Review: Evile - Five Serpent's Teeth

EVILE
Five Serpent's Teeth
Earache

It took me a while to pop out this review of the new EVILE album, but I did not want to be hasty in my write-up. If I'm not going to be at least a tiny bit fair, then I shouldn't post my thoughts about…well, anything I guess.

The reason I say this is because I am not a dyed-in-the-wool fan of Evile's first album. When I first bought Enter the Grave, my interest in the music went up and down, and ultimately it left my CD rotation rather quickly. I just couldn't get into it.

My feelings toward the first album naturally influenced my decision into not buying the second album (Infected Nations). I heard a few tracks online, but I just wasn't interested.

Now, here comes Five Serpent's Teeth, the third album from Evile. Cutting through my settled-in prejudices of how I think I will feel about the music, I listened.

I will cut right to the chase and say that I now have a rejuvenated spirit regarding Enter the Grave and I am eager to hear Infected Nations. Why the sudden change of heart?

Well, that's the thing. It wasn't a "sudden" change of heart. Remembering my first spin of Five Serpent's Teeth, I had no change at all. "Same ol' Evile," I thought.

On further spins, the riffs began to sink in, bringing to mind hints of Justice area Metallica. After that, the partition I built after putting aside the first album came tumbling down and I began to embrace Five Serpent's Teeth as the killer metal album that it is.

What really got the ball rolling for me was the song Cult, which is the first video Evile filmed for this album. The song was a good choice for them to highlight because it's one of the best on the album - a mid-tempo stomper with catchy as hell riffs to match the memorable chorus.

Five Serpent's Teeth is high caliber metal, complete with killer riffage and well constructed solos that add layers of brilliance to each song. Yes, Evile write what are essentially love letters to the thrash titans of yore, but the end result is undeniably Evile in sound and execution.

So what changed in the style that made me see the light? Stylistically, not much. The production is a little too slick for its own good, but a distinct lack of rawness cannot take away from Evile's musical prowess. So, really, I can't put my finger on my new found love for this band except that even quality music can take a while to sink in.

Sometimes, that kind of music is the best anyhow.