Review Summary: A decent album, Evile’s sophomore effort doesn’t bring anything new or memorable to the table, but provides the listener with enjoyable thrash metal.
I didn’t know what to expect upon hearing about Evile’s second album: Infected Nations. The album cover, to me, looked more appropriate for a brutal death metal album, and the title certainly caught my interest. “Infected Nations”? Are they talking about swine flu? Who knows, but I made it a mission in my life to pira…I mean,
buy this album and see for myself what the four folks from the United Kingdom could do, and after listening to their debut thrash attack “Enter the Grave”, I was definitely looking forward to this new endeavor.
After listening to this album in its entirety, I have come to one conclusion:
This....album….was….okay.
That’s all I can say about it. It’s okay. It’s decent. The riffs are okay, the drumming is competent, the lyrics aren’t bland diarrhea bull***, so they’re okay, and it’s overall an adequate album; a steaming pile of rancid adequacy. I can’t say much about it. There’s nothing spectacularly good or bad about this album. It’s just…okay. All right, so I guess I can say a little more about this than two words.
Well, it certainly is darker than their first album. Matt Drake’s voice is deeper, heavier, and the lyrics are darker and more extreme than their first album. Gone are the subtle nods to violent action and horror movies such as “First Blood” and “Killer from the Deep” alluding to the Rambo and Jaws series. The first track of Infected Nations, “Infected Nation” starts with a mellow, eerie guitar riff that segues into fast paced and heavy riffs. It’s nice, but I wish they had forgone the calm intro and just assaulted us with the heavy riffs. It’s a pretty good song. Nothing phenomenal or spectacular, but it does the trick. “Now Demolition” is the same, except slower, and it doesn’t have the calm intro, so I guess it isn’t the same. The song speeds up at the end, making me a little excited, but-you know- it’s at the end, so no one cares.
This is where I notice the song lengths. The average length is around five and a half minutes, which isn’t bad, and if you’re into lengthy songs, this album has plenty to offer. I don’t mind the occasional seven minute song, as long as it’s in between three to four minute ones, it’s okay, but this isn’t the case. This is just my opinion, but I prefer shorter songs.
The production is top notch. The guitars, drums, and vocals are all audible, clear, and precise. However, the bass leaves something to be desired. To say that Evile bassist Mike Alexander’s passing is sad would be as much an understatement as saying the holocaust was a poor decision, but the bass is nigh inaudible on this album. Alexander contributed very little to the songs, lazily following the guitar riffs, which is disappointing, but nothing new in metal. Don’t expect any Geddy Lee bass solos here, folks.
Along with most of the songs clocking in at over five minutes, “Infected Nations” took a page out of metallica’s Thrash manual and gave us two seven minute thrash songs, which are definitely listenable and even enjoyable. Instead of giving us a four minute song and padding the rest of it with stupid garbage, Evile paces themselves with slower riffs that make their songs interesting, and they do a good job keeping you entertained.
The album ends with an eleven minute instrumental, and I was about to skip it, simply because it’s eleven damn minutes. After listening to it, I felt it was the perfect culmination to an adequate, okay album: it proved that Evile is excellent at making decent songs for a decent album. While repetitive, it’s still listenable, but at this point, I was just wishing it was four minutes, instead of eleven.
Overall, the album is perfect for a road trip, or if you’re mowing the lawn for an hour and need music to keep you going. If you go into this album thinking it’s going to be the best thing since “Peace Sells but Who’s Buying?” then you’re going to be disappointed. However, if you think it’s just going to be another thrash metal album with sweet riffs and cool vocals, it’ll be up your alley. There’s nothing really wrong about this album, except that it doesn’t offer anything spectacular as far as thrash goes. For Evile fans, I would recommend it. For fans of thrash metal, I would recommend it. It’s pretty good, but nothing amazing.
