Interview with Rami of Convulse 2013

By Bradley Smith

Your new EP, Inner Evil is finally wreaking havoc on the underground with music that mercilessly cruel.  How did it feel writing new material, and how is the dynamic of the band now that you are older and wiser and there are new band members compared to the original line-up?  I think I read the new album is kind of what you envision you should have created as a follow-up to World Without God.  Is that true and how do you mean that?

New Convulse is a band with adult members, with a lot of more knowledge than 20 years ago. It means we can concentrate on playing and writing new material instead of arguing against each other. Of course it makes everything easier when you have over 100 years experience of metal music in your band. You just simply know what you are doing.

 I still prefer the WWG is simply better album than Reflections. Of course it is hard to compare them, so different they are. WWG is dark, brutal, violent and Reflections is groovy without decent groove.  Reflections was an ambitious effort to set Convulse musically on the next level. The effort was good, but the result was not so brilliant. The Sunlight studio production was far too sterile. We didn´t have chance to take part in mixing sessions, so we just got the finished album after couple of months.

So in my album ranking "Reflections" is not in so high position. So I remember Convulse as an old school death metal band rather than grinding rock band with growls. So in my mind I am now writing material for the descendant of World without god.

A few years ago the world was treated to the rerelease of your debut, World Without God.  What led up to this renewed interest in Convulse and how do you feel looking back at this piece of your personal history?  What sort of emotions went through you as you got this project together and listened to this music again? 

Death metal landed to Finland in 89-90. I remember being very amazed when I heard first time bands like Death, Pestilence, Entombed, Bolthrower.

I just wanted to form Convulse and play death metal like my idols. I am very proud of being part of making some solid death metal by myself also. When we started to rehearse again WWG material, we soon noticed how strong and brutal songs we have in our hands.  At first it was quite a weird feeling to start practicing songs what I have composed over 20 years ago.

To me Finland has always had an underrated death metal scene.  It seemed to be overshadowed by Florida and Sweden.  Do you agree?  To you what were the most important releases/bands to this scene?

Hard to say, because I live in Finland and I have always loved Finnish death metal. I think Finnish death metals has gain some proper attention nowadays and my personal Finnish favorites were/are Demigod, Abhorrence, Disgrace, A.R.G., Xysma, Funebre, Phlegethon and Sentenced.

Around the time that Xysma released their Yeah album there was a change underway in the Finnish extreme metal scene.  Can you tell me about the development of “Grindrock” as it was called and how it swept Finland?  Where did it begin and what caused that open minded approach to get such a foothold with bands like Disgrace, Xysma and even Convulse on the Reflections album?

I think it was normal evolution of the bands. I have listen to music always very open minded. I remember listening back in 1991-92 pretty much Black Sabbath, Doors, Pink Floyd and even Red Hot Chili Peppers. Of course it leaves an influence in my song writing also. I remember Xysma being the first death metal/grind band who put some rock elements in their music and as you can imagine the scene judged other bands just copying Xysma.  It is pretty weird thought that if you release one album, you should do it again and again and again….development is denied.

What led to the original demise of Convulse?  It seemed you guys disbanded right around the time you were getting the respect and attention that you deserved.

We recorded "Reflections" at the end of 1992 and went straight after it to military service and it lasted the whole 1993 year. We tried to gather together in 1994 and wrote some new songs and recorded even a couple of demos with a different line-up and sound. It simple didn’t work and there was also some sort of motivation problems inside the band. I decided to split Convulse and move on.

Right as the Finnish death metal scene seemed to be gaining steam the Finnish Black metal underground blew up on the international scene with bands like Beherit and Impaled Nazarene.  What effect did this have on the death metal groups up there?  Were you friends with the black metal musicians up there?  How did their success make you feel? 

I wrote letters with Holocausto (Beherit) and I arranged couple of death metal feasts in Nokia and invited Beherit to play there. As a trade Beherit arranged for us couple of shows in Northern Finland (Rovaniemi). I remember staying overnight in the home of Holocausto and he offered black mass for me. I remember being quite embarrassed. I certainly have some opinions about Christianity, but black mass…well let´s say it is not my cup of tea. But overall death metal/black metal scenes were pretty close to each others.

Much is made of the large amounts of lakes in Finland.  What do you think makes Finland special?  What aspects of Finnish history and culture really interest you? 

History of Finland is very interesting.  We have been for centuries a borderland between west and east.  600 years under Swedish regime and 100 years as an autonomic part of the Russia.  Somehow we have managed to keep our own language, create our own culture and finally got independence in 1917.  The whole history of Finland is interesting with wars, cultural development and slowly industrialization.

For a long time Finland led the world in Suicide rates.  Many possibilities were leveled as a reason for this.  I think the most popular reasons were the looooooong hours of darkness and the extreme winter weather confining the residents indoors.  What sort of effects do the long winter nights have on you?

Just read the newspaper and there was statistics that we commit suicides and have violent deaths 2nd most in the world and we have most intoxication deaths in the world. We always try to manage with ourselves and ask seldom any help.  We medicate ourselves with alcohol and when there is no way out we just simply kill our family and ourselves.  Of course this was generalizing, but if you have to always get along by yourself and failure is a personal weakness, it makes life very hard.

And to be honest I don´t remember the day when the sun shined last time.  It is winter here.

As a guitarist, what are the main differences when playing a more melodic style (Reflections) as opposed to a more brutal, rhythm based style (World Without God)?  What mental, emotional and philosophical changes within you occurred that you lead to change your songwriting and lyrics between those two albums?  How was it going back to your early style of playing brutal death metal?

Hey, I am a guitarist ;) Of course you have to be able to play some other stuff than death metal also.

The lyrical approach on World Without God was pretty anti-Christian and embodied some typical death metal topics, but on Reflections there was a more abstract and personal angle.  How would you describe your lyrical approaches on those two albums and what lead to this change?   Also, how do you feel they relate to the lyrics of your modern material and what subject matter is Convulse tackling with the new songs?

I got interested in the history of American Indians, Culture and nature overall and there were some personal losses also. Those things had an effect on the lyrics of “Reflections".  The World is a cruel place, so I have plenty of topics for the lyrics.

What Future Plans do you have both musically and personally?  Any big festivals or tours planned and what can we expect from the new album when it hits the underground?

I´ll try my best to make a brutal and versatile death metal album at autumn. We will play at Maryland Deathfest in May and we will have also some other shows that can be announced later.

I’ll leave any final words of reflection on a world without god to you. 

Thanks for this interview.  Check out our new "Inner Evil" EP from Svart Records.  It will be released 25.1.  You can follow Convulse news in Facebook.  Stay in touch!