Hailing from the United Kingdom, Evile are sure standouts in the field of thrash, leaning more toward a gritty, Bay Area sound and aesthetic than cartoonish crossover revival. Their most recent Earache release, Five Serpent’s Teeth, continues along these lines, proving that the thrash revival may just be more than a passing trend. The album is especially impressive, given that the band suffered a tragic blow prior to its creation: Original bassist Mike Alexander succumbed to a blood clot in the lungs in October of 2009. Fittingly, Five Serpent’s Teeth includes a tribute to Alexander in the form of a riff he used when warming up before a show.

We recently spoke to lead guitarist Ol Drake about Alexander’s passing, Rock Band, touring with his idols, and the future of the Evile, as well as thrash at large. Read our full chat after the jump!

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Although at first glance at this photo makes it appear as though Ol Drake is stroking a massive hard-on, that’s actually a garbage bin just behind him. Alas, he was not that excited to be speaking with Axl Rosenberg.

Whatever the hell it is we’re calling Evile’s particular metallica subgenre these days – retro thrash, rethrash, nu thrash, or just plain old motherfucking thrash – they’re one of the better bands playing it right now. Like only a handful of their peers, they really seem to “get” the music – and so while their roots as a Metallica cover band might show, it doesn’t really matter ’cause, well, who can think about that shit while headbanging so damn hard?

It’s been a tumultuous time for the band as of late – founding bassist Mike Alexander passed away in October of last year – but they’ve managed to persevere, and now find themselves doing pretty much the best first North American tour any non-American (in this case, British) band could hope for: playing support for Kreator along with Voivod, Nachtmystium, and Lazarus A.D. And as if that wasn’t enough, almost immediately thereafter they hit the road with Overkill. Sheesh.

Following the band’s gig here in New York last weekend, I got to speak with guitarist Ol Drake, who, despite his almost Heavy Metal Muppet-ish appearance, is a very cordial, soft-spoken gentleman. After the jump, get Ol’s thoughts on playing the States for the first time, why it’s taken them so damn long to get here, new bassist Joel Graham, the status of the next Evile record, and more.

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Kreator’s twenty-fifth anniversary tour, which features the very strong supporting line-up of Voivod, Nachtmystium, Evile, and Lazarus A.D., rolled through NYC on Saturday night, and, yeppers, I was there. I don’t have tons to say about it, but I did wanna give you a quick run-down, in the event that you are somehow on the fence about whether or not to buy a ticket when the tour comes to your town… so here are some quick thoughts about all the bands, in the order in which they appeared:

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Following my post yesterday about Metal Hammer’s Dimebag tribute album, Earache Records has sent out a press release confirming that Evile’s cover of the Pantera classic “Cemetery Gates” was, indeed, late bassist Mike Alexander’s final recording with the band before he passed away. That means the track has obviously taken on new meaning for the band – both because of the lyrical content (a study in death and grief) and because what was intended to be a tribute to one fallen brother will now also serve as a tribute to another.

You can watch video of the band recording the track above; after the jump, read a quote from Evile’s lead guitarist, Ol Drake:

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I’ve just received an e-mail from Earache Records alerting me that Mike Alexander, bassist for U.K. thrashers Evile, has passed away. He was thirty-two years old.

Evile members Matt Drake, Ol Drake and Ben Carter have released the following statement:

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