Formed in 2004, UK Thrashers Evile have released two well received demo's and played numerous high profile gigs. With them being quickly and understandably snapped up by Earache, we caught up with front-man and Guitarist Matt Drake to see how things are.

Metal Mayhem: Thanks for answering a few of our questions. How are things going?
Matt Drake: Things are going pretty well at the moment, our country isn't being invaded or anything presently so that's good news! we're just getting down to the basics of being in a signed band, so we're all pretty excited what's going to be around the corner really!

MM: Yeah, congratulations on the Earache signing! it must have been a great surprise. How did the deal come about? MD: Thankyou! it was a great surprise, its one of those things we never actually expected to happen really. I know that NO-ONE will believe this but as a band we never actually discussed what we'd ever do if we got signed etc, the whole "when we get signed blah blah...." stuff never came up. its true! so we were pretty taken aback by the sudden attention! We didn't know at the time but the label head honcho, Digby Pearson, was at a gig we played in Nottingham at junktion7, apparently he liked what he saw/heard, we were completely unaware. Then it turned out he was watching us again at Bloodstock Open Air Festival in July, probably to double check on us in case we

played like a dirty pile of wank! a few days after that I got an email from him saying he liked the band and he wanted our two CD's sending.... so the next few months were spent in an email back and forth in which contracts were finally sent and we went down to Nottingham to sign. I'd also like to add that we weren't allowed to tell anyone what was going on, so we pretty much had to lie to everyone we knew when they started to guess something was going on, so I would like to say sorry to all the people we told that nothing was going, we aren't liars, we just had to keep it secret haha!

MM: Can you please introduce yourself and the rest of the band?
MD: I'm Matt Drake, rhythm guitarist and lead singer, my brother Ol Drake is the lead guitarist - he has cool hair. Our drummer is a tiny skinny man called Ben Carter who I've known since we were 12, and our bass player is a large black man called Mike Alexander!

MM: And how did you guys get together. Were you in bands before Evile?
MD: Me and Ben have been jamming together since we were young, him and me used to stay late after school/college and raid the music room and just play Metallica songs until we got kicked out or couldn't be arsed anymore! so we've always pretty much known we were going to be in a band together. When we actually started to seriously contemplate doing it properly, Ol had just started playing guitar, so he joined us occasionally, and then became pretty damn good so we figured getting a bass player was the next logical step - even with no singer as of yet. Ben has been in countless other bands, and I mean COUNTLESS, he's probably drummed for the Queen Mum so she could walk down a flight of stairs in good rhythm. We advertised for a bass player in a local music shop, some numptys answered the call who didn't even have a bass guitar, then this other guy rang called Mike, we met up, got on well - he was telling me how he wasn't even going to bother ringing in response for the advert as bands had actually turned him away in the past for being a black dude!!! which is the most disgraceful fucking thing I may have ever heard, whoever those bands are I hope they get a multitude of STD's. Anyway, we got our first practice together, it went fucking well, just jamming some of our favourite thrash tunes, and then realized we didn't have a singer, so I gave it a try, turns out I could do it! then we got started on songwriting! next question please sir!

MM: For those who have yet to hear Evile, what can they expect?
MD: If you're fed up with the state of current day metal, and no bands are producing great songs that you're going to remember in 20 years time anymore, then you might like us, expect metal cultivated from its roots, where the songs have character all of their own, and each band sounded like themselves, not anyone else. Oh yeah and we play thrash fucking metal, heavy fast epic blistering fucking metal.

MM: Who would you say are your main influences as a band? MD: As a band we have so many different influences, as we all contribute to the songwriting it keeps things fresh, you can kinda tell who has written what part of what song by using the following guide haha..... I'm mostly influenced by my favourite bands Metallica and Slayer, I love Metallica's character and huge thought in the songs. I love slayers no nonsense fucking speed, so my stuff usually revolves around that feel. Ol's influenced by a lot of death metal bands, so that shines through in areas. His lead playing is mostly influenced by Jeff

Waters and Alex Skolnik but it still sounds like Ol playing which is great.
Mikes stuff is mostly influenced by Exodus, Overkill, Testament and Bens I would say is mostly Onslaught and Metallica, and when you roll all these influences into a giant ball and flatten it out, it comes out as thoroughly thrashy, but still Evile. I think we've managed to be influenced by all these older bands yet still craft something that sounds like EVILE, no matter who says we sound like whoever!

MM: You released two demos before the Earache deal came about, can you tell us a bit about how they were received by the fans and in the press. Will these still be available to buy?
MD: The first ep - All Hallows Eve - was received pretty well, I think at the time there were a handful of bands in the UK doing thrash, so it came as a pleasant listen to fans of the old school metal variety. Most reviews of it were good, but it was a pretty mid paced affair and I think it felt like we were finding our feet and an identity as a band still and we hadn't quite managed it yet. It helped to get us recognized, we got the attention of the power-metal.co.uk crew who helped us out, we owe them a fair bit! but people were just glad to hear a kind of metal that just wasn't being played anymore in the UK. As we gigged more and more we got our shit together, got tighter, better songwriters, and started on the follow up CD "Hell" which we planned to be a demonstration of songs we would have on an album if the chance ever arose, and to be honest we fucking nailed it, we figured out what we were doing, what we wanted to play, sound like, look like, and Evile gradually had more and more of an identity. When we brought the Hell demo out, the first track, "Enter the Grave", just blew people away, it was pure thrash! we used the same producer on both CD's, Alan Smith - performance studios, he just fully understood what we were doing and did a great job on the demo. We have that 80's thrash style, but it still feels modern in a way, but we're going to get slammed for sounding 80's anyway, when we're influenced by 80's thrash its a given really haha. But that's what we fucking love, that's what we're always going to write and play and people really enjoyed the CD, all of it. It got great reviews and we were really happy and chuffed to have people respond to it the way they did. People were even going crazy over the artwork done by Lee Gaskins which was awesome. Of course some people hate our music because we're being judged against such a high standard of bands such as Slayer etc (probably - everyone has their reasons) but you cant please everyfuckingone! the Hell demo will still be available to buy as long as we can make them! but Hallows Eve isn't available anymore, its been taken off sale! yussss.

MM: Though unsigned at the time, you guys were hand-picked to play 2 prestigious UK festivals this summer - Bloodstock Open Air and most recently, Damnation Festival. How did they go down?
MD: Bloodstock was absolutely incredible, easily the best gig we've played. We were incredibly honoured to be picked to headline the 2nd stage (beer tent - score!) and people just loved it, people had actually traveled from miles over just to see us, which is a great feeling to know that people appreciate what we do! I remember walking around the site with Ben in the afternoon sun, 5 hours til we went on stage, just wandering around, surrounded by metallers drinking, having a laugh, getting along, and just thinking "I want to do this every fucking day" it was just a great place to be. Metal Church were just finishing playing as we went on and people were already waiting for us to play, which threw us slightly "you should be watching metal church they're huge!!!!!?????" but unbelievably no, people were there for us and up for a good fucking thrashing!!! and when Metal Church finished we'd been on 10 minutes and the tent just got rammed and people were jumping around, singing along, battering each other. Fucking Brilliant! And the Damnation Festival, sharing a stage with The Haunted and Biomechanical was just tremendous, everyone there was fucking cool to us, even though most people probably didn't know who we were I think, I'm not sure, but it was a great day opening the main stage. Meeting all these bands who have been doing it a lot longer than we have, you learn things about being in a band when you play things like that!

MM: What we all want to know about is when will work start on the Earache debut? Will there be totally new songs or will there be a few reworked demo tracks? MD: Well we're currently throwing ideas back and forth with the label about the details for an album, we're looking at maybe early 2007 for recording - March-ish, late summer 2007 release!! which we cant bloody wait for. Song wise - the Hell tracks will be re-recorded for it, done properly, maybe re-worked, we're not sure yet.

the rest will most likely be new songs that we're currently working on, one of which we tested live a while ago! its about rambo haha. I just cant wait to hold the finished product in my hand, an actual Evile album, it's scary to realize it's actually going to happen, but we hope it's going to be welcomed into the metal world, we write the stuff for us, because we bloody love thrash, and if other people get into it and get behind us, fucking brilliant. If people don't like it, then don't listen to it! we'll find out next year I guess!

MM: Now with the backing of Earache, where would you like to be this time next year, or what would you have liked to have achieved?
MD: We'd like to have a round of 200 gigs under our belt, as all we want to do is play live, every night if we could. We want to have played in the USA, and play at least 1 major festival. We'd like every metalhead in the world to have heard the name EVILE, whether they love us or hate us, they've heard the name. We'd like to see the album in shops, I'd like to hear James Hetfield say he's bought a copy!!!! and another personal one, id like to have supported Slayer.

MM: Thanks again and we wish you the best for the future. Are there any last shout outs or comments you have?
MD: A thank you to yourselves for taking an interest in us, thanks for your time in asking us these metalriffic questions, same time next year we'll see if any of those things come true!! thrash fucking metal!!!!

http://www.evile.co.uk
http://www.myspace.com/evileuk

Chris Rogers