The furious midpoint between primitive death metal and caustic thrash has always been one of the most exciting places to bang your head. The full-length follow-up to 2020’s utterly murderous “Voices” EP, “Recollections of the Insane” confirms that Belgium’s SCHIZOPHRENIA are flying the death / thrash flag with venomous pride, and doing it with more ferocity and conviction than most.

This is well-trodden territory, of course. Anyone who grew up with the sound of SLAYER, KREATOR, POSSESSED or early SEPULTURA ringing in their ears will feel immediately at home here, but SCHIZOPHRENIA are several degrees more intense than anything those bands were capable of back in the day. A couple of decades of spiteful extremity have given them a sense of compositional depth that belies the notion that this is a purely nostalgic exercise, and thus everything from grandiloquent opener “Divine Immolation” to bombastic finale “Stratified Realities” delivers equal amounts of red meat and sinister surprise. Nimbly morphing from all-out attack to a haunting, melancholy mid-pace, culminating in a grotesque, cacophonous crescendo, “Sea of Sorrow” is a particularly stunning act of subversion. “Onwards to Fire” is even more ambitious: from its “South of Heaven”-like intro and slow-burning sense of dread to its climactic razor-slash descent into hate-thrash hell, it’s defiant old-school metal forced through a spinning, infernal kaleidoscope.

SCHIZOPHRENIA are equally effective when they rein in their creative urges and go directly for the throat. “Inside the Walls of Madness” is an untamed riot of feral blasting, leprous barks and heads-down, speed metal clatter, and one of the most straightforwardly exciting slabs of pure, black-hearted heavy metal since the last POSSESSED album. Likewise, “Cranial Disintegration” is the kind of jolting, overzealous dose of filthy thrash hostility that made this undervalued subgenre such a visceral thrill first time around; “Fall of the Damned”, which begins with a ghostly haze of schlock horror, rattles and smashes like classic ANGELCORPSE on a runaway train to the end of days. The closing “Stratified Realities” — strong KREATOR vibes, rich in blackened pomp — is an equally fine amalgam of arcane horrors and skilled invention. The only sane conclusion to draw is that SCHIZOPHRENIA are breathing new life into one of heavy music’s most righteous crossovers.

SEPULTURA frontman Derrick Green recently stopped by the “Talk Toomey” podcast to talk about his band’s upcoming tour with SACRED REICH and CROWBAR. In the clip below, Derrick and host Joshua Toomey discuss what Derrick must have on tour.

Green said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Well, I think on this tour I definitely will bring a yoga mat for stretching out in crazy backstage dirty areas — to lay down and to be able to stretch out and to do some exercises before the show. So that’s essential. Let’s see… Definitely good headphones for listening to music other than metal [laughs], or heavy music — some soft listening. I would have to say the next thing would be some vitamins. You never know what you’re necessarily gonna get on the road but I try my best to eat a nice plant-based diet on the road. A good book — a few good books, ’cause there’s definitely downtime where I’m traveling which is extremely boring and it’s great for catching up on some really good reading. And a very efficient laptop. There’s times where I love to watch movies, and it’s very crucial. I’m a movie fanatic, so I definitely need a good laptop I can bring everything that I need to see.”

SEPULTURA’s “North American Quadra” 2022 tour will kick off on March 4 in Sacramento and will make stops in Toronto, Cleveland, and New York before concluding on April 8 in Berkeley, California.

SEPULTURA played its first show in two years last Saturday night (February 12) at Circo Voador in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The concert was also notable for the fact that Green wore a brace on his left leg after apparently breaking his foot.

SEPULTURA’s current lineup comprises Green, guitarist Andreas Kisser, bassist Paulo Xisto Pinto Jr. and drummer Eloy Casagrande.

Cleveland native Green went from fronting hardcore band OUTFACE in Ohio to relocating to New York and then living in São Paulo, Brazil for nearly two decades.

While the pandemic paralyzed the entire world and prevented bands from touring, the members of SEPULTURA refused to sit back and feel like animals trapped in a cage. Therefore, in early 2020, the legendary Brazilians, along with their American vocalist, seized the moment to start their own weekly “SepulQuarta” video podcast in which they invited other famous musicians from all over the world to not only discuss important topics but also perform a track from SEPULTURA’s massive catalog together with the band. The resulting full-length compilation was released last August, with the album containing 15 classics featuring internationally renowned guests and friends.

SEPULTURA’s latest studio album, “Quadra”, was released in February 2020 via Nuclear Blast. The LP was created at Sweden’s Fascination Street Studios with renowned producer Jens Bogren.

Today’s I LOVE Pedals giveaway is from Empress Effects. Enter for your chance to win an Empress Heavy! Ends Feb. 17, 2022.Empress HeavyIn this aptly named box, you’ll find a huge range of killer high gain tones. From crisp, mid-driven 80’s metal, to scooped, modern down-tuned brutality, this little box of sonic mayhem does it all. The two independent channels can be voiced similarly so that one channel can be used as a solo boost, or they can be voiced entirely differently by using the mid-range control in conjunction with the 3 position mid-frequency select switch. Add in separate weight controls to shape the low-end response of each channel, and a global hi/low eq section that allows you to fine-tune your particular amp and cab combination, and you’ve got a serious tool to create a supremely heavy sounding rig.On top of all this, we’ve added an extremely responsive and hassle-free noise gate that will ensure dead silent operation with even the most obscene amounts of gain added.I Love Pedals Day #16: Empress Effects

IRON MAIDEN’s “Legacy Of The Beast” free-to-play mobile game has announced a major in-game collaboration, this time with American rock legends DISTURBED.

Following successful collaborations last year with AMON AMARTH, LACUNA COIL and GHOST, “Legacy Of The Beast” has teamed up with DISTURBED to bring the iconic cloaked mascot The Guy to life in the mobile game.

“Legacy Of The Beast” has created a new limited-time in-game event called Disturbing Sciences featuring a limited-time character, The Guy. The game’s Disturbing Sciences event is an ode to both bands’ lore taking its broad themes from the cover of IRON MAIDEN’s 1986 album “Somewhere In Time” and “Disturbed: Dark Messiah”, a five-part comic book series where The Guy makes his comic book debut.

Over the years, The Guy has been depicted as an antihero, saving people from corporate corruption, often through violent means. In this new storyline, Cyborg Eddie and The Guy have been summoned through time and space to the Polvo Valley, a small town transformed into a hyper-sanitized, machine-driven industrial city, where Eddie and The Guy are dead-set on punishing the city’s corporate overlord, Brian Kek, and confronting the CEO at Kek Tower before discovering the depth of his hubris.

Speaking on the new collaboration, DISTURBED frontman David Draiman shares: “Myself and the guys from DISTURBED are humbled to be included in the ‘Legacy Of The Beast’ game. We feel that The Guy is a worthy addition to the saga and we’re very happy to be a part of it. When we first saw the first concept pieces of how he would be integrated into the game, it was thrilling for all of us. It’s still kind of surreal.”

David continues: “I love that our ‘Dark Messiah’ storyline from the DISTURBED comic book series (from the graphic novel) is being integrated into the video game series, I think they go hand and hand with one another. I love more people having the opportunity to play as The Guy … and battle the forces out there that deserve to have their asses handed to them.”

Navigator Games CEO Will Moore says: “We had such a positive response to our in-game band collaborations last year, we wanted to keep the momentum going into 2022.

“We have several surprises planned this year, and what better way to kick things off, than by bringing DISTURBED’s iconic mascot to life.

“It was such a natural fit to include ‘The Guy’ in Eddie’s world and have them battle the forces of evil together.”

In “Iron Maiden: Legacy Of The Beast”, metal and RPG gaming fans take on the role of the band’s iconic mascot Eddie who travels across a spectacularly diverse array of worlds by traveling through time in captivating 3D environments. Eddie appears in many forms, each a part of IRON MAIDEN’s rich history, and each with a set of special powers and abilities.

Over the years, the game has expanded to include 20 dungeons and six unique Worlds, from the pits of Hell, Ancient Egypt, World War II to the far future, hundreds of characters including 90 Eddies based on classic MAIDEN album covers. A vast array of enemies — corrupt Demons (Lucifer, Baphomet), Gods (Horus, Osiris, Odin) and Monsters, a bloody Player vs Player Battle Arena and a ruthless Gauntlet feature designed to satisfy new players and hardcore long-term players. The latest feature “Clans” allows players to join forces with their blood brothers to complete team tasks and face off against monstrous Raid Bosses. All to an in-game soundtrack of over 30 IRON MAIDEN tracks, including “The Trooper”, “Where Eagles Dare”, “Aces High” and more.

“Iron Maiden: Legacy Of The Beast” is an action-packed, free-to-play mobile game available on Apple’s App Store and Google Play.

In a new interview with Alicia Atout, DREAM THEATER singer James LaBrie explained the origins of the nickname “Pirate,” which was given to him by one of his bandmates. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I have a proclivity of being somewhat… I guess I can be moody at times, but normally I’m usually straight and even and a real nice guy. But there’s this tendency of me, depending on what’s going on on the road, and it’s usually if I’m not feeling well — like anybody — I can get moody. So Jordan Rudess, our esteemed keyboard player… One day I was in one of those moods, just, like, ‘Hey, just leave me alone. I’m dealing with stuff. I’ve got a really wicked cold,’ and whatever; that whole singer syndrome bullshit that goes on. So he started calling me, he goes, ‘No problem there, Pirate.’ And I looked over and I go, ‘What? What did you say?’ And he called me a pirate, ’cause he goes, ‘Well, you’re like an angry pirate.’ And I said, ‘Okay. Whatever.’ And then he just started calling me that all the time. So the days went on, and he’d just say, ‘Hey, Pirate.’ And then somebody else on the crew would hear him and they’d go, ‘Oh, Pirate. What, are you calling James ‘Pirate’?’ That’s how it started — like, seriously. It was that easy… It’s nothing like the band started going, ‘Hey, man. James, you remind me of a pirate.’ It all came from Jordan. And it stuck… Well, he calls me ‘Captain’ sometimes too. ‘Hey, Captain.'”

DREAM THEATER kicked off its “Top Of The World” 2022 North American tour on February 2 at the Mesa Arts Center in Mesa, Arizona. Fan-filmed video footage of the concert can be seen below.

The rescheduled dates for DREAM THEATER’s postponed North American leg of the “Top Of The World” tour will run seven weeks before ending in Austin, Texas on March 21. The tour will also make stops in Los Angeles, California; Montreal, Quebec, Canada; New York City and Dallas, Texas, among others, and will mark the first live performances of music from DREAM THEATER’s latest release, “A View From The Top Of The World”. ARCH ECHO is the opener on all dates in the United States and FALSET will be the opener on all of the dates in Canada. Information on tickets for all upcoming shows as well as VIP packages can be found at www.dreamtheater.net.

Last November, DREAM THEATER was announced as one of the “Best Metal Performance” nominees at the 64th annual Grammy Awards, which will be held on April 3, 2022 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The progressive metal legends were nominated for their song “The Alien”, the first single from “A View From The Top Of The World”, which came out in October.

DREAM THEATER’s previous Grammy nominations were for the song “On The Backs Of Angels”, from 2011’s “A Dramatic Turn Of Events” album, and the single “The Enemy Inside” from 2013’s “Dream Theater”.

“A View From The Top Of The World” marked DREAM THEATER’s second studio album with InsideOut Music/Sony Music. The artwork was created by longtime cover collaborator Hugh Syme (RUSH, IRON MAIDEN, STONE SOUR). “A View From The Top Of The World” was produced by guitarist John Petrucci, with engineering and additional production by James “Jimmy T” Meslin and mixing and mastering by Andy Sneap.