Hello Rami, how are you doing?

Fine thanks. Convulse, family and day job are keeping me busy.

First of all, can you tell me why you put the band to rest after two albums which are seen as very good Death Metal Releases nowadays?

We recorded "Reflections" at the end of 1992 and went straight after it to military service. We tried to gather together 1994 and wrote some new songs and recorded even a couple of demos with 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, move on and form a new band Pornorphans.

What do you think was (and is) CONVULSE unique characteristic? Where do you differ to other bands in the genre?

I think we managed to write quite brilliant and versatile songs and rehearsed enough to sound tight together. Nowadays we are even much tighter than before. Now we have over 100 years experience of playing metal music!

How do you see your two albums “World Without God” and “Reflections” from a distance of nearly 20 years?

“World Without God” album was concentrate on pure rage of the 17 years old kids. We demolished all our angst in “World Without God”. I still love that album. When I listen to it today, it makes me feel enraged. So there have to be some odd vibrations in that album. At meantime we have started to listen also a lot of other stuff than death metal for example 70´s rock and progressive bands. It had an effect to my song writing also. I wanted to develop Convulse to next level.
In rehearsals the new material worked out fine, but we did not manage to put the same effort on the recording sessions. We didn´t have even chance to take part in the mixing sessions. So my opinion is that we didn´t manage with "Reflections" as good as we should have. The overall sound is too soft and clean for my opinion. Maybe we just were´t ready to record the album yet.



2012 you reunited. What have all the members done in the time between your split and the reunion?

Living normal life, studied, worked…. I have been playing in Pornorphans, When The Empire falls and some other bands too.

What was reason for the reunion? You have two new members in the reunited line up, why?

At first the idea was to play only one show in our hometown Nokia and have some fun. but soon I noticed how good and motivated we are. I had also couple of new riffs ready. So we decided to play couple of shows more and soon we noticed we have some good old school tracks ready also.
The second guitar player of the “World Without God” (Jani) is dead, the "Reflections" guitarist Toni wasn´t enough interested in playing shows and the drummer Janne hasn´t played for twenty years and lives in Thailand.
So I decided to ask my old friend Rolle to drums (played together since 1998) and you younger talent Krisse to second guitar.

Were you afraid to reunited and nobody would care anymore?

Not really, because I do music anyway. Of course it makes me very happy to notice there are still bunch of old Convulse fans and new are coming all the time trough the door.

I was very excited when I heard that you will out new material. Did you plan to release new stuff when you decided to reunited?

Not at first, but quite soon we noticed that we have fun together and sound too good to play just one show and let it be. I think this is my opportunity to write and record album what we should have done after World without god.

Are your personal musical interests still in metal/ rock or have you found some other music genre in the meantime that you enjoy? What artists do you listen to nowadays?

I listen to music quite open minded. My favorites are Death, Testament, Master, Disharmonic Orchestra, Pestilence, Demigod, Abhorrence, Amorphis, Anthrax, Sepultura, Kiss, Voi Vod, Slayer, Iron Maiden, The Who, Pink Floyd, Kingston Wall, Pekka Pohjola, Black Sabbath, Queensryche, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden,...

Following the last questions – Was it intended to write such an “old school” release like the two songs on the EP again or did you go this way just because you where a Death Metal Band before your split?

They just came out how they came out. I like to play death metal, so I write death metal songs. As I said before, I would like to start again from the point right after WWG-album and rebuild the Convulse again.

The “Inner Evil”-EP will come out this month. Are you excited what the listeners think about it?

Of course I care about the listeners, but I am not not worried because we are satisfied with "Inner Evil"-EP. When we are satisfied, there will be for sure some others who like it too. And the first response has been very promising. I know that die hard fans will compare it to “World Without God” album and that is fine for me. The new songs endures the comparison to “World Without God”. Of course we are not going to do the same album again, but we know our roots even it has been elapsed 20 years between “World Without God” and new beginning of Convulse.

Is the EP the harbinger for a new album? If yes, when can we expect this record? If no, why not?

We have signed to finnish Svart Records for both EP and album. We have for new tracks ready now and we have planned to enter the studio in autumn. So the full length album will come out in the end of this year. I think the EP is very good example what is coming in future.

Do you have any plans to tour Germany in the near future?

We don´t have a band manager, but we try to get decent European tour later this year. Can´t promise anything, but some discussions have been started. So if you want Convulse to play in Europe, just take contact!

Thank you very much for the interview! The last words are yours!

Thank you! Order our EP from Svart records (Cd/Vinyl) or tape straight from me and you will get a fresh punch of old school death metal! The tape includes also some fresh rehearsal recordings from old tracks.