Ben Carter

In 1999, former school friends Matt Drake and Ben Carter came together over a mutual love for thrash metal and heavy metal and formed a cover band named Metal Militia (primarily playing Metallica classics) Matt's brother, Ol Drake, joined as the lead guitarist, and after London-born bassist Mike Alexander responded to the band's advert in a local guitar store looking for a bassist influenced by bands such as Metallica, Sepultura and Testament, the lineup was complete.

At the band's first live show, at the Ukrainian Club in Halifax, an audience member had a brick thrown at their face by area locals.

Evile are notable for being part of the thrash metal resurgence movement of the mid-to-late 2000s, and they were highly praised by Kerrang! for "Carrying the genre's whole 'revival' on their shoulders."

Evile are an English thrash metal band from Huddersfield, formed in 2004.

They have experienced numerous line-up changes over the years, with drummer Ben Carter being the only member of the original line-up to have stayed consistently.

In 2004, the band ceased playing covers and dedicated their time to writing original material.

Soon after, they independently recorded and released two EPs in limited quantities (250–500 units): All Hallows Eve EP (2004) and Hell Demo (2006).

Evile toured extensively throughout the UK (2004–2006) and Netherlands (2006), played as the support act for Exodus and eventually signed to Earache Records.

Though Earache had received the band's Hell Demo, it was after label head Digby Pearson witnessed Evile's set at Bloodstock Open Air in 2006 that he contacted the band and signed them to the label.

In an interview Matt Drake said that the band was originally supposed to be called "Exile", but there were "a million other bands that called themself that" so the "X" in the band's name was changed to a "V," and the band became known as Evile.

Prior to the album's recording, Matt Drake contacted producer Flemming Rasmussen (Metallica, Morbid Angel, Blind Guardian, Artillery) by doing a search for his name on Google and enquired as to whether or not he would like to hear Evile's material.

Flemming responded positively, prompting Matt to send him some Evile mp3s via e-mail.

Supposedly, Flemming never commented on the mp3s, causing Matt to presume that he "hated them", but when Earache Records contacted Flemming to request his skills as producer for Evile's debut, he swiftly accepted the offer.

To date, the band has released six studio albums: Enter the Grave (2007), Infected Nations (2009), Five Serpent's Teeth (2011), Skull (2013), Hell Unleashed (2021) and The Unknown (2023).

In 2007, Evile recorded their debut album, Enter the Grave, at Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen with producer Flemming Rasmussen and assistant engineer Anders H Mortensen.

The album reached No. 33 on the UK rock album charts, and Kerrang! magazine awarded the album 4 out of 5 stars while dubbing Evile as "Carrying the genre's whole 'revival' on their shoulders".

Generally, the album was received positively and received highly rated reviews, including those from Terrorizer Magazine (9/10), Metal Revolution (100/100) and Classic Rock (the 38th best album of 2007).

The band played many shows with class-acts such as Machine Head, and other bands such as Sabbat, Sanctity, Gama Bomb, Severe Torture and Desecration.

On 11 December 2007, Evile participated in and won Metal Hammer's Get in the Ring 2, at the Kentish Town Forum, London.

Four bands (Evile, Engel, Viking Skull and Goat the Head) performed thirty-minute sets inside a boxing ring and the public selected their favorite via SMS texts.

The show was compered by Oderus Urungus of Gwar and the judges included Ville Valo of HIM.

Valo commented that Evile were "really tight and rhythmic" but they were not his "cup of tea."

The competition was rebroadcast on Rockworld TV on SKY Channel 368 throughout January and February 2008 and included an hour-long supplement dedicated to Evile's GITR2 set.

In February and March 2008, Evile supported thrash metal band Megadeth on the European leg of their Tour of Duty and the UK leg of their Gigantour, opening for American deathcore band Job for a Cowboy.

The band was received warmly throughout the respective tours, and on the final date, they briefly joined Megadeth on stage at the Hugennottenhalle in Frankfurt to sing the heavy metal anthem "Peace Sells".

In March 2008, Evile's track "Thrasher" was featured on the Wii, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 video game Rock Band as downloadable content (part of the "Earache Thrash Pack").

In April 2008, the band embarked on a European tour alongside thrash veterans Exodus.

During the tour, they allowed a 14-year-old fan to join them on stage to perform "Enter the Grave", and on a few occasions they joined Exodus in backing vocals on "The Toxic Waltz," which was followed by the members of Exodus handing their instruments over to Evile to close the set.

On 8 October the release of Evile's first official Music Video.

The video was "Thrasher", a song from their debut album, and was directed by Dan Fernbach (who directed bands such as Bullet for My Valentine).

Also on 8 October the re-release of Evile's Enter the Grave via Earache Records.

Included in the package was a lengthy DVD, Evile guitar pick (with three alternate designs), A woven patch and three bonus tracks.

The band later announced they would provide support to Satyricon on their European "Tour of Nero" in November/December 2008.

Unfortunately, On 19 November 2008, while on the tour, lead guitarist Ol Drake reportedly collapsed due to health issues.

His jaw was fractured and the under-side of his chin was cut open.

Evile were forced to cancel their appearances on the remainder of the tour.

He then had to have his jaw wired shut for two weeks for healing.

Beginning in April 2009, Evile began the UK/Ireland "We Who Are About to Tour" tour along with UK death metal act Trigger the Bloodshed, and London Thrash band Mutant.

Warpath, who were originally scheduled for the tour, pulled out two days prior to the start of the tour (though the unfortunate injury occurred a week before the tour ) leaving Evile two days to find a replacement band.

The current line-up consists of Carter, lead guitarist and vocalist Ol Drake, bassist Joel Graham, and rhythm guitarist Adam Smith, who replaced Drake's older brother Matt in 2020.