History & Biography Huddersfield thrashers Evile was formed in 2004 and immediately issued a demo called All Hallows Eve. 2006’s Hell demo and a contract with the struggling Earache Records followed. The band issued its debut in August, but toured with Severe Torture and Desecration prior. Enter the Grave was produced by Flemming Rasmussen at Sweet Silence Studio in Copenhagen, Denmark. The band announced a tour of Europe as support for Satyricon throughout in the autumn, but cancelled following a jaw injury suffered by guitarist Ol Drake. The band then announced British shows for April of 2009 with openers Warpath and Mutant. In the midst of the band’s European tour opening for Amon Amarth, bassist Mike Alexander of thrash metal band Evile fell ill and was transported to the hospital. He died of Pulmonary embolism on Monday October 5th in Luleå, Sweden. He was 32 years old. With the requisite tributes over British thrash metal band Evile found a new bassist in December. He was one Joel Graham. The new man joined Evile following the death of the late bassist, Mike Alexander. Forbidden, Evile, Gamma Bomb and Bonded By Blood were touring North America together in late 2010.
Evile picked Five Serpents' Teeth as the title for its next album, out on August 29th through Earache Records. The album was recorded at Parlour Studio. Evile would undertake a European headlining tour to promote its album, Five Serpent's Teeth. The trek would begin on January 10th, 2012 in Prague. The band was booked to play at Formoz festival in Taiwan in the spring of 2013. Guitarist Ol Drake quit in the summer of 2013. In the summer of 2014, the band recruited guitarist Piers Donno Fuller (ex-Fallen Fate) replacing guitarist Ol Drake. Matt left in 2020. Evile’s Hell Unleashed was out through Napalm Records on 30.04.2021. The Unknown of 2023 was supported by two promotional videos for the songs The Unknown and When Mortal Coils Shed. The band played in Ireland and was booked for Wacken in 2024. The band was booked for Full Metal Cruise XI in 2024.
The Drakes are brothers.
Reviews EVILE - ENTER THE GRAVE - EARACHE 
Thrash metal is alive and slaying, and Evile are one of the many bands leading the current thrash revival. Enter The Grave is their debut album, and although it's definitely a good album, there's a few problems that stop it from being truly great.
First off, go home and download Thrasher and the title track, because they kick ass in the highest way possible. Unless you've experienced the joy of a truly awesome metal rush, it's impossible to tell you the feeling those two songs inspire in me, and will in you. This is heavy metal, not school. Thrasher especially is on par with some of the great thrash songs of the past. Those two songs prove to me that there is hope for Evile to become more then just another drop in the tidal wave that is modern thrash.
The individual songs are pretty good too. Burned Alive kicks major ass. First Blood is suitably violent. We Who Are About To Die, the seven-minute epic, actually is pretty awesome. And every song is honest to Satan classic thrash metal, and you should love that. They're fast, they're crunchy, they're violent, they wear denim and leather and Converse, and they have not even one single hint of gay alternative poser wimp shit. They are a real thrash metal band, from the badass cover art down to the last guitar poundings on Armoured Assault. I can get behind that.
Unfortunately, this album is really, really repetitive. It pains me to say it, because the album is fast and fun. But it's just so samey. All of the songs are literally like the exact same thing. Lots of open E strumming, violent lyrics, that same 'snare-bass-snare-bass-snare-bass-snare-bass drumbeat popularized by the Lombardo on every song. Throw in the occasional scary intro, and bam, you've got your album. That's why I welcomed We Who Are About To Die, because it actually is something different. I believe there's room for more in thrash metal. Look at Ride The Lightning. You have your Fight Fire With Fire (and there's stuff here as good as that). But you also have songs like Creeping Death, For Whom The Bell Tolls, Fade To Black, and Call Of Ktulu. Different stuff. Metallica were a level above on that album. One thing that would have helped was if the album was shorter, because there are lots of repetitive albums that are fine because they don't overstay their welcome (Kreator's Pleasure To Kill is a good example). But it's twelve songs long, and the songs are long too, so the album becomes pretty boring all the way through.
It is pretty good thrash though. What I've found about modern thrash is that you can basically divide it down into the categories of what it's ripping off inspired by, and Evile falls into the Slayer camp. It's a fast, fun trip for any fan looking for some good friendly violent fun. It's good lyrically, too. Unlike the hordes of extreme metal bands where the words are either all just about violence or unintelligible (or both), Evile checks off shark attacks (Killer From The Deep), mental illness (Schizophrenia), the ancient Romans (We Who Are About To Die), apocalyptic futures (Man Against Machine), burning at the stake (Burned Alive), and just plain old random killing (Bathe In Blood). And the singer is very good. I guess the real moral is this - Evile is very good at what they do - standard, fast, fun thrash. The question is-is what they do enough? They work well within the standard, but to become great, I'd like to see some evolution. The good news is that even if they don't, they'll still be kicking out great thrash metal, and in the long run, that's what's important. - Max V.
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