 2001 can be pointed out. This place was achieved due to the listeners' voting in the Portuguese radio show "Holocausto" (also audible via the internet on www.holocausto.net). [“Schizo Level” has also reached a fifth place in a poll elaborated by the producers of the previously mentioned radio show]. Furthermore, the album was included in the top 20 of a similar poll voted by the readers of the Portuguese magazine LOUD!.
The second half of 2001 and the first of 2002 was occupied with three distinct activities. If, on the one hand, the band was largely requested for divulgation purposes, - namely interviews (all audible in the site of the band) -, on the other hand some concerts were performed aiming a live audition of the complex material from «Schizo Level». Besides, in the rehearsal room, ThanatoSchizO's members began in an almost casual way the composition of the band's second album (now released): “InsomniousNightLift”. Holding down the opportunity of a remarkable period of artistic fluidness (mainly for the vocalist Eduardo, who has inclusively composed a great part of the riffs existent in this album), the band got involved in a natural process of the themes' construction. These are even more oriented towards a doom/death side of metal with a strong progressive component (trade mark of ThanatoSchizO's trajectory until here).
Consequently, in May 2002 and while the negotiations with the independent English label Rage of Achilles occurred, the band started the recording sessions - once again in Rec’n’Roll Studios under Luís Barros's production. In this way, the recording of the album happened in a very spontaneous way during nearly two months.
Throughout all this process, the band signed a contract with the independent Rage of Achilles and a worldwide edition of “InsomniousNightLift” was agreed for January 2003, with a pre-releasing on Portuguese territory by the same independent that has edited «Schizo Level» -Misdeed Records- in September 2002.
Always impossible to be catalogued, “InsomniousNightLift” is indubitably a record that proves a very uncommon maturity and an increasingly effort towards the quest of a musical identity (strange, yet coherent) that ThanatoSchizO has always searched from the beginning. Constantly running away from clichés, the band conceived a quite original and refreshing recording, mixing influences but flowing into an enough simplistic model of doom/death progressive metal.
Source: http://www.thanatoschizo.com/
