Review: Revulsion ‘Revulsion’
Finland had an excellent year of extreme metal in 2020, releases from Gorephilia, Havukruunu, Oranssi Pazuzu, Sepulchral Curse, Lantern, Proscription, and Ymir to name just a few have been proudly polluting many a collectors cabinets. So, will 2021 be another bumper year of Finnish metal? Well it starts off for me with this debut record from Pohjois-Pohjamaa’s very own Revulsion, it’s self titled and is being released 5th February via Transcending Obscurity Records, who I must say also had a stellar 2020.
This label is just killing it with consistently great releases that also come with some sensational merch. So hats off to Transcending Obscurity for being awesome and here’s to another great year of music from them. I personally have treated myself to Lithuanian death metallers Crypts Of Despair’s sophomore release coming out later this year and Portuguese death doomers Sepulcros’s debut out in March. Go check those out if you fancy something new!
So another debut record, but this is a little different… Revulsion have been together for sixteen years…that’s right sixteen years! In that time they’ve released three demo’s, the last back in 2016. On reading this, and being unfamiliar with the group, I was immediately hoping that the group favour quality over quantity, and that this self titled record would be a carefully pieced together quagmire of Finnish brutality. What we have is some modern Finnish death metal, with just a twist of the old school flavour that we all love. This five piece up the ante in terms of the heavy as this is an unrelenting, ferocious slab of cold and calculated death metal.
The record kicks off with Last Echoes Of Life which is utterly monstrous. The riffs are crushing, yet full of groove and spite, coupled with vicious yet precise drumming and driving bass. You’re only thirty seconds in and already on to a winner. Up steps Aleksi Huhta to blast out some killer gutturals, which will take your innards and turn them outwards. The track does slow to a mid paced section adding some nice variation early on in the record, allowing them to expand on their sound, taking it to the next level by adding some welcome atmosphere to the crushing display.
an unrelenting, ferocious slab of cold and calculated death metal…
Revulsion keep it heavy with the thunderous Pyre and Walls, the former including some incisive bass play from Toumas Alatalo, who slices through the riffs with his excellent bass work that Steve Digiorgio would be proud of. The group then slow things down with the killer Mustaa Hiiltä, a more doomy affair and which I believe translates to Black Carbon. If it does, it’s the perfect title for this powerful and earthy track, sounding like every hit of the drums from Atte Karppinen is raising the earth from around your feet. It’s an excellent moment on the album and probably my favourite track on the record.
The second half of the record keeps up the same quality as the first, with tracks like Unravel which continue to devastate me as there is even some Ulcerate style harmonics from the guitar department that sound super cool. However, it’s the end of the record which blows me away as Revulsion decide to up the abrasiveness on their monstrous sound with grooving tracks like Silence, but its album closer Viimeinen Rituaali that steals the show. It’s where Aleksi Huhta sounds at his most animalistic, the track chops and changes but there’s no winding down as the it finishes with cataclysmic barbarity and then silence…. you almost have to catch your breath, it’s a killer way to finish a record.
To refer back to my earlier ponderous thought ‘Will 2021 be another bumper year of Finnish metal?’ Well, if it continues like this then it’s clearly going to be another excellent year. Revulsion have clearly taken their sixteen years to hone their sound and piece together this record. It also helps that the production is fantastic… it just completely nails the atmosphere and sound that Revulsion are blasting out, all the instruments come through clearly and nothing gets buried in the wall of sound.
If you ever listen to my recommendations then I would suggest you go and pick this up, especially if you’re a fan of modern death metal that has a bunch of character. Even if you’re an old fart like me and still stuck listening to Cause Of Death, this will still sound good to your tinnitus ridden ears.
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp | Instagram
Scribed by: Matt Alexander
