Huddersfield thrashers, Evile, hit Manchester’s Rebellion with ferocity! Support came from Reaper and Xenith, both doing solid work, warming up a crowd hungry for riffs. But when Evile took the stage, the heaviest riffs of the night were clearly reserved for this savage four piece from the UK.
Opening with ‘Thrasher’ felt like a statement of intent. The riffs are big and expensive, the grooves are huge! Ol Drake commands the stage with the kind of presence that only comes from years of grinding it out on the road, his vocals snarling through tracks spanning the band’s entire catalogue.
The setlist drew heavily from 2023’s The Unknown and 2021’s Hell Unleashed, with ‘Head of the Demon’ and ‘Cult’ hitting particularly hard. But it was the classic material that had us headbanging the most. ‘Enter the Grave’ remains an absolute anthem, and ‘The Thing (1982)’ proved the band’s horror obsession translates brilliantly live.
The encore delivered what every thrash fan secretly hopes for, a cover of Metallica’s ‘Creeping Death’. Given that Evile started life as a Metallica covers band called Metal Militia back in 1999, it felt like a perfect full-circle moment. They absolutely nailed it. When Evile hit the stage, they absolutely devastated it. Two decades in and they’re still one of the most vital forces in British metal. Long may they reign.
