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What a difference artworks makes! In the case of Powerkiller, the second full-length by Canadian metalheads Evil Survives, the gems come courtesy of famed metal artist Ed Repka, but the most brilliant gem is his drawing in the back cover of the vinyl version. The front features a city in ruins while the back zeroes in on the mayhem that ensues as a result of some sort of ‘green radiation’. The drawing features people suffering the effects of heavy radiation and a horned metalhead throwing the horns and celebrating the chaos. Had Repka added a tail to the metalhead we could have had an AC DC tribute at hand. But that’s not the case at all here.
I was under the impression that Evil Survives was a thrash metal band. I am not sure where I got the idea. Maybe I read that somewhere. Perhaps is that this new wave of thrash metal bands seems to be everywhere. Maybe, it was the Repka artwork or the band's name. So I prepared myself to get battered Testament style. But instead, Evil Survives goes further back in time to an era where the sounds hadn’t been hardened enough to be called thrash.
Evils Survives pays obvious homage to traditional heavy metal. Featuring awesomely flashy guitars in the best NWOBHM vein, Powerkiller is a guitar record through and through. And if anyone holds any doubts after the first half, a spin to the instrumental “Ferraria Puela” shall send any doubts up in smoke. Guitarists Adrian Riff and Sean Murray know their Maiden inside out and if their artistic names don’t tip their hat to the Brit powerhouse then I don’t know what does. This band has their sound down. The dual guitar attack spits gorgeous melodies and in the vein of a Martin Birch production job when the six strings are getting fingered the bass rumbles proudly in the front. As if there were any doubts that Evil Survives like their Maiden the bassist responds to the name Dr. Wiseman Harrisist.
Worthy of our attention too are the pipes of Axe n’ Smash. Smash does a decent job at impersonating Bruce Dickinson, but his range is not quite there. Let’s put it this way, if Helloween ever were to replace Andi Deris, Smash would be the man. If Maiden ever were to make the same mistake twice of replacing Dickinson Smash just couldn’t really cut it. But the songs are there. Even without avoiding the bloated epic stuff (they pull it off comfortably on the last track “The Descent Into Hades”) but focusing on triumphant melodies and grand musicality Evil Survives proves that you can be almost a tribute act and still come out on top.
Official Site
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