Artist: Evile
Released: 2011 RATING: 3/5
The Good: Evile's 2011 offering Five Serpents Teeth shows why they are different from other bands; they have a strong sense of melody, and still retain their brutality and speed. They are not afraid to slow it down slightly, as seen on tracks such as "Cult"; likewise, they also know when to crank up the speed of their songs, though they don't play fast just for speed's sake. The title track and "In Dreams of Terror" are definitive Evile songs. Fans of guitar solos and expert drumming will also like this record for the sheer skill and dexterity of Ol Drake (guitar) and Ben Carter (Drums). The whole band is extremely tight throughout.
The Bad: As one of the more talented younger bands, Evile was expected, paraphrasing from Terrorizer magazine, to set the record straight as far as British thrash goes. While their chops are undeniable, this record dissapoints when considering their popularity. By this, their third record, the band just sounds boring. The songs here just do not quite grip the listener much and get repetitive. By the fourth or fifth listen, I started to just skip around tracks, and eventually disregarded most of the album save for the title track and "In Dreams of Terror". And even then, I got bored of those. While Matt Drake's awareness of the necessity of melody is admirable, though I don't like to criticize them for sounding too Metallica-like as many others do, I can't help but think of James Hetfield when I hear Drake sing. "Cult" is super boring, and the rest of the songwriting is average. Evile is a talented band, and they have some good songs, but they are far from front-runners as far as today's yonger metal scene goes, with bands such as Warbringer, Vektor, and Havok, among others, releasing stronger and more unique (or at least slightly more endearing, in Havok's case) albums than Five Serpents Teeth. It's worth a listen, but one could do better than this, even with Evile's prior records, Enter the Grave and Infected Nations.
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