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New
bands that sound like old bands are becoming a thing of the past
quite quickly. Sure, the whole nostalgia trip is always sort of
a sweet treat, especially when respectfully well-done. Thing is,
if you listen to more than six of the newer thrash revivalist
bands, doubts will start to emerge as to whether tribute is
getting paid to the good ones and perhaps the bad and disposable
ones too. Also, make a few mathematical exercises and you will
come to the conclusion that the best thrash metal was clearly
made in the US. A few UK bands stand out, but for the most part,
the great majority of them fizzled with time through a sort of
voluntary Alzheimers. That said, this quartet from Huddersfield,
England play the sort of thrash that no UK band was able to make
back in the heyday of the sub genre. Had Evile existed back in
the late 80’s and Enter the Grave had been released in
1989, they would have been at least as big as Death Angel.
To make
matters all the more real (or surreal for that matter) Enter
the Grave was produced by none other than Fleming Rasmussen;
who as we know, rubbed and twisted the knobs quite well for
Metallica back in the Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets
and even on the shit sounding …And Justice For All
records. He has also worked with Blind Guardian, but this
sparrow can’t stand that band, so let’s pretend you didn’t just
read that. So what makes Enter the Grave good enough to
stand proudly tall alongside all the classics? Well, there’s
only one way to get up there, and that’s through good songs.
There are ten of those dealing with subjects as diverse as the
Roman empire, killer sharks, Rambo movies and all sorts of
jovial escapism. The important part is that they are all told
through melodic thrashing riffs, furious energy, contagious
vintage modisms, tasty song structure (“Man Against Machine”),
seemingly complex solos, blast beats here and there and biting
vocals. Along with Municipal Waste, Evile is one of the top the
best thrash revivalist acts.
Official Site
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