Evile - Infected Nations (2009)

Earlier this year some friends and I witnessed England's Evile opening for legendary German thrashers, Kreator. At the time Evile was completely unknown to me, but there performance that evening convinced me to purchase their latest album, 'Infected Nations' after the show was over. Looking back on that evening I remember Evile sounding like many other retro new school thrash metal bands, and I guess that was indeed the sound displayed on their debut, 'Enter the Grave.' However the sound on Infected Nations is something quite different, in fact I'm not exactly even sure how to describe this album.

Musically Evile sounds very complex on this album throwing plenty of riffs at the listener while the songs are generally in a mid-tempo range rather than the usual frantic chaotic vein that is common with the thrash genre. The songs actually seem to have a sort of epic build to most of them while the music in an odd sort of way has a darker quality to it, but it's hard to define.

With just nine songs present the album clocks in at 58 minutes, which is a bit much to endure when it comes to thrash metal albums. If I actually had to compare this to another album I would say there's similar characteristics to Dark Angel's, 'Time Does Not Heal,' which is honestly one of the worst albums I ever put myself through.

Also it's said that Matt Drake had a total Tom Araya thing going with his vocals on the debut disc, but here his atonal yells sound similar to later day Burton C. Bell from Fear Factory or maybe even Max Cavelara of Soulfly, and I have to say they really hurt this album because they are just plain annoying sounding.

I've listened to this album several times since purchasing it, but no matter the conditions I just find it to be completely lacking something. There are some cool riffs present and some memorable moments for sure, but no single song sticks out and grabs me at all and that's where the album goes belly up.

If for some reason you've been longing for some evolution in the thrash genre than this might just be it, but I'm old, and I was raised on Kill 'em All and Reign in Blood and you know what, I'll just stick to those and those that sound like them.

It's entirely possible that a year from now I'll pull this off my shelf again and like something from it, but it seems more likely that I'll just end up listing it on eBay for a couple of dollars instead. Meh.