I lost track of these guys for a while—the only other album of theirs I own is their 2007 debut, Enter the Grave—and came across the LP at a record store a few weeks ago, so it was time to hear what they're up to these days. I've mostly been hearing thrash bands that mimic the old school lately, so this is a little different. Evile's influences are undoubtedly old school, but their sound is more modern, which was the thing with the so-called thrash revival when they released their debut. There are strong nods to late '80s Metallica and Slayer here, which sometimes made me think this could be what these bands could have sounded like if they hadn't deviated too much from the '90s on. Now take this and throw in post-reunion Destruction, both in style and clean sound and crisp, fast and powerful delivery, and you get Hell Unleashed. The album is addictive and, if you're into the three aforementioned bands, each listen will reveal hints of each one interspersed in Evile's songs. Plenty of speed and heaviness are to be found here for your headbanging pleasure. Evile have successfully merged old-school thrash and the more modern incarnation that I tend to take in very little doses, so check it out if you'd like something a little different in your thrash.
