Evile

British thrashers EVILE have been through some hard times in their young existence as a band.

The biggest tragedy they’ve endured has been the death of their original bassist Mike Alexander while on tour last year with AMON AMARTH in Sweden. He unexpectedly collapsed after a show and died from a pulmonary embolism (blood clot on the lungs).

The band was in extreme shock and unsure of their next move. Giving up and calling it a day was something the band considered, but as a tribute to their fallen brother, they decided to carry on. It’s something they believe that Mike would have wanted. So, with the blessing from Mike’s family, the band auditioned bass players to fill his spot.

Brothers Matt (vocals/guitar) and Ol Drake (guitar), Ben Carter (drums) and new bassist Joel Graham have carried on the best they know how — metal thrashing mad.

Recent vehicle problems that forced the cancellation of a few shows on their recent tour with FORBIDDEN/GAMA BOMB/BONDED BY BLOOD hasn’t stopped them either. But they have strived through it all because the band is what they only know how to do, and only want to do.

Speaking with guitarist Ol after a gig in Chicago, he discussed the passing of Mike, the new album they’re working on and his opinion about the new thrash revival scene.



Metal Mayhem: This is a great bill with yourselves, Forbidden, Gama Bomb and Bonded By Blood. It actually started off with Overkill as the headliners, but how has the tour been going and do all the bands get along?
Ol DrakeWe all get along really great. It’s been a great tour. The only downside is it’s been the longest tour we’ve ever done. We started on September 22nd, and going until December 18th, which is like three months. We’ve never done that before. Everyone is getting on. Us and Gama Bomb are sharing the RV, so it’s quite packed, but we’re having a fun time.

MM: I’m sure the passing of Mike was a difficult time for you guys. At the time, you had just put out your second album and were on a huge tour with Amon Amarth, and then tragedy struck. Did it seem like all that ground you worked for was lost and now you’re just getting back on track?
OD: Yeah, that’s it exactly. When Mike passed away, it wasn’t anything to do with the band any more. I didn’t want to do anything. I just wanted to go home and stop everything that had to do with that. It was very difficult. Then we just thought all we can do is the band. The reason we knew Mike was because of the band. If we gave up, it would just be bad to him, so we didn’t want to do that. So, we got a bass player as soon as we could, gone on tour as soon as we could. We had a new album out that we just toured for four days. It’s all we could do. We just wanted to get back out.



MM: How has Joel been fitting in?
OD: He’s been great. He’s from our area, so he’s just like one of us. We always knew each of the bands, we knew his band and he knew ours. He actually used to go to the same college as Mike. They knew of each other, but they didn’t know each other.

MM: You’re currently working on a new album and will be produced once again by Russ Russell. How has the writing process been going and what direction is the music heading in?
OD: We’re quite heavily into it now. We’ve got this three month tour and then we got two months at home, then we go into the studio in March. So we’re on the road, we have to write an album. So, this is the first time we’ve written whilst marching in a bumpy RV trying to record our riffs. We’ve written about 13 songs so far. I’d say it’s a mixture of the first and second album with a bit more aggression. It hasn’t been the best year.

MM: With all that’s happened to you, are you more focused and more pissed off with this new material?
OD: I think we just got a lot to heal with the writing. It’s very aggressive, fast, heavy ... all the bollocks. We’ll just have to see. I’m loving it so far.

MM: How great is it being in a band with your brother?
OD: (Long pause, smirk on face, then laughs) It’s good. It has its advantages and disadvantages. I know exactly what he’s thinking so we communicate well. But other times we communicate the worse because we are brothers. We’ll argue over the shittiest little things and Ben and Joel stand there laughing. But it has its advantages.

MM: Earache Records has been pretty good to you guys. How have they been treating you, and are you committed to a certain amount of records?
OD: I think we have two more with them. And to be honest, Earache are great. When we signed with them everybody said watch out for them and that they’re crap. But they’ve been great with us. I think we have a mutual understanding. If we do what they want or need us to do and visa versa. We haven’t had any crossed roads or anything. We just get along with them and its fine, it’s great.

MM: With Infected Nations, it sounds like you were even more focused in your ideas, technique, lyrics, etc. than on Enter the Grave. This time around, are you going to experiment with more stuff, or stick with your formula?
OD: We’re experimenting, but keeping it within sounding like us. I know its thrash, but we like to try and find our own sound. The thing with the first album was all the songs were written before we were signed. So, when we got signed, we were like, “okay, we got ten song, let’s put them on the album.” So, the first album wasn’t really written, it was just us in a room having fun doing whatever. The second album came ’round and we’ve got to write an album to be released worldwide. So that was our first go at writing, really. Everything we did wrong on the second album we’ll right. We’ve learned from it. For the third (album), we’ve learnt so much from Infected Nations. There’s a lot I wish we hadn’t done musically and structurally. Some songs are eight days long and we’re going to cut them down a bit. We’ve learned to get more to the point and more enjoyable instead of just lagging. It should be interesting.

MM: The cover artwork for "Infected Nations" was created by veteran fantasy artist Michael Whelan, and Sepultura fame. How did you get a premier illustrator of his ilk, who hasn't really painted for a metal band in a while, to create the cover?
OD: I don’t know. Matt and I were listening to Beneath the Remains one day, and I just said, “How cool would it be to get Michael Whelan?” And he said, “Yeah, that’s funny.” So for a laugh, I e-mailed his manager and said we had a concept and what would he think. We’re a thrash band and he likes Sepultura. They said, “Yeah, let’s do it.” But we couldn’t really afford Meatloaf’s money. But he said he’d do it for a certain amount. He only did it because he just really liked the concept and liked us.

MM: With influences like Metallica, Testament and Slayer, similarities in sound are bound to happen. But yet Evile's approach to its brand of thrash is undoubtedly distinctive and fresh. But do you ever get tired of the comparisons or labels like retro and neo-thrash or thrash revival being put on the band?
OD: I understand the comparisons. You’ve got a Slayer hat on, and a lot of people are dedicated to who they like. If someone sounds a bit like Slayer and they love Slayer, they’re like “Uugh, fuck you.” We have the influences, but I don’t see a problem with it at all. Classical music has been around since the 1500’s and 1600’s and people are still writing today. There’s nothing wrong with that. In a hundred years, nobody’s going to give a shit if we sounded like Slayer. We just enjoy doing that music. It just happens they invented it and we’re just learning from it, so what?

MM: What’s next for Evile besides the new album? What do you hope happens?
OD: To be honest with you, we’re just going to do album, tour, album, tour. That’s all we want to do. We love being in the studio writing, we love being on the road and doing festivals. The foreseeable future is writing and touring.

Interview by Kelley Simms