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Evile: Five serpent's teeth

18/10/11 || Smalley

This latest entry in my coverage of this month’s veritable tsunami of major releases deals with an album a bit different from those other September releases; unlike Dream Theater or Anthrax, major old-school players in their genre who just went through a line-up change, or Machine Head, a more middle-aged, mid-level group attempting to rebuild their initial prestige with a stable line-up, Evile is a bunch of young, Johnny-come-latelys to their genre (thrash), trying to stay strong after the sudden death of a founding member, original bassist Mike Alexander (kind of a “Carnival is forever”-situation, come to think of it).

Such a traumatic event could really knock a band for a loop, but I’m happy to report that here we are two years later with “Five serpent’s teeth”, an album that turns out to be quite the step up from 09’s disappointing “ Infected nations “. Gone are the heavy reliances on uninteresting chug riffs or irritating, unnaturally-harshened vocals, and the band continues to carve out their own niche in the already-crowded thrash world, without regressing into the Slayer-plagiarism of “Enter the grave”, as enjoyable as that album was. No doubt, almost every track here is still somewhat-inspired by certain thrash classics, but Evile is still putting enough of their own spin on those influences to keep from resembling a covers band again.

Anyway, despite the opening title track’s cool, “Blackened”-ish intro and some killer soloing, the riffs do fall a bit flat, but it’s the only disappointing cut here as the album soon picks up with “In dreams of terror”, with some frantic, “Arise”-style thrashing, steady, driving verses, and plenty of compelling variation throughout, and then “Cult”, the obligatory anti-religion track here, kicks in with jagged, groovy, “Leper messiah”-y mid-tempo playing. Very nice.

The slower first minute of “Eternal empire” isn’t the best, but it dramatically improves once it gets fast (faster tempos = better thrash; who woulda thunk it?), and the constantly-ascending riffing during the verses is very cool as well. “Xaraya” (the X-Men version of Tom Araya?) keeps things going strong with completely badass, attitude-filled riffing, kind of like a thrash version of “Bad to the bone”, with some very pretty lead guitar work to boot, then “Origin of oblivion” comes in finger-bleedingly fast riffing and some of the finest lead guitar work this side of “Hangar 18”.

“Centurion” is solid, but not one of the more memorable cuts by “teeth” (thank you, thank you, I’ll be here all week!), but then we get the Mike Alexander tribute “In memoriam”, Evile’s first true ballad, with its delicate, crystalline acoustic guitars, emotionally-intimate lyrics & vocals, and mournful, Newstead-y bass work (fitting as hell that the bass should stand out on this one, eh?). It’s a wonderful tribute, and final tracks “Descent into madness” and “Long live new flesh” make sure “teeth” closes out well with more strong helpings of Teh Shred; it’s good for what ails ya.

Individual performances-wise, like I said before, the vocals here lose that unnaturally-harshened edge they had last time for a cleaner style, more similar to the “polite Tom Araya” edge they had on “Enter the grave” (as Duffman so succinctly put it in that review). Matt does experiment with some “Load”-era Hetfield crooning on “In memoriam”, but it does sound better than it reads. Anyway, besides that welcome change, the riffs here are intense & catchy, the drumming is uniformly high-energy, and with plenty of complex, interesting fills to keep things spicy, and just about every solo here is amazingly hyperactive and incredibly well-played, just like a good thrash solo should be. Good performances all around, and as for the production, I dig it; it has enough punch to it while still being modern-sounding, but also without seeming over-polished.

So, “Five serpent’s teeth” isn’t really an old dog full of new tricks, and it isn’t about to throw classics like “Master of puppets” off of their Throne Of Shred, but I’m still happy to see that the band’s both recovered from Mike’s death, and improved their style for the better after “nations”. And, considering the sad state of most of the old guard these days, I’m more than happy to hear some young Turks school the thrash-geezers on how to make good thrash in modern times; let’s just hope the old farts actually fucken take the lesson this time around.

Information
Released: 2011
Label: Earache
Website: www.evile.co.uk
Band
Matt Drake: vocals, rhythm guitar
Ol Drake: lead guitar
Joel Graham: bass
Ben Carter: drums
Brian Posehn: backing vocals

Tracklist
01. Five Serpent’s Teeth
02. In Dreams Of Terror
03. Cult
04. Eternal Empire
05. Xaraya
06. Origin Of Oblivion
07. Centurion
08. In Memoriam
09. Descent Into Madness
10. Long Live New Flesh

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