Evile Family Tree
This is a project aimed at making it easy to see who inspired the bands you love or even hate. For this I try not to use any influences that the band don’t claim themselves. There will be a focus on predecessors but successors will be added as they site the band. These trees become more and more interactive as new bands are added, allowing you to click any band that has a tree and jump to it.
We want our lists to be better. If you know something that belongs on this list, let us know. When in doubt we will leave it out, so we need reliable sources.
Evile were one of the biggest bands of the new wave of thrash movement began. Although they slowed down with releases while some of their peers keep going, they had big presence early on. Writing credit is not noted on most albums so I will treat all members appearing on albums equally. The core line up for their first for albums being mostly steady. On Guitar/Vocals was Matt Dake, lead guitar, Ol Drake, Drums Ben Carter, and bass for the first two albums Mike Alexander. Mike died on tour for their second album and Joel Graham stepped into his role. Their 2021 release will have Ol on vocals and Adam Smith will be taking over the rhythm role of Matt.
Jeff Wayne
Adam is the newest member of the band Hell Unleashed will be his first album with the band. His influences include Lost Society, Alien Weaponry, Megadeth, Machine Head, Tyler Bryant & the Shake Down, Body Count, Slipknot, Corbot, Havok, and Exodus.
Ol said he listens to Miles Davis when he needs a break from metal. He said he got into some progressive rock like King Chrismon and Yes because of Alex Skolnick. For new stuff Ol said he is a big fan of Sylosis’s Dorment Heart.
Ol was a drummer before playing guitar.
Matt and Ol are brothers and grew up with the same music that their dad (was was also a guitarist) listened to.)
Matt said he got into music through his dad with older bands like Queen, Wishbone Ash, Jimi Hendrix, and Led Zeppelin. He got into metal from Ben having him listen to Master of Puppets. After that he got into Slayer and Sepultura. When he was asked about non thrash music that he likes he named “Creedence Clearwater to Nick Cave, Neil Young, Cypress Hill, Film scores, Genesis, Entombed, Blondie, Soundgarden, Michael Jackson.” He said he doesn’t like any modern bands besides a few like Opeth. He also names James Hetfield, Tom Araya, Warrel Dane, and Freddie Mercury as a favorite vocalists. As favorite guitarists he named James Hetfield, Slash, Brian May, and Alex Skolnick.
Mike Alexander died on tour in 2009. There are few interviews with him. Besides the influences of his mentioned by Matt I’m not sure of his influences. Some sources name some of the same bands other members have named, but I have not verified them. In an interview with Ol, he said that if it wasn’t thrash Mike didn’t like it.
Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3E5RQd8n18&t=5s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERW8ka-bakc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JblfH3XcxeQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibYBPF5ydFk
http://www.radiometal.com/article/matt-drake-kill-fuck-marry,1544
http://sailawaytomorrow.blogspot.com/2016/02/interview-matt-drake-from-evile.html
http://www.metal-temple.com/site/catalogues/entry/musicians/matt_drake_evile.htm
https://metalinjection.net/interviews/evile-release-album-earache-records
https://web.archive.org/web/20080306090834/http://www.evile.co.uk/matt.html
https://www.loudersound.com/features/my-essential-playlist-ol-drake
https://archive.blabbermouth.net/news/evile-guitarist-ol-drake-discusses-influences-plays-favorite-solos/
https://loudwire.com/evile-ol-drake-plays-favorite-guitar-riffs/
http://themetalist.net/an-interview-with-ol-drake-ol-drake-ex-evile/
https://www.metal-rules.com/2006/11/24/evile-lead-guitarist-ol-drake/
https://katylovesrock.wordpress.com/interviews/interview-ol-ben-evile-24th-august-2011/