World Without God＜Picture Vinyl＞

In the mid-‘90s, it was certainly tough times for death metal bands in the U.S., as MTV all but turned its back on anything resembling metal (Headbangers Ball went bye-bye for a spell), and most rock fans seemed to be embracing either post-grunge copycats or obnoxious rap-metallists. However, there were still a few death metal acts that paid no mind to musical trends (for better or worse), a case in point being Convulse. This Finnish band unleashed one of the more intense death metal releases of the decade, World Without God, but not long after its 1992 release, it went out of print. Now the fine folks at Relapse have saved this album from obscurity, by dusting if off and remastering/repackaging/expanding it. Consult your "death metal checklist" and all the prerequisites are on display here -- guttural growls, indecipherable lyrics, nonstop riffing, brutal beats, and, of course, foul song titles ("Putrid Intercourse," etc.). True, it may sound like your average/ordinary death metal band by and large, but you have to give these chaps credit for sticking to their guns and unleashing World Without God during a time that was a world without death metal. ~ Greg Prato