UMUR
"Evil Prevails" is the 3rd full-length studio album by Finnish death metal act Convulse. The album was released through Svart Records in November 2013. Convulse started out under the S.D.S. monicker playing a more thrashy/speed metal type music, but changed their name to Convulse and released "World Without God (1992)" and "Reflections (1994)" before disbanding. So "Evil Prevails" is a comeback album for Convulse. A comeback just short of 20 years after their last album was released.
The music on the album is old school death metal and in that respect Convulse continue where they left off. Deep growling (and rather monotone and emotionless) vocals, old school death metal riffing that often lean towards brutal thrash metal and generally simple song structures. Some tracks are better than others, but the quality level is decent all the way through. The playing is tight yet with a nice organic touch and that´s probably where "Evil Prevails" stand out slightly from the pack. It´s especially in the guitar solo sections of the tracks, where a bluesy/rock´n´roll feeling often creeps in. Take a listen to the closing minute of a track like "World Downfall" to hear in example of that. However it´s an often occuring stylistic element throughout the album. That doesn´t mean that a death´n´roll tag would be valid though, this is still first and foremost an old school sounding death metal release.
"Evil Prevails" features a professional and organic sound production which suits the music well. Had the songwriting been a bit more memorable my overall impression of the album would have been better, but while the album plays it´s still a pretty good death metal release by Convulse and a 3.5 star (70%) rating isn´t all wrong.