Live-Metal.Net - Interviews: Evile

Is anyone tired of hearing about the new wave of thrash metal yet? Well, I’m not, and as the undisputed frontrunner of the movement, the U.K.’s Evile probably isn’t either. The band has been touted as one of the “new big four” of thrash metal, mostly on the undeniable strength of its sophomore album, Infected Nations (review). But the album isn’t your standard pedal-to-the-metal thrash record—the slowed down tempos, darker, serious tones and mammoth sized riffs bring to mind Metallica’s ... And Justice for All. Fitting, as Metallica is one of the band’s biggest influences.

Evile was on a path to success and enjoying the ride until disaster struck while on tour in Sweden in 2009, when bassist Mike Alexander died due to a blood clot in his lungs. The band faced an important decision: Continue or lay it to rest?

Well, the band is currently on a U.S. tour with Bonded by Blood, has just released an Infected Nations Redux and is writing album number three as you read this. While on tour, guitarist Ol Drake chatted with Live-Metal.net’s Jeff Maki about all of these topics and more.

Live-Metal.net: I just interviewed Alex Lee from your tour mates, Bonded by Blood a little while ago, so just give me a sense of how the tour’s going with Bonded by Blood. Alex was saying that you guys have had a fair share of difficulties?

Ol Drake: Yeah, well, we started off in England and a road was closed, so that put us back a few hours, which actually it ended up being five days that it took us to get to America. So we missed a connection flight and missed a few shows. And we were just not in the mood at all. We arrived in Houston to play a show, and the place we played wasn’t bad, but it was like five lads just sitting on a plane being really pissed off. But it’s great now, and we’re going and everything’s fine.

With the recent Big Four shows and now also the Slayer and Megadeth revisited Clash of the Titans tour going, how are these old-school bands playing affecting the younger thrash bands like yourselves? A positive or negative effect?

I think it’s nothing but positive, because those bands that you said are the reason that we’re doing this. But I think it’s great. I can’t wait to get the DVD and just see that. I think Metallica are one of my favorite bands live. I saw them a few years ago and it was just the best thing I’ve ever seen, so there’s nothing wrong with it. They’re all awesome bands.

Speaking of these classic bands, Evile has toured with everyone from Megadeth to Exodus, Overkill, Forbidden, Kreator. The list just goes on. I was looking at some of your past tours and things. What are some of your greatest memories or stories? And have any of these bands really helped you out along the way with anything specific?

There are just so many great experiences, but I think the Megadeth one was the biggest learning experience we could have had. And I can’t think of any stories. Our old bassist, Mike (Alexander), who passed away, spoke to Dave Mustaine (and said something) one time, and Dave called him a “fag” [laughs]. So that was the running joke of the tour when Mike was in the band. I can’t really remember, but yeah, Megadeth and Exodus—they were brilliant.

Evile has mainly played with other thrash bands throughout your existence. Would playing with different style bands ever be possible or beneficial to the band?

Yeah, the aim is to play with a few different bands. We play with thrash bands, but the more you come around with the same thing, it’s all kind of the same people. There’s never more people there, it’s always the same thrash crowd, which we appreciate a lot, but we still have to make a living now. [laughs] So, yeah, we’ll definitely try to play with some different styles of music.

Let’s talk a little bit about Infected Nations. I love the album personally. I think it’s a whole new level for the band compared to Enter the Grave—more refined, precise and mature.

What was the band’s mindset going into recording and what was your goal for this album?

I think we intentionally wanted to take a different approach. It would’ve just been totally expected to do this kind of thing—typical thrash. So we reached a junction in writing and said, let’s go the other way and try something that people won’t expect, which is why I think a lot of people aren’t really into it because you have to listen to it about 10 times to get into it. Yeah, we just wanted to do something different. We might have taken a bit too far the other way, but yeah, let’s just not do another 100 mile an hour thrash thing like the first album.

Yeah, I’ve seen, and I think I even compared it to … And Justice for All with the slowed down tempos. Was this album or maybe any other album a blueprint for Infected Nations?

Not really. We did just want to slow down, and I think our love for Metallica and all thrash just comes automatic—a blueprint if there’s one anywhere. So maybe that’s why you would think it is compared to it.

There’s actually the Infected Nations Redux out now. Can you tell us a little about that and did the band have any input into this edition coming out?

Well, we’re usually against rereleasing the stuff unless it’s worth it, so we always try and put stuff in to make a person want to buy it—we try to get patches, stickers, live tracks, an extra CD. And this has two live sets, one a separate set with Mike, which was recorded in Halifax in Wales, which is good because the bass is quite high in the mix and you can really hear what he’s doing. And then we’re in the studio playing live, because I always hate when bands do a live album, you can just tell it was recorded in the studio. So it’s live in the studio and we pretended like we were playing to an arena [laughs].

I see you guys are already working on a new album. Can you tell us what stage it’s in and the direction and style that it’s going in?

We’ve got about, I’d say 12 or 13 songs at the moment, and we’re just throwing ideas together, throwing riffs together. And we’re also writing on the road now while we’re touring America . We’re just in the van writing, and it’s turning out a lot more aggressive and a lot more thrash and angry because I think we’ve gone through quite a lot. So it’s just naturally coming out like that.

Are you going to try to top Infected Nations with this release? Is it even possible?

I think if we start to think that, we might not do it, so we’re just going to do it how naturally we can. Hopefully, it’ll just be a natural progression, which will hopefully be a better album because if we try and write a better album, it’ll probably suck. [laughs]

What happened is we had a long drive home from Sweden—it was like four days. And we just sat in silence. No one said anything. I think it was one of us, I can’t remember who said, “Are we gonna carry on?” And as soon as someone said that, it was like, “Well, yeah, of course we are. Why wouldn’t we?” We only met Mike through the band—when we met him, he joined the band. But to take the last 10 years and just throw it into the bin would be a huge injustice to Mike. So in a way, we’re carrying on just for him, but also for ourselves because that’s what we love doing. It’s all we can do.

We auditioned quite a lot of people. There were brilliant players, there were bad players. And some of them just didn’t feel right. Like I couldn’t imagine spending a year in a van with them. [laughs] But Joel seemed like a good guy and great bassist, and he’s fitting in quite well.

Are there any ongoing charities or places where donations or anything else can be made in memory of Mike or for his family?

There’s one to help Mike’s family’s costs, which is MikeAlexander.co.uk

We’ve went through my questions; is there anything else we need to know about Evile?

Just check out the Infected Nations Redux and if you like it, come out to a show. If you don’t, then don’t bother. [laughs]