Reflections

The vast majority of the 90s Finnish death metal scene on their second albums went into distinctly different and mostly non-extreme music - assuming none of these bands broke up at the debut (or demos) period. Convulse was no different. Well, after the release of "World Without God", which quickly made a great impression in the underground (also due to a modest limitation from Thrash Records), Rami Jämsä's band decided to drift into lighter, death'n'roll climates. Surprisingly, they managed to go into such joyful regions, despite the death of the second guitarist Janni Kuhanen and the appearance in his place of Toni Honkala from a very dingy Purtenance. In this way (on the way there was also a promo and an ep announcing the album), "Reflections" was created - the first of Convulse's albums, by which Finns were - wrongly - referred to as "one shot band".

Well, the main problem with "Reflections" is that...it has almost nothing to do with the content of "World Without God". In fact, the only link between these albums - apart from most of the line-up - is still quite a powerful growl of Rami (although there are some exceptions to this style of singing too - about it later). Suddenly that's all! However, it doesn't mean that the second Convulse album is a bad release. I will say more, for a death'n'roll with a pinch of stoner patents, "Reflections" fares really well. If this album had a different band name, I suspect people would not have offended the release so prematurely.

The music itself makes up for it with spontaneity, brilliant, slightly sabbath-like melodies, crazy rhythms (of course as for standards of death'n'roll), solos with hard rock power, not the worst clean vocals of Rami (fortunately, used in moderation and not yielding to growls) and very juicy production. The confirmation of this type of great fun in creating their own sounds on the border of rock'n'roll and death metal are for example "The Green Is Gray", "Crying Back Yesterday", "Years Of Decay", "Memories" or "The Rite Of Sunshine". "Lost Equilibrium" and "The New Arrival" are also interesting, as they show that even in a seemingly narrow style such as death'n'roll, they could somewhat interfere with melodies or structures (in the second one there is a place for electronic side!), as well as building the atmosphere (in the first of these due to an extensive introduction). Actually, the only flaw from the "Reflections" is its kitsch-folk "Intro", which would be more suited...to early In Flames! It does not overlap as efficiently as the other, regular songs with each other - hence it's best to click through this introduction.

Despite a lot of advantages, "Reflections" is an album that, unfortunately, does not stand up to comparisons with "World Without God". Yes, it does not lack sensible catchiness and interesting ideas, although mostly the gloomy atmosphere and heaviness came into the greatest uniqueness of this band. Here, there was clearly no middle balance between dingy death metal and lively death'n'roll, to rate it on the same high level as on the debut. Perhaps then Convulse would not split-up so quickly.

Originally on: https://subiektywnymetal.blogspot.com/2020/12/convulse-reflections-1994.html