Review Summary: A hell of an album, with that ephemeral sense of fun original death 'n' roll had back in the nineties
If you aren't familiar with it, I'd recommend listening to Godfall's The Sound of Robogroove. It's a fifteen minute aural crash course in why death 'n' roll became a thing, essentially boiling down to an infectious sense of fun. Everyone's having a grand time, leaving the somewhat codified death metal realm and messing around with whatever, with a gleefulness not unlike that of early post-punk. The material may be less abrasive, but the same overarching experimentation principles hold. The world's your oyster, you can spice your death/rock hybrid however you like! Godfall may have been a bit derivative of Paraxism, but still shed their trademark moog/violin for a more cybernetic vibe and matching synths. Unfortunately, just like early post-punk, the initial fire inevitably fizzled out. Death 'n' roll now is but a codified representation of the Entombed school, and deviations from the norm are few and far between. The last fully successful one was a decade ago, when Conan's First Date injected some modernised groove and deep drop tuning into a template seemingly reconstructed anew from the inspiration source, but since then things have been awfully formulaic.
Convulse were one of the earliest Xysma followers, cutting a death 'n' roll full length in 1992 that took a couple of years to see the light of day, and recently reconnected with their experimental side on 2016's Cycle of Revenge. They can still put on a blazing live show of their cult classic debut album, which grants them an Electric Six-like freedom to get up to whatever they feel like in the studio. Cycle of Revenge was a wildly uneven album, with tremendous highs front-loading a bulk of middling drivel, but the seeds were sown for something cool if the band followed through on the promise of the good parts. That, and they loosened up a bit in terms of performance. Even the jammiest moments of the predecessor felt mechanically precise and rather unnatural as a result.
Deathstar finds the band refining their vision, landing in a very 70's influenced realm. However, the material at hand is more complex than pure olden time prog/rock worship. The melodicism is greatly indebted to folk, even the riffs take on some of this colouration. In true death 'n' roll fashion, the vocals are the odd ones out, but the cavernous growls positioned low in the mix serve more of a textural role anyway. Convulse also goes deep on the gradual buildup, with prolonged sections jamming on a riff idea and slowly amping up the dynamics and arrangement. These moments put a lot of pressure on the drummer, who thankfully became a lot more fluid since last time and is up to the task of carrying the proceedings. The bulk of the record adheres to this styling, with some songs mostly eaten up by such prolonged buildup sections. "Whirlwind" theoretically has some other parts, but things really kick off once the interlude begins, a flurry of band chemistry and a snare dancing around various rhythm accent ideas. It's honestly hard to fish for highlights, all of the tracks in the style have something going for them. Musically, "The Summoning" is the clear frontrunner, with a particularly elated gallop and subdued synth melodies floating overhead. Sounds like something Paraxism could have cooked up in their heyday. However, the droning vocals early in the song detract from the experience. As such, which tune takes the cake? "Light My Day" with its roadside rock verse and particularly inspired chorus melody? "Make Humanica Great Again" with its spine-chilling clean arpeggios and wonderful band hive mind during the ostinato-rich guitar solo? "Extreme Dark Light" with its hypnotising intro and subtle juxtaposition of 3/4 and 6/8? "We Sold Our Soul For Rock'n Roll" with its swagger and Pakeni-like organ? Does it even matter? All of this is great stuff.
The album's comparatively weaker moments come when the band deviates from this style. "Chernobyl" is a mess of poorly appropriated shifting minor chords, Kars4Kids-tier cookie monster vocal hooks and surf guitar. Nothing about the song works, even the mix is off. The surf guitar sections are supposed to have a bit of duality going on with a steady palm muted rhythm in the background, but it's buried too far down to be apparent unless you're explicitly listening for it. The title track isn't half bad, but it doesn't mesh stylistically, with the verse chug having more to do with nineties Sepultura than the dominant record styling. It also doesn't help that the interlude doesn't get to spread its wings for a few minutes of escalating build-up, a privilege most other tracks get, but rather takes on the form of a bleak arpeggio and minimal lead melody. Neither of these is a complete clunker (in fact, in isolation "Deathstar" is a pretty solid cut!), but they stick out in context.
It wouldn't be blasphemous to knee-jerk dismiss the album as hard rock played in dropped tuning with growls, as many a death 'n' roll record was in the past by purists. However, inspection reveals there's a lot more going on here than you'd expect from the template. You've got folk infusions, not unlike what some of Convulse's compatriots explored back in the nineties. You've got a focus on dynamics and buildup that has more in common with post-rock than any other pursuer of the style. All of this gets tied together by lovely band chemistry. Frankly, the only thing putting the death into death 'n' roll here are the vocals, the C tuning and occasional moments of picking action. That loose association is enough to become the genre's most exciting release in years. It's a hell of an album, with that ephemeral sense of fun the original adopters had back in the nineties. Convulse spiced up their death/rock hybrid with whatever they felt like, and it worked out this time.
