Evile - Enter the Grave
Earache Records
Thrash Metal
10 songs (52:55)
Release year: 2007
Evile, Earache Records
Reviewed by Thomas

For the last 10 years, unwelcome guests such as metalcore and numetal has completely dominated the commercial metal scene. Every other week the big labels would release new, yapping, sissy bands in the vein Trivium, Bullet For My Valentine and Avenged Sevenfold. The unbearable whinig about lost love, tears and hearts that bursts into fire seemed to have settled. Real Metal, and especially thrash metal was almost forgotten amongst to all the hardcore and metalcore bands claiming to be thrash. That was until now. A new generation of thrash metal bands has emerged out of the shadows. During the later years, bands such has Municipal Waste, Warbringer, Merciless Death etc. has tried to establish a retro but modern thrash scene, and have succeeded so far. The thrash metal scene is evergrowing and Evile is one of the definite highlights.

Of all the new retro thrash acts that are around nowadays, Evile is probably closest in sound. They sound like a mix of Slayer, Exodus, Testament and even some old Metallica. Their producer, Flemming Rasmussen has been involved in classic moments such as Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets, and I bet he plays a big role in Evile's quite distinguished career so far. The production is of course much clearer than in the early days, but it is by no means polished. The guitar sound is chopping and dirty, the bass is slightly distorted and the drums are razor sharp. If I didn't know, I would never have guessed that this was released in 2007. From the opening attack, Enter the Grave to the finishing inferno Armoured Assault, Evile deliver quality face-smashing thrash metal out to snap your freakin' spine. The riffs are gallopping and intense, and the hyper-fast sweeping leads sound as evil and mad as in the old days. Some of the lead-work is actually pretty similar to young guns such as Alex Laiho. Although the riffing is mostly fast, it's pretty accessible and catchy too. It is full of hooks and fills which raises the level of excitement a great deal. One of the major pitfalls of general thrash bands is that they're bad at keeping your attention, and has little or no variety. However, don't expect that nothing on this record sounds similar, of course it does, but it doesn't take 20+ listens to actually separate the songs from eachother.

The intense drums and aggressive vocals reminds me of Slayer. The fast, technical drumming strikes you like a shotgun, reminiscent of Dave Lombardo's glory days. Ben Carter varies between hyper-fast and more midpaced rhythms with alot of solid fills. His work is very precise and creative. Vocalist Matt Drake sounds like a slightly more gentle version of Tom Araya. His aggressive shouts fits the mood perfectly, and are probably Evile's strongest part. By driving everything forth with great power, he completes the firm chokehold.

When the heroes of old are failing us, releasing rather mediocre albums, leaning more towards super-polished groove metal, southern influenced country metal, and a more modern sound; It is reassuring to know that bands such as Evile are there to provide us with some good thrash of the old school. This isn't modern nor original. It's nothing you haven't heard before. On the other hand, this is something you wished you heard more of during the last couple of years. This is compelling, aggressive, both fast and mid-paced, raw thrash metal with attitude. This is Evile

Myspace
Killing Songs :
All!
Thomas quoted 91 / 100
Other albums by Evile that we have reviewed:
Evile - Skull reviewed by Goat and quoted 80 / 100
Evile - Five Serpent's Teeth reviewed by Jake and quoted 87 / 100
Evile - Infected Nations reviewed by Kyle and quoted 50 / 100
3 readers voted
Average:
 86
Your quote was: 90.
Change your vote

There are 9 replies to this review. Last one on Tue Nov 18, 2008 12:31 pm
View and Post comments