Evile Vocalist Says Band Has Grown to Accept the Death of Their Former Bassist

Evile are preparing to releasing 'Five Serpent's Teeth,' their first album since the untimely and unexpected death of bassist Mike Alexander. Alexander died of a pulmonary embolism. The band has grieved and mourned, receiving infinite support from the metal community. Vocalist-guitarist Matt Drake admits that it's time for the band to soldier on.

"Our headspace has been different between us all," Drake told Noisecreep. "We each reacted to it in our own ways so I could really only speak for myself. Things are fine now. You come to accept these things as well as you can over time." But it's not all roses, especially when reminders of their late bassist pop up unexpectedly. Drake continued, "There's the occasional bump in the road, like the other week.

We played a festival in Oulu, Finland, and we didn't realize until we got the venue that it was the last place we actually played with Mike the night before he passed away, and that took us back slightly and was quite a distraction for the actual gig we had to do. But as it is with these things you just have to get on with it."

Drake admits that when Alexander died, he came to a complete and total standstill, emotionally speaking. "At first, I hit a wall of complete apathy towards everything," he admitted. "I just wasn't interested in doing anything at all for quite a while as I'd never lost a friend like that before so I wasn't sure how to react to it or what to do with myself. I did a lot of thinking and came to the conclusion that I should be enjoying what time I have with the people I have and to stop being so depressed and apathetic about what was going on. Deciding to carry on with Evile was an easy choice to make as we knew Mike in the first place because of the band so why betray that history? Getting [new bassist] Joel [Graham] in helped tremendously as he's exactly the same kind of person as we are, he fits right in, mostly because he's really lazy like us!"

Watch 'Thrasher' From Evile

Drake feels that 'Five Serpent's Teeth' is the band's chance to prove to others (and themselves) that moving forward is the right thing to do. "We knew we had to do something really special with this third album for many reasons," Drake said. "Maybe we have a point to prove, either to other people or to ourselves. For me, I will go by what I've always said: that I want this band to be a well-respected heavy metal band, and I think this album will speak volumes about what we are capable of on our own merit.

"Regardless of what has happened in our brief but crazy history, we are always looking forward." Drake isn't going to postulate about what Alexander would have thought about the album, either. He said, "I am not entirely sure what Mike would have thought of this album. It definitely has the energy that he loved in music. It's great heavy metal from start to finish, big riffs, speed, singing and solos. I think if he could have been a part of it he would be as proud as we are."