When we presented part 1 of the Myspace Metal Maze feature back in June, Pete Worral (when he talks we all listen and so should you!) listed Evile as “perhaps THE hardest working MySpace band I've seen and rightly have a deal in the bag with an album to follow in August.”
That album, ‘Enter The Grave’ is reviewed here, and Pete is warming to his theme:
“When it was recently announced by the ‘mighty’ NME that thrash metal was making a come back, the whole metal scene were thankful that NME's had its finger on the pulse of metal because we had no idea. Exodus, Onslaught, Destruction, Kreator, Overkill, Death Angel, Slayer and Testament amongst many others were playing thrash and more thrash and the devoted fans were lapping it up. Now that the magazines have become bored with ‘core' and 'emo' it's returning to one of the corner stones of metal itself. This has something to do with the emergence of young thrash bands such as SSS, Municipal Waste and Evile. The latter is a band I've been championing ever since I saw them at Bloodstock Open Air in 2006. Thankfully someone in Earache had also noticed their potential and given them a deal because Evile are a band who have the ability and songs to steam roller over any current trend and perhaps become Britain's saviours of metal.” … So there!
A brief history lesson for those not in the know: after 3 years of gigging in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, under the name 'Metal Militia', playing mainly Metallica songs, the band decided they'd had enough of the covers side of things, and started dedicating themselves to writing their own material. Having written four original songs of their own they changed their name to Evile. With classic 80's thrash elements mixed with a more melodic sound; Evile started creating what would be known as the ‘All Hallows
Eve’ EP.
In May of this year, guitarist Ol Drake spoke of teaming up with producer Flemming Rasmussen to work on their debut full length release:
"It was an amazing experience to meet such an important guy who played a huge part in the history and evolution of metal. Not only is he an awesome and down to earth guy, he really fucking knows what he's talking about. We all already have a great feeling about how the debut's going to turn out with his input alone!"
The album was recorded at Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen. Once home from Denmark Drake enthused: "We made an old school thrasher feel young again, which to me shows us we're on the right track. If we can add to a Thrasher's collection, we're happy. That's what we want to do, give people some extra thrash action. We're not trying to be the Next Big anything, we just want to Thrash. It was excellent working with Flemming. I admit his involvement with Metallica was slightly daunting but once we were in there he made us feel so at home and relaxed that it didn't matter anymore. He's just a really cool, easy to get along with guy. We couldn't be anymore pleased with how the album's turned out.”
No band, regardless of the talk, is met with universal acclaim. As Pete Worral explains, their oldschool sound can be divisive.
“Evile are one of those bands who get mixed reactions for exactly the same reasons. I have read reviews saying their album is poor because it offers nothing new, sounds like slayer etc, and is of a scene that has been dead for 17 years. On the other hand i have read reviews (including my own) that love it for precisely the same reasons. The great thing about Evile is that they do is SOOO well.”
Much touring following the release of the album, including dates with Sanctity in October, has seen them live up to their hardworking label.
Their year will be rounded off with an appearance at the second Metal Hammer Get in the Ring show in London this month. Joining Evile will be Engel, Goat The Head and Viking Skull.
Matt Drake singer and guitarist of Evile states: "Evile are about to set off to tibet to train with fighting heavy metal monks and upon our return to the UK for Get In The Ring, we will be ready to unleash our skills and a whirlwind of thrash metal violence upon the other bands and the judges, we will be more evil than skeletor, wiser than splinter, faster than cheetara and harder than inspector gadget!!”
So not only do they rock, but they’ve a good working knowledge of retro kids TV: do you really need any other reason why we’ve picked them for one of our featured bands to round off 2007?
See the rest of our featured artists
here.