Evile: Prepare For Hell

Since the 80s thrash has been dominated by America and Germany with the likes of SLAYER, MEGADETH and KREATOR to name but a few stealing the spotlight. When the thrash metal revival of the 00s came to fruition one band came from nowhere to proudly fly the flag for the UK and that was EVILE.

After a string of headlining tours and festival runs the band were firing on all cylinders and it seemed like there was no mountain tall enough for them to climb. Despite their success it has been far from plain sailing. The band encountered the untimely loss of their beloved bassist Mike Alexander in 2009 and in 2013 guitarist Ol Drake announced his departure from the band. Many thought that this signalled the end of EVILE. “I was completely done, I didn’t want to do music anymore,” explains Ol. “I wanted to have kids, have a family, get a job and some money for once! I wasn’t thinking about music at all anymore at that point. I was just burned out. It got to the point where we played in Taiwan and it was like a 20,000 mile round trip, we were away for five days, played for 45 minutes and made approximately £20 so I began to question why I was even doing it anymore.”

Five years passed and although the band was kept alive with brief pockets of activity the fans were starting to lose hope and it seemed like the flame was all but extinguished. Before this could happen it was announced that Ol was making his triumphant return and they announced a new album was in the works. Sadly this news was but a mere glimmer of excitement as EVILE continued to stay dormant until the sudden announcement was made that frontman Matt Drake had stepped away from the band.

“I think we knew it was coming at some point,” admits Ol. “Matt‘s health wasn’t great, he has three kids and a demanding full time job. There was a year of waiting for him to write some vocals and lyrics. Musically the album was finished in July of 2019 and it was just a case of waiting for vocals and lyrics but because of the situation they just never came. I’d be messaging every other day.”

The album Ol is referencing is Hell Unleashed which is due for release at the end of April. The first EVILE album in almost a decade is nearly upon us. “This is by no means a detriment to Matt but him leaving the band allowed us to just get cracking as we didn’t have that obstacle to overcome anymore. I don’t think he is interested in music anymore at this stage. He’s not even commented on the new stuff, he might not have even listened to it!”

We got our first taste of what to expect with the first single and title track Hell Unleashed which surfaced in February accompanied by news that Ol would be taking up vocal duties and Adam Smith from thrash compatriots RIPTIDE would be joining the fold. “We thought about getting a new singer in but we know what metal fans are like,” quips Ol. “We talked about it and decided that the path of least resistance was a familiar face and that I’d just have to do it. I’m better at playing and singing at the same time than I thought I was. My only issue was learning to sing without damaging my throat because I was tasting blood. I’ve been working with Melissa Cross, the vocal coach and trying to learn as much as I can.”

The new track was by far the most intense material we have witnessed under the banner of EVILE and it grabbed a lot of attention achieving thousands upon thousands of views and streams. “Our main goal on this album was to take things back to what we initially intended to do which is just sound evil and dark, heavy and fast but just keep it fun. We wanted every song to keep your attention and have really good riffs. Just no bullshit, thrash metal,” declares Ol. “I think our later albums went a bit too far in some respects but I still like them for what they are but doing this album made me realise that we have neglected what we should have been doing. When I rejoined and we started writing music I realised that it was becoming more aggressive. With me being a fan of old school death metal like OBITUARY and DEICIDE and feeling that kind of edge to it I thought let’s just go with it. I love the likes of SEPULTURA and their death-thrash approach which they unfortunately only did for a couple of albums but I thought let’s add another to that.”

As well as solving the lineup conundrum EVILE were also faced with starting from scratch and acquiring the services of a label. “Before I joined the band again I know Matt was talking to Napalm. I know a few other labels were interested but when Matt left they just weren’t interested anymore and thought it wasn’t going to work for them,” states Ol. “Napalm still maintained an interest and stayed on board with us and I’ve got massive respect for them taking a chance on us.”

Hell Unleashed is out now via Napalm Records.

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