As one of the oldest Finnish death metal veterans, Convulse have a somewhat interesting history, to say the least. Beginning as a full-on death metal band in 1990, the debut demo, Resuscitation of Evilness, as well as the 1991 debut album,World Without God, were more or less successful attempts from Convulse to flex their death metal muscles for the whole world. Fast-forward two decades, and new life had been breathed into the old Convulse corpse. Who would have expected to see Convulse making new music in 2012?! A year later, in early November 2013, Convulse's third album, Evil Prevails, was unleashed by Svart Records onto the death metal world. The album introduced eight songs of dark, wicked and "true" death metal - the "true" Convulse style. Churning out dogmatically heavy, untamed, and aggressive death metal, seeing the band return to its true roots was exactly what death metal maniacs needed. It's a funny thing how history has this strange tendency to repeat itself from time to time, which applies to Convulse's musical crusade throughout the band's existence. Since the days of Evil Prevails, Convulse - now a three-piece after guitarist Kristian Kangasniemi left the troops - has once-again sorta "re-discovered" some new ways to express itself musically...like it or not. The band's forthcoming, fourth album, Cycle of Revenge, has been in process for many months already, and during those months, the Convulse trio composed eight new songs. The album is shaping up to receive nearly the same musical treatment as what previously happened between the band's first two albums back in the early '90s.
However, on Cycle of Revenge, Convulse really haven't gone back to their "death 'n' roll" mode, but have still made a radical musical shift. Try to imagine combining some of Pink Floyd's psychedelic, airy moments with Finnish prog-rock masters Kingston Wall's beautiful, ear-tickling melodies. Throw in the genuine angst and despair-ridden melancholia of Sentenced's Amok album, and even add some grooviness ?la Sepultura's later era or Soulfly, then spice it all up with Rami Jamsa's trademark-ish throaty and belly-trembling death grunts. You may now have some sort of an idea what can be expected from Cycle of Revenge.
Scared now? Well, perhaps you should not be after all, as Cycle of Revenge, sincerely said, may well be this semi-legendary band's best work to date. No kidding, folks. You will be the judge...
