Words by Jimmy Glinster
Napalm Records
Release date: July 14
I guess you could say that England and thrash metal kinda go hand in hand with the whole New Wave of British Heavy Metal thing that happened back in the early 80s with the likes of The Big Four. All of which were American bands but were nonetheless inspired by the British Heavy Metal of the time. This time around though, we have a band from England by the name of EVILE who have been flying the thrash metal flag since back in 2004 and were nice enough to send us over a copy of their upcoming album The Unknown. So, let’s see what the Brits have to offer on their 6th studio album which is due to be released on July 14.
Opening and title track The Unknown kicks off the album with some haunting clean guitars, ethereal gothic vocals and dooming tom thumps. The heavy guitars kick in soon after and the song steps into a journey of heavy guitars and thumping drums. Early thoughts are that this sounds like it could have been a follow-on to the tail end of Metallica’s Black album. A much better one than Load. Let’s not get too excited early on though.
The Mask We Wear commences with a series of big guitar chugs and thumping toms. Solid drums keep the beat for some stuttered guitar chugs before a short guitar lead draws us into the first verse. I feel I’m going to struggle to steer away from comparisons to an album I’ve already mentioned, but god damn, the vibe is there, and I’m all about it right now. Even my wife just poked her head into my office and made some comments to that effect.
Harmonised dual guitars kick off the proceedings for Monolith. The riffs are heavy as they chug along, and the raspy vocals carry us through the song. I’m so excited by the sound of this album so far that I’ve just downloaded all of this band’s albums into my Apple Music library. Yeah, I’m an Apple music freak, I don’t do that low-fi Spotify shit. You can stick that right up ya too tight to pay for music hole.
I got a bit distracted there didn’t I, so back to the music we shall go. Clean guitars finger pick away to a slow drum beat and bass line as the intro to When Mortal Coils Shed builds a classical-inspired sounding heavy ballad. Full-blown slow burner with a ton of atmosphere.
It’s actually been a long time since I’ve heard a song that sounds anything like this. 1991 maybe with some flavours of 1986 and 1984 even. It’s a 7-minute track as to be expected of a track of its kind and it shifts between soft verses, slight heavier choruses and the odd dualling guitar solo. Killer track!
Sleepless Eyes immediately picks the pace back up with a full-blown thrash riff which sounds slightly affected by a phaser of flanger that disappears as soon as the rest of the band jump into the pace of a punk-inspired blast beat. This track is straight-up early 80s thrash, not too dissimilar to what the Big Four were punching out in their heyday! It’s fast, it’s furious, and it fucking bangs, hard!
Out of Sight holds the pace as another straight-up thrash banger. This album reminds me of all the things that have been missing in heavy music since the late 80s and early 90s before MTV brought heavy music to the forefront and inadvertently diverted it into the realm of popular music and the influence of commercial viability. Some would argue that the release of a certain album back in 1991 was the turning point for the Heavy Metal genre, and I probably wouldn’t disagree when two of the Big Four were to follow up with country music and pop twists in the follow-ups to their biggest albums. Enter Nu-Metal and Core, but that’s a discussion for a whole other article or two.
Apologies, the nostalgia here is setting me adrift, but how can I help myself when this album sounds like something that I believe the heavy music scene has been missing for a very very long time? And the track currently playing while I drift back in time is called At Mirrors Speech which further makes me feel like I have drifted further back to better times in heavy music!
Reap What You Sow doesn’t disappoint, and if this band keeps going the way they are, they are certainly going to reap from what they sow. I could continue to make comparisons to other very well-known bands, but I am consciously going to avoid that because this band stands on its own even though undoubtedly heavily influenced by those I’ve already mentioned. To take all of those influences and make it your own without releasing a cover album like Avenged Sevenfold’s somewhat shunned Hail to the King is an impressive feat! FYI, I fucking loved Hail to The King because it sounded exactly like a ’90s metal covers album.
Hopefully this isn’t The Beginning of The End because the bassline in the intro to this track groove’s hard, as do the following riffs. This track actually sounds a little more modern than the ones before it, but it still holds the thrash vibe while adding a heavy touch of groove metal flavour. Gang vocals jumping in and out take me back to Biohazard‘s State of the World Address album, but that pretty much happens every time I hear gang vocals over heavy music. Don’t get confused though, I’m not talking about that hair metal type shit that Motley Crue do, that can get in the bin.
Some quick syncopated snare rolls kick off the proceedings for the closing track Balance of Time, and I’m about to shed a tear because this album has now come to an end. Once it kicks, off it’s another full-blown thrash banger, and I’m fucking glad they decided to finish the album with straight-up fire.
Are Evile about to unleash an album to top the world’s biggest metal band’s most recent release, while at the same time releasing an album that could have been the perfect release to follow up that particular band’s 1991 release?
Well, I’m just throwing out there, but the answer is clearly yes. As Big Kev would have said, I’m excited!
