{"id":89610,"date":"2021-04-30T00:00:44","date_gmt":"2021-04-29T23:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=89610"},"modified":"2021-05-28T17:38:44","modified_gmt":"2021-05-28T16:38:44","slug":"album-review-evile-hell-unleashed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-evile-hell-unleashed\/","title":{"rendered":"EVILE – Hell Unleashed (2021) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

EVILE
Hell Unleashed<\/strong><\/span>
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\nNapalm (2021)<\/span>
Rating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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The title of the new Evile opus suggests the return of a band with extra bite and maybe something to prove.<\/p>\n

Having been around since 1999 (originally as Metal Militia), the British thrashers are somewhat veterans when it comes to the \u201cnew wave\u201d of thrash metal which machine gunned our ears a few decades ago. Admittedly, my love affair with this \u201cscene\u201d has at times been frostier than a mid-90s black metal album cover, but it was Evile\u2019s 2007 fiery debut Enter The Grave<\/em> that restored my faith in a seemingly waning genre.<\/p>\n

Since their inception, life for Evile has not been easy. The death of bassist Mike Alexander in 2009 stopped the Yorkshire lads in their tracks. Meanwhile, founding frontman Matt Drake left the ranks in 2020, with his brother and guitarist Ol Drake taking over vocal duties after returning to the ranks following his departure in 2013. But while albums would emerge in 2011 (Five Serpent\u2019s Teeth<\/em>) and 2013 (Skull<\/em><\/a>), Evile was a silent entity… until now.<\/p>\n

Hell Unleashed<\/em> is a return to form somewhat, although through all of their steely thrash spoutings I\u2019ve often found Evile\u2019s output rather generic, and more so now with Ol Drake\u2019s rather unspectacular frothing snaps. But hey, thrash is thrash nowadays, and there\u2019s little out there to really grasp my attention.<\/p>\n

As one would expect with this outing there are the flashes of speed and the more measured grooves, as showcased on opening cut \u2018Paralysed\u2019. The production is tight, scathing and at times cold somehow; not in a Teutonic sense but whereby Hell Unleashed<\/em> rattles incisively but without humour, with the band, and particularly Ol Drake, snarling with intent.<\/p>\n

\u2018Gore\u2019 \u2013 featuring guest vocals form American actor and comedian Brian Posehn \u2013 chugs with deep, grinding menace before the razor wire emerges and we\u2019re viciously sniped by the scathing guitar attack and blistering percussion, and it\u2019s nice that Evile now vents its fury again rather than tepidly mimicking a \u201cmature\u201d Metallica-styled philosophy.<\/p>\n

\u2018Gore\u2019 just rattles with such devastating, war-torn speed reminiscent of later Slayer at times as another solo frazzles the ears, but here comes the downside; for me, Evile\u2019s style is just plain dull at times as numerous songs melt into the cess pool as other similar sounding acts.<\/p>\n

\u2018Incarcerated\u2019 begins well \u2013 slow and pensive \u2013 but as is often the case the fury of speed means that Evile, through all their hard work, is just another modern thrash act lacking identity. However hard they pound (\u2018War Of Attrition\u2019) or however much they shift tempo (\u2018Control From Above\u2019), I\u2019m just bored, underwhelmed and at times failing to discern one track from another \u2013 a major issue I had with much of Slayer<\/a>\u2019s latter years output.<\/p>\n

The title track does exactly what it says on the tin \u2013 it snarls, it paces frantically and cuts deep with its vicious bass and hurtful riffs. In fact, the whole album is riddled with spiteful intent, and yet I appear unscathed \u2013 undeterred by the cover of Mortician\u2019s \u2018Zombie Apocalypse\u2019 and the bland stylings of \u2018Disorder\u2019. Yet Evile are only doing what they do best; snapping bones, cracking heads and returning with a volatile fury of hell-bent thrash metal.<\/p>\n

In my opinion, Evile\u2019s new record will divide their fan base. But once the kids are in the pit and these tunes are blurted out, you\u2019ll no doubt see a sea of hoodies flailing in sweaty worship. Hell hasn\u2019t quite been unleashed, but Evile are most certainly back in the game.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EVILEHell Unleashed Napalm (2021)Rating: 7\/10 The title of the new Evile opus suggests the return of a band with extra bite and maybe something to prove. Having been around since 1999 (originally as Metal Militia), the British thrashers are somewhat veterans when it comes to the \u201cnew wave\u201d of thrash metal which machine gunned our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,214],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-evile"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89610","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=89610"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89618,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89610\/revisions\/89618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}