{"id":1031,"date":"2010-06-03T10:20:50","date_gmt":"2010-06-03T16:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/?p=1031"},"modified":"2010-06-03T10:20:50","modified_gmt":"2010-06-03T16:20:50","slug":"evil-survives-false-metal-slayers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2010\/06\/03\/evil-survives-false-metal-slayers\/","title":{"rendered":"Evil Survives – False Metal Slayers"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Kent Davies
\n<\/strong>
\n\"\"<\/a>Local metal marauders Evil Survives perform old school New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) at its purest commanding form. The band was born out of the uninspired revulsion following a Children of \u201cBoredom\u201d gig at which they sold their souls to save metal and destroy the savage purveyors of false metal evermore. Evoking the authoritative metal supremacy of Priest, Maiden and Mercyful Fate they sought conquer the metal world forever. Combining Adrian Riff and Sean Murray\u2019s double dose of fierce frenzied guitar shredding obliteration, the pulse pounding percussion and rhythmic destruction of Derrick the Butcher and Dr. Wiseman Harrisist and Axe \u2019n\u2019 Smash Warkentin\u2019s devastating Dickenson-like cries, Evil Survives absolutely annihilates everything else. The band\u2019s recent earth-shattering sophomore album Powerkiller<\/em> is already a metal classic, featuring six ludicrously loud, larger-than-life-and-death tracks and Ed Repka\u2019s finest cover art in years. The album is guaranteed to blow brains out of any denim \u2019n\u2019 leather listener. Recently Stylus<\/em> sought an audience with Evil Survives shredmaster Adrian Riff to discuss Powerkiller, cassette tapes and the new resurgence of NWOBHM.<\/p>\n

Stylus: Powerkiller\u2026 my god. Powerkiller.
\nAdrian Riff: <\/strong>The new album was recorded in a marathon 16-day session in December. I\u2019d like to think it\u2019s the logical second Evil Survives album. We\u2019re not going to alienate any fans. It\u2019s 25 percent less Iron Maiden, 25 percent more Evil Survives. It\u2019s little more of us finding our own sound but mostly pseudo-plagiarising or paying homage to Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Mercyful Fate.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Stylus: Although there are only six songs on the LP, one of them is almost a complete side. How did the epic song \u201cDescent into Hades\u201d come about?
\nAR:<\/strong> Well, we\u2019re always trying to outdo our metal heroes. Iron Maiden\u2019s longest song \u201cRime of the Ancient Mariner\u201d off Powerslave is about 14 minutes long, so I just had to write something a bit longer.<\/p>\n

Stylus: The song \u201cJudas Priest Live\u201d appears on the album\u2014is that the same recording as the previous 7\u201d release?
\nAR:<\/strong> It\u2019s an all-new recording and an extended version. As any vinylists know, you can only fit six minutes of music on a 7\u201d, so when we recorded the 7\u201d version we actually cut two minutes of the first part of the song. On the album it\u2019s the full version with the two-minute intro.<\/p>\n

Stylus: Where did you record Powerkiller<\/em>?
\nAR: <\/strong>We record everything and will likely record everything in the future with John Paul Peters, our analogue maestro, at Private Ear studios.<\/p>\n

Stylus: Who wrote the songs on the new album?
\nAR:<\/strong> I wrote the majority of songs on Powerkiller with the exception of Dr. Wiseman Harrisist, our bass player, who wrote \u201cDie Like a Samurai.\u201d We are usually more collaborative. I had written an album\u2019s worth of songs at the same time Axe \u2019n\u2019 Smash and Sean Murray were working on new tracks, but they weren\u2019t finished in time. Now they are. So we have more or less a full third album on the way.<\/p>\n

Stylus: Evil Survives is credited as being at the forefront of the NWOBHM revival. Do you think there is a growing NWOBHM revival scene?
\nAR: <\/strong>I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s growing tremendously. I know it\u2019s getting a lot more attention in the past few years. I think it\u2019s a rejection of some of these truly terrible sounding modern false metal acts and metal fans getting back to the roots of heavy metal. This tour we played with a few other Canadian metal bands that you could consider revivalist. Striker from Edmonton and Cauldron.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Stylus: The Powerkiller<\/em> cover artwork is unbelievable.
\nAR:<\/strong> You can\u2019t go wrong with legendary cover artist Ed Repka at the helm. He\u2019s done covers for Megadeth\u2019s Rust in Peace<\/em> and first Death albums. He also did the artwork for our Judas Priest Live 7\u201d.<\/p>\n

Stylus: You made the decision early on that the band was to only put albums out on the one true medium, vinyl. However, I heard that you\u2019re now putting out your albums on tape as well?
\nAR: <\/strong>Yeah, it was kind of just an impulsive joke that got out of hand. Dave, the guy who that deals with all the pressing and printing for our albums, offered a ridiculously cheap price on professionally dubbed cassettes with full-coloured inserts. Right now tapes are so out of demand, which makes them so cheap to make. It seemed like a really stupid idea at the time, but now I think it was a stroke of lucky genius. People are now flipping out for tapes. Just working at a record shop I\u2019ve seen that tapes are making a comeback. Kids don\u2019t care about CDs anymore they buy records and now tapes. They scour the Salvation Army for Walkmans and decks. CDs don\u2019t have a value anymore, but vinyl has too much of a value. When you need something portable, it\u2019s now tapes.<\/p>\n

Stylus: What inspired the Evil Survives tape artwork? They look like vintage \u201980s metal tapes.
\nAR: <\/strong>Continuing my idiotic tape plan story\u2014I picked up Judas Priest\u2019s second-best album, Turbo<\/em>. I thought, \u201cI\u2019m going to make our Evil Survives tapes look exactly like Turbo<\/em>.\u201d The only thing that\u2019s missing is it looks brand new. We need to send them to a couple weeks in a smoky bingo hall to get that yellow-stained cigarette vintage look.
\nEvil Survives returns from touring in late May. If you want to go to hell with a smile on your face it is highly recommend that you witness their live destructive power and pick up an LP or tape. Another way to bleed your eardrums dry is by downloading <\/em>Powerkiller for free at www.evilsurvives.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Kent Davies Local metal marauders Evil Survives perform old school New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) at its purest commanding form. The band was born out of the uninspired revulsion following a Children of \u201cBoredom\u201d gig at which they sold their souls to save metal and destroy the savage purveyors of false metal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[328,563,607],"class_list":["post-1031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-evil-survives","tag-local","tag-metal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1031\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}