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Class 6(66)
Evildead: Annihilation of civilization
30/08/13 || Habakuk
Introduction
It’s 1989 and a bunch of latinos in LA get their thrash on. Good timing for them, as the genre is at an absolute high point.
Back then, something made great bands shoot out of the ground left,
right and center, and they could now be one of them. And while Evildead
didn’t exactly turn the metal world upside down in the process, the
first result of their work still is worthy of an entry in our beloved
Class6(66). ‘Cause even if today’s New Wave of Old Thrash bands make you
believe that, it didn’t all sound the same back in the day.
Songwriting
7.5 Wherever you look on this album, you’ll find awesome parts, but they aren’t always perfectly connected, which is obviously a songwriting flaw. When it all comes together though, there is some serious quality on display here – standout tracks include “Parricide” that starts off like a good old Suicidal Tendencies track only to build into a nasty midtempo thrasher with a cool speed outburst in the middle, “Living good” with its stomping intro riff that keeps re-appearing, and “Gone Shooting” especially for its awesome chorus. The rest isn’t exactly filler material, but it sure blends together a bit. And that’s a common thing with heyday thrash albums: a feast for the devoted, they hardly surprise anyone anymore. Still, this album manages to display an identity of its own. It isn’t perfectly assembled material, but it still beats most newer thrash bands’s stuff singlehandedly.
Production
6. Camaaan, a little punch wouldn’t have hurt. The guitars have some nice crunch, but when a lot of stuff is happening at once, a little more structure from the drumming would be great.
Guitars
8 A good thrash disc needs riffs, riffs and riffs. And Messrs Garcia and Gonzales provide just that. Sure, there are solos and lead sections which I don’t want to downplay here, but what really matters here is the riffing, and it’s great. Bluntly and without frills, the guitars get to the point and shred. We are not talking rocket science here, but I can listen to a Science podcast for that. Although hampered by the production a bit, the twelve strings in question provide enough aggression to fill two albums. And that makes me happy.
Bass
6. I think there is one. Oh yeah, it kicks off “Parricide”! That’s what you get for distorting your bass with two guitars: no-one hears you most of the time.
Drums
7. On the plus side, the dude has stamina, knows how to employ two bass drum pedals and keeps the tempo up. Less impressive however are his lack of variation and absence of any noticeable signature. So while it’s hard to complain about a generally spotless job, there sure have been better thrash drummers before and after Rob Alaniz. Morrisette.
Vocals
8.5. Vocals being one of the major make-or-break criteria for old school thrash bands, Evildead are absolutely on the safe side with Phil Flores. He has a pissed off snarl that is not too intelligible to detract from the thrashing, and thankfully he stays in his normal, gruff tone without any high-pitched extravaganza. This is how thrash vocals are done, and it doesn’t really take much more. Why can’t every band have a Phil Flores? Yes Vio-Lence, I’m looking at you, too.
Lyrics
7. I surely enjoy the super-down to earth violence fantasies in “Gone shooting”: grab a shotgun, get in the car, avoid the cops and kill commuters. A kind of lyrics that not many bands apart from Insect Warfare and Razor have managed to pull off convincingly in the last 25 years. A lot of the other stuff is decent social commentary: pro-environment, anti-church stuff. All fine if you ask me, but nothing to really get into. To be honest, I usually don’t pay much attention.
Logo
8.
EVILDEAD
ED
Great shit, isn’t it. At least it’s not the same as every other logo out there.
Cover art
9. Call it goofy if you will, but this cover has all the classic elements of 80s thrash imagery: An Ed Repka signature. Divebombers and destruction in the background and a smiling dude improperly dressed for an air raid upfront, as seen before on Peace sells. Gammacide’s waste drums. Nuclear assault’s environmentalist overtones. A cynical, apocalyptic message. And it sure makes you look twice. I say it’s awesome.
Booklet
7.5 After years of only listening to this online, I finally bought this album earlier this year. The booklet inside has the nice feel of an 80s record. No flashy design and photoshop mania, just grey background, clearly readable text, one small band pic and very few minimalistic layout elements. And it lists who played which lead section! Yes!
Overall and ending rant
I’ve seen this mentioned as the ultimate thrash album ever. Well, it’s not. For sure this is a second tier band, and they didn’t have a magic formula that no-one else ever found. But they did have a sound of their own, some kick-ass tunes and the luck of being in a cohort that seemed to know instinctively how to write a thrash record. Bands of today: Listen and learn.
- Information
- Released: 1989
- Label: Steamhammer
- Website: Evildead MySpace
- Band
- Phil Flores: vocals
- Albert Gonzales: guitars
- Juan Garcia: guitars
- Mel Sanchez: bass
- Rob Alaniz: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. F.C.I. / The Awakening
- 02. Annihilation of civilization
- 03. Living good
- 04. Future shock
- 05. Holy trials
- 06. Gone shooting
- 07. Parricide
- 08. Unauthorized exploitation
- 09. B.O.H.I.C.A.
