{"id":3981,"date":"2011-09-26T00:00:49","date_gmt":"2011-09-26T00:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=3981"},"modified":"2013-04-27T20:42:16","modified_gmt":"2013-04-27T20:42:16","slug":"feature-evile-09-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/feature-evile-09-11\/","title":{"rendered":"EVILE – Long Live New Flesh (September 2011) | Features \/ Interviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

EVILE – Long Live New Flesh<\/strong><\/span>
\nAnthony Morgan<\/span>
\nSeptember 2011<\/span><\/p>\n

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Evile (l-r): Joel Graham, Ol Drake, Matt Drake and Ben Carter<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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While touring Europe as support to Swedish death metallers Amon Amarth, bassist Mike Alexander of Huddersfield, England-based thrashers Evile was suddenly taken ill and rushed to hospital on October 5th, 2009. Unfortunately he succumbed to a pulmonary embolism in Lule\u00e5, Sweden, aged 32. Sophomore full-length Infected Nations<\/em> had been issued in late September, the record being the follow-up to inaugural outing proper Enter The Grave<\/em> (August 2007). November 6th brought news of auditions for the vacant bassist slot, the slot being filled by former Rise To Addiction member Joel Graham and announced December 16th.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe band just completely stopped,\u201d remembers Ol Drake, guitarist and co-founder of Evile. \u201cWe went home, and we had a few months out. We didn\u2019t purposely not talk to each other, but we just didn\u2019t talk much. I think we were all just grieving on our own, and then we basically needed to get back out there because we had tours booked. We found Joel through auditions, and it created a different dynamic I think. Joel feels a lot more fast rock-oriented, and has quite a different groove bass-wise. No disrespect to Mike, but he was more straightforward thrash; he just loved the speed and the fast picking stuff, and Joel\u2019s a lot more heavier and groovier. He\u2019s changed us musically but Joel\u2019s kind of like us as well; he\u2019s still got that silly Northern humour that we have.\u201d<\/p>\n

September 2011\u2019s Five Serpent\u2019s Teeth<\/em> is Evile\u2019s third studio full-length, and the first not to feature Mike occupying the bass position. \u201cIt was hard recording without Mike, because the last time we were at Parlour Studios we did the Pantera cover for Metal Hammer<\/em> magazine,\u201d the axeman confesses. \u201cWe went back to Parlour with Joel, and it was one of the last places we had been with Mike so it was very strange. We were just fortunate enough to have Joel though because he made it a much easier experience than it could\u2019ve been. It was hard to get through, especially the \u2018In Memoriam\u2019 track about Mike. It was a kind of a relief to do it, and just made it more comfortable for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Ol, Joel fits greatly into Evile. \u201cHe\u2019s from the same area \u2013 he\u2019s from Dewsbury just over the hill,\u201d he notes. \u201cHe has the same sense of humour as us, and he has the same musical tastes. He\u2019s slightly older than us just like Mike and was there for the whole thrash movement as a kid, so he just brings so much to the band. It\u2019s just great with Joel.\u201d<\/p>\n

The composition \u2018In Memoriam\u2019 pays tribute to Mike, and includes parts Mike wrote prior to his passing. The closest Evile has come to recording material similar to \u2018In Memoriam\u2019 is the collective\u2019s aforementioned cover interpretation of Pantera\u2019s \u2018Cemetery Gates\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat actually had a lot to do with the \u2018Cemetery Gates\u2019 thing,\u201d the co-founder acknowledges. \u201cIt was the first time that Matt had actually properly sung, so that was an area where we thought \u2019Why don\u2019t we actually do a song you sing more on?\u2019 Then when Mike passed away we had this clean guitar part that Matt had always been playing for five years maybe, but we never saw ourselves as a band that would do a ballad-y, clean song. As soon as Mike passed away, it just seemed perfect to use that and we built on it. We couldn\u2019t say what we wanted to in a thousand miles an hour thrash song, basically.\u201d<\/p>\n

Father to both Ol and Matt, Tony Drake performs a guest solo on the track. \u201cHe took us around to all the original gigs and helped us with gear and stuff like that, and he knew Mike just as well as all of us from day one,\u201d Ol cites. \u201cWe just wanted to give him something for him… We asked him if he wanted to do a bit of a solo, and he does the first half of the solo on the track. I already had something written, but it was a bit too complex for his style. He\u2019s much more of a Santana kind of guitarist, so we slowed it down a bit and made it simpler. He just played it, and it worked really well.\u201d<\/p>\n

As is the case with \u2018In Memoriam\u2019, Evile venture into slightly different areas elsewhere on Five Serpent\u2019s Teeth<\/em> as well. \u201cBasically, when we finished Infected Nations<\/em> in 2009 we just started writing the third album straight away so there were two years of constant writing,\u201d the guitarist reveals. \u201cThere was a lot of touring to do, and we were in America for about five months. We had a laptop with us travelling around in the van, and tried to record stuff. We then just got to the studio, and spent about six weeks there with Russ Russell in Parlour Studios.<\/p>\n

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Ol Drake<\/em><\/b><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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\u201cIn a way, we wanted this to just be another all heavy metal album. Obviously there\u2019s a lot of thrash in it, but with songs like \u2018Cult\u2019 we just wanted to slow things down a bit without it being slowed down too much where it\u2019s just not interesting. We wanted to keep the aggression and the thrashy approach. \u2018Cult\u2019 was an experiment in writing something a bit more straightforward while still aggressive, so we were just trying different things without straying too far away from what we were playing. With \u2018Xaraya\u2019 we tried a lot more big, epic guitar harmonies, and fuller, heavier riffs. My favourite\u2019s got to be that track because it sums up us in a way. A lot of it is just big riffs, a bit of flashy stuff in there and just a lot of melodies and big guitar harmonies because I\u2019m a big fan of doing three-part guitar harmonies like Brian May of Queen stuff. That was a big experiment, that song. We were so happy with how it came out, so that\u2019s definitely one of my favourites. We were just trying different speeds and feels really though, all while staying heavy metal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Based in Kettering, Northamptonshire, Parlour Studios was also the recording location for Infected Nations<\/em>, Infected Nations<\/em> and Five Serpent\u2019s Teeth<\/em> boasting Russ Russell in the production chair. \u201cHe\u2019s just perfect for what we need,\u201d Ol exclaims. \u201cHe knows exactly what we want, and we just felt really comfortable with him. On the last album we were friends but we didn\u2019t know each other overly well, and this time around we knew each other really well. No-one held back on saying something was crap, so it was a really productive time and we just get on with him really well. That\u2019s what we need right now, so he\u2019s just perfect for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Enter The Grave<\/em> had been produced by Flemming Rasmussen (Metallica \/ Rainbow \/ Blind Guardian \/ Morbid Angel \/ Artillery) at Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen, Denmark, though Russ\u2019 English base is more advantageous. \u201cThat\u2019s another factor,\u201d the axeman admits. \u201cIt was great working with Flemming and he\u2019s a great producer, but we have to travel to Denmark for him to produce. It\u2019s time you could be spending at home, and working with Russ still has that sense of being in the UK. It\u2019s just a bit more comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Ol stated, Five Serpent\u2019s Teeth<\/em> doesn\u2019t stray too far away from the type of material Evile performed on Enter The Grave<\/em> and Infected Nations<\/em>. \u201cIn a way they have similar aspects I think, because we purposely wanted to revisit the approach of Enter The Grave<\/em>,\u201d he concurs. \u201cWe realised when we play live that a lot of people reacted better to the Enter The Grave<\/em> material, and we just wanted to sit back and figure out why and how. We spent a lot of time just concentrating on the riffs and the vocal lines, and just trying to be not too technical about things and just get straight to the point really.\u201d<\/p>\n

Five Serpent\u2019s Teeth<\/em>\u2019s title is taken from the novel The Demolished Man<\/em> by Alfred Bester. \u201cI haven\u2019t read the book myself, but it\u2019s Matt\u2019s concept taken from the book,\u201d the co-founder mentions. \u201cThe apostrophe is in the correct place, because if you read the book in context I don\u2019t think it\u2019s technically about serpents. Matt\u2019s quite guarded on the meaning because he doesn\u2019t want to give too much away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of the album\u2019s tracks, \u2018Eternal Empire\u2019 is the most resemblant of Enter The Grave<\/em>\u2019s offerings. \u201c\u2018Eternal Empire\u2019 was an experiment in trying the approach of the first album,\u201d Ol concedes. \u201cFrom playing some of the gigs, we realised what kinds of things our fans like and how they react to the songs on the first album and how they don\u2019t react to certain songs on the second one. That\u2019s how that song was created. We just thought \u2018If we were writing this song on the first album, what would it be like?\u2019, and we just adapted that to how we write songs now. It came out really well, I think. It sounds like it could be on the first album.\u201d<\/p>\n

Enter The Grave<\/em> was a colossal opening statement, one that some groups would find difficult to outperform. \u201cI think it would be pointless trying to top something,\u201d the guitarist reflects. \u201cIf Metallica tried to do another Master Of Puppets<\/em>, it\u2019d just sound forced and odd. I don\u2019t think we concentrate on trying to do a better album. We just do the best we can, and hopefully it\u2019ll be good. I know with the second album, we wanted it to be a bit different than Enter The Grave<\/em>. Maybe we went a bit too far with the experimental side, but from doing that we learnt a lot of what we should and shouldn\u2019t do on this one. I\u2019m glad we made the second album, so we could learn from it for the third one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt\u2019s slightly different vocal sound was an area of discussion at the time that second album was issued. \u201cHe blew his voice out on Enter The Grave<\/em>, because when we toured it he basically couldn\u2019t talk,\u201d Ol discloses. \u201cIf we played a gig, he\u2019d come off stage and his throat would literally be killing him and he just couldn\u2019t speak. He wanted to learn how to sing healthily but he couldn\u2019t afford all the lessons (laughs), so he only learnt how to breath to keep his voice in check. He didn\u2019t learn how to empower his voice or how to better his voice, so his vocals on the second one were him singing just like on the first one but with better breathing. It had kind of a weird tone to it because of that, but this time around he really wanted to learn how to breath and empower his voice as well. It\u2019s opened up his voice a lot more on this one, which is what he wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Evile (l-r): Ben Carter, Matt Drake, Ol Drake and Joel Graham<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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Composing his lead parts, the axeman doesn\u2019t have a secret formula to hand. \u201cI never really think about how I write; I just sit down with the solo section, and just jam constantly until I find something I like,\u201d he affirms. \u201cI prefer a solo having a melody to it as well as being a metal \/ thrash solo, so I don\u2019t wanna be playing a million miles an hour all the time. I want some kind of memorable quality to it. I\u2019m a big fan of guys like Slash and the fact that what guys like him play can stay in your head forever, and I just wanted that element of memorableness \u2013 if that\u2019s a word (laughs).\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve winged a few, but just because I couldn\u2019t get something I like,\u201d Ol continues. \u201cMostly I\u2019ll loop the solo section though, and I\u2019ll just jam anything I can think of solo-wise until something really clicks. I\u2019ll get the opening bit of it, and then I\u2019ll loop it while opening it with what I just wrote. I\u2019ll just build on that until I get a really comfortable story \u2013 a musical line, in a way. It takes awhile. I just have to play along as much I can until I get comfortable really.\u201d<\/p>\n

American comedian Brian Posehn supplies backing vocals to \u2018Cult\u2019. \u201cI knew he was a fan of Enter The Grave<\/em>, but he liked the second one a bit more because he felt it wasn\u2019t as derivative of classic thrash,\u201d the co-founder recalls. \u201cThis time around though I was just emailing him, because he came to a show of ours in Hollywood. We were gonna play \u2018Creeping Death\u2019 and he was gonna sing with us, but it just never happened. Then we were just talking through email. I said \u2018We\u2019re in the studio right now, so do you wanna do some backing vocals?\u2019 He just sent a file over shouting the word \u2018cult\u2019 for the song \u2018Cult\u2019, and we just put that file in there. I think there\u2019s a few sneaky other words that sound like \u2018cult\u2019 with Brian\u2019s voice in there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brazilian artist Gustavo Sazes designed the cover artwork for Five Serpent\u2019s Teeth<\/em>, his expansive portfolio including names like Arch Enemy, Firewind, God Forbid, and Manowar, among others. \u201cWe tried so many people for the art, and it just never clicked,\u201d Ol laments. \u201cIt didn\u2019t work. We didn\u2019t want a typical, epic metal cover for this one because we felt it didn\u2019t sound like it called for that, so we wanted something a bit more design-oriented. Just a single image that we could associate the album with. We saw a Morbid Angel album cover that he did, and we just thought \u2018That looks like the kind of stuff we want.\u2019 We just got in touch with him and he sent a brief through, and it was perfect. It was exactly what we wanted. We just found him through that Morbid Angel cover really.\u201d<\/p>\n

Made available from December 16th, 2009, Metal Hammer<\/em>\u2019s 200th issue was the magazine in question to include a covermount CD paying tribute to late Pantera guitarist \u2018Dimebag\u2019 Darrell Abbott, the covermount including the \u2018Cemetery Gates\u2019 cover. Another magazine covermount appearance is forthcoming. \u201cThere\u2019s one that we\u2019ve done for a magazine, but we\u2019re not allowed to say what the track is until it\u2019s out,\u201d the guitarist cautions. \u201cIt\u2019s very interesting though \u2013 it\u2019ll be interesting to see what people think. I know a lot of people will not like it, but I know a lot of people will be interested in it. We were asked, so we said \u2018Yeah, why not? Let\u2019s try it.\u2019 It\u2019s from a band who aren\u2019t metal. We just did our take on it, turned it into a metal song, and based it in the style of Evile. People who\u2019ve heard it have said \u2018How have you turned that into something you\u2019d do?\u2019 We changed the structure slightly to make it more metal, but if you didn\u2019t know the original song it just sounds like us playing a song we\u2019ve written, or are covering by a metal band. I think it sounds quite natural. I know someone who didn\u2019t know the song said \u2018I don\u2019t know the original, but this is awesome.\u2019 That\u2019s a good sign really.\u201d<\/p>\n

One cover tune which raised eyebrows was Ol\u2019s rendition of \u2018Born This Way\u2019 by Lady Gaga, uploaded to YouTube on July 2nd. \u201cIt was just me having a laugh with myself, really,\u201d he chuckles. \u201cI admire her a lot for just the way she doesn\u2019t give a crap about what anyone thinks, and in a sense I thought that was quite metal of her. I thought \u2018Why don\u2019t I just do a metal version of one of her songs?\u2019, and I found a vocal track of her but without the music. I just had the idea of putting some riffs to it. It was just an experiment for myself really, and then I thought \u2018Sod it. Why don\u2019t I just put it on YouTube and see what happens?\u2019 I got everything from praise to death threats (laughs). It was quite interesting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe band is 24 hours a day for me most of the time, and when I\u2019ve got some spare time I just wanna have a bit of fun. That\u2019s just my fun, and it\u2019s still on the guitar. I just wanna experiment with different stuff, and post it online if it\u2019s good enough so to speak.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outside of Evile, the axeman guested on several tracks included on Destruction<\/a>\u2019s February 2011 album Day Of Reckoning<\/em>, the Germans being a band that Mike particularly enjoyed. \u201cI filled in for Mike Sifringer when he broke his hand, so I played one show in Portugal with them,\u201d he recollects. \u201cThen after Mike died, they dedicated their Damnation appearance to him so I got up and played a few songs for that. They just emailed me, and said \u2018Hey, do you wanna come over and do some solos on our new album?\u2019 I obviously said yes, so I flew over, entered the studio, and started laying down some solos. We covered \u2018Stand Up And Shout\u2019 as well by Dio \u2013 I did the solos on that. It was just amazing because they\u2019re one of my favourite bands, so it was just mind-blowing really.\u201d<\/p>\n

Listeners who dismiss Evile generally tend to call the outfit derivative. \u201cNot overly,\u201d Ol responds, queried as to whether such criticism irritates him. \u201cWe\u2019re obviously influenced by the classic thrash bands and everything, but if you don\u2019t like just don\u2019t listen to it. We\u2019re only writing songs from what we listened to while growing up, and we\u2019re not stealing or trying to sound like them. That\u2019s the style of music. Classical music has been around for hundreds of years, and you don\u2019t have to have been there then to be cool. I like a lot of classical, but I wasn\u2019t there. That doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019m not allowed to listen to it though (laughs).\u201d<\/p>\n

The nucleus of Evile is arguably Ol and brother Matt, though brothers can either be the greatest of friends or argue like the Gallagher brothers (Liam and Noel) of Oasis fame. \u201cI think it\u2019s a bit in-between,\u201d Ol reckons. \u201cWe actually genuinely like each other, so we\u2019re never gonna be like Oasis. We just had a great upbringing and we genuinely like each other, so there\u2019s not gonna be problems. The only thing we really argue about is bits of a song; he\u2019ll want a riff somewhere, and I\u2019ll say \u2018It shouldn\u2019t be there \u2013 it should be here.\u2019 We\u2019ll argue for ages, and then we\u2019ll resolve it. That\u2019s the only arguments we have really, so we get on quite well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Five Serpent\u2019s Teeth<\/em> was released in Europe on September 26th, 2011 and in North America on October 18th, all through Earache Records.<\/p>\n

Interview published in September 2011.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EVILE – Long Live New Flesh Anthony Morgan September 2011 Evile (l-r): Joel Graham, Ol Drake, Matt Drake and Ben Carter While touring Europe as support to Swedish death metallers Amon Amarth, bassist Mike Alexander of Huddersfield, England-based thrashers Evile was suddenly taken ill and rushed to hospital on October 5th, 2009. Unfortunately he succumbed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[214,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-evile","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3981"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11363,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3981\/revisions\/11363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}