THE BEAST

[photo credit: Jens De Vos] 

Antwerp, Belgium -based death/thrash metallers Schizophrenia are gearing up for the release of the band's upcoming new tribute EP "Chants Of The Abyss", which will see the light of day on February 10th. "Chants Of The Abyss" features six cover songs and personal interpretations of timeless classics by cult acts such as Slayer, Judas Priest, Mistfits, Exodus, GBH and Morbid Angel and with the music video for GBH's "Race Against Time" Schizophrenia have just released the fourth and last single before the EP will be out. 

Drummer Lorenzo Vissol comments:
"The whole concept behind doing our cover EP 'Chants of the Abyss' was of course to have fun recording and playing songs we love, but it was also to shine a light on what we think are the essential roots of the music we play now and extreme metal in general. We believe one of those elements to be Punk and more precisely the Hardcore Punk influences. For instance, giving a certain idea of how they managed to separate themselves from the contemporary Hair Metal scene and be one of the originators of Thrash Metal, Dave Lombardo and Jeff Hanneman have explained several times how they were constantly exchanging Punk and Hardcore Punk bands they discovered during the inception of Slayer. (It is hence no surprise that Dave Lombardo now plays for the Misfits and Suicidal Tendencies). Metallica was also seen wearing GBH and Misfits shirts repeatedly during the 80s and early 90s. Furthermore, within Schizophrenia we often ponder as to what makes modern or actual Metal different than the old school Metal, musical judgment aside. I believe personally that, arguably, one of the most important elements is the progressive lack of Punk and Rock'n'Roll influences throughout the decades. All of this is why we decided to include two Punk songs out of the total 6 songs included in this EP."