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The Band

Evile are:

Matt Drake - Rhythm Guitar/Vocals
Ol Drake - Lead Guitar
Ben Carter - Drums
Joel Graham - Bass Guitar

Evile are a Thrash Metal outfit from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire in the UK.

Founded by old school friends Matt Drake and Ben Carter then after playing with different guitarists and bass players for a year or so, Matt's brother Ol was asked to join as lead guitarist. After a short search for a bass player, Mike Alexander contacted the trio via an ad in a local guitar shop, and so Evile was formed.

With every member contributing to every aspect of the band they have a uniqueness and strength which gives them a cutting edge, influenced by bands such as Sepultura, Exodus, Metallica, Annihilator and Slayer to name but a few, Evile have created something that the metal world is crying out for. Despite being un-signed at the time, Evile were handpicked to headline the second stage of Bloodstock Open Air 06, and also to open the main stage of Manchester's own Damnation Festival.

In October of 2006 Evile signed to the legendary Earache Records, label home of such Metal legends as Morbid Angel, Napalm Death, Municipal Waste and Carcass.

Evile went on to record their debut "Enter the Grave" in Copenhagen's Sweet Silence Studios with Flemming Rasmussen of Metallica fame at the helm.

Heralded as the UK’s new thrash heroes, Kerrang! dubbed Evile to be "Carrying the genre's whole 'revival' on their shoulders", with other positive reviews from press such as Metal Hammer, Terrorizer, Zero Tolerance and Classic Rock Magazine. Metal Hammer also included Evile in their second "Get in the Ring" competition, which saw 4 bands battle it out in a boxing ring. Evile would go on to win the competition aired on Rockworld TV.

As well as supporting and touring with bands such as Machine Head, Sabbat and Sanctity, the band went on to be main support to Megadeth on their European "Tour of Duty" in Feb/Mar of 2008, being warmly greeted by the crowd. The band then supported legendary Thrashers Exodus on their 2008 European Tour in April, which in the same month saw Evile's "Thrasher" included on Xbox360/PS3 videogame Rockband.

A 2008 tour with Satyricon was cut drastically short when Ol, due to health problems, collapsed breaking his jaw and cutting open his chin. His beard is said to have saved him.

Picking themselves up and headlining a tour across the UK, including several European Festivals in 2009 marked the end of touring for "Enter the Grave".

The second chapter in Evile's history comes by the name "Infected Nations", produced by Russ Russell (Napalm Death, Dimmu Borgir), original artwork by Michael Whelan (Sepultura, Obituary, Stephen King) and released via Earache Records worldwide. "Infected Nations" is Evile's modern take on Thrash Metal, and finds the band coming into a sound of their own.

"Infected Nations” went into the top 100 album chart in the UK after its release on Sept 21 2009. Evile played a release show on 25th Sept 09 at Islington’s Bar Academy and then embarked on a 2 month long European tour supporting Amon Amarth with Entombed. After playing 2 headline shows in Germany they reached Scandinavia and disaster struck when Mike Alexander (1977-2009) bassist of Evile collapsed in Lulea Sweden and tragically died on his way to hospital from a pulmonary embolism. He was 32 years old.

Evile organised a special tribute shows in London and Leeds for Mike Alexander, and many bands including Metallica and Iron Maiden donated to a raffle in Mike's name, with all proceeds raised going to his family.

www.mikealexander.co.uk/

The band later announced they intended to continue as Evile. Auditions were held and after a time they welcomed new member Joel Graham into the fold to permanently take on the bass duties.

2010 saw the Yorkshire band starting off with a European tour in Jan '10 - Feb '10 with Warbringer and The Fading. The first show on the tour marking Joel's first live show with the band, and also the day he became a father for the first time.

The year continued at full on speed - leaving for the states at the beginning of March for a tour that lasted to the beginning of May that saw them playing on the Hoardes of Chaos tour II with Kreator, Voivod, Nachtmystium, Lazarus A.D. And then join the Killfest USA tour with Overkill, Vader, God Dethroned, Warbringer and Woe of Tyrants.

Upon Evile's return to the UK, they were greeted with the nomination for a Metal Hammer Golden God award for "Best UK band".

The band played Rock Hard festival Germany and Download festival 2010 paid tribute to Mike Alexander on the main stage, along with other fallen musicians including Ronnie James Dio and Paul Gray.

Evile played at the 2010 Metal Hammer Golden Gods awards alongside Steel Panther, Airbourne, Five Finger death punch and Skindred. Evile were awarded the prestigious 'Metal as fuck' award marking another triumphant milestone in the band's short history, and they still show no sign of slowing down.

Evile then continued their Summer festival run by playing Hellfest France, then coming back to the UK for Sonisphere festival 2010, which will go down in history for being one of Matt Drake's favourite shows ever and also being so packed that people were 10 deep around the outside of the tent trying to get in. Guitarist Ol Drake made an appearance on stage with Tim Minchin during his show at Sonisphere later the same day.

Evile's festival appearances continued playing Wacken Germany, Alcatraz Belgium, Bloodstock in the UK and Hole in the Sky in Norway.

In September, in memory of Mike Alexander, together with Metal Hammer editor Alexander Milas, Ol Drake (lead guitar) bungee jumped from Tower Bridge raising money for the British lung foundation, before heading off on another US tour.

2010 was also the year that Evile became the cover stars for the first time. UK magazine Terorrizer visited the band on their second mammoth stint across the USA, this time with Bonded by blood and Early Man, then with Gama Bomb, Forbidden and then Overkill & D.R.I.

Over the span of less than 5 months spent in the U.S.A. during 2010, Evile played over 130 shows with only 6 days off, which is an amazing show of strength and tenacity, and shows how it's not only Europe now that have bowed down to the Thrasher!

We couldn't talk about Evile in 2010 without talking about their huge number of downloads for tracks from Infected Nations on Rock band network, and the albums success of the album worldwide, being covered and critically acclaimed throughout Europe and the US, and leading to coverage in The Guardian hailing the band as one of the "New big four".

Already 2011 named "artist of the month" on Rockband, Ol Drake was a runner up in Guitarist of the year in the Terrorizer poll -

2011 sees Evile continue their rise as "the country's best underground metal band" - (Kerrang Feb 2011)

After completing a small run of UK dates in Feb 2011 and then playing Hammerfest the band will enter the studio in March to start work on their third album for Earache Records. The band will again record with Russ Russell producing at his studio.

So what more for 2011?

Expect not only a killer new album, but also a run of festival dates, including their debut Download Donington performance that has already been announced.

Evile continue to build on 5 years hard graft winning fans and converts with their head-down hard working no-nonsense attitude and their warm and friendly relationship with fans. To quote Kerrang "the future looks very bright indeed for Evile. Roll on album number three!"