Last year I came across Eternal Evil‘s demo tape “Rise of Death“, which is a short but intense dose of thrash metal in the good old 80’s way. My enthusiasm was sky high, so after writing a short review that you can find here, I also contacted the band to find out more about their story. Here’s what Adrian Tobar Hernandez had to say, in his own words. (Note: The interview was done last year, but due to multiple causes it has not been published until now. I decided not to modify it, so here it is, in its original form).
SoD: First of all, how did Eternal Evil start? When did you realize that this band is going to be something serious and not just, let’s say, a garage project?
EV: So the band started back in February of last year (2019) with our bassist Ginger and our ex guitarist Teddy Edoff and by that time they were just jamming for fun. Then they needed a vocalist and a lead guitarist so Ginger asked me if I could come to a rehearsal and I did so that’s how I got in the band.
Then we had some problems with the drummer that was with us at that time because he couldn’t play metal and was just some pop drummer, so we got rid of him and then we got our current drummer, Alphonse. After that we rehearsed quite a lot and it went well but some problems came along the way to so we had to part ways with Teddy, and after that we were a three-piece.
When we realized that the band was becoming something more serious, it was about the time when we released our demo “RISE OF DEATH“. It got a lot of really good reviews both from fans and zines and we started to realize that people actually care about what we do. Then we started to do some gigs here and there.
As far as I know, you guys live in Stockholm. How does the local scene look from the eyes of such a young band? Also, how are you guys seen by others? Have you had any contacts with bigger bands? (I know you were supposed to open for Antichrist, but eventually that show did not happen).
Well, the scene here in Stockholm is quite good I guess. I wouldn’t really say that we’re a part of that particular scene but it’s good, we have some good bands here though. From what I’ve seen we’re looked at pretty good by others, we have gotten some really kind words from other bands.
We haven’t had any contacts with other bands, just small new bands that are really good, like Sarcator and Odium. (Note: Sarcator kicks serious ass, their S/T debut album is an insane piece of black/thrash metal).
“Rise of Death” is full of glorious, crunchy guitar riffs, raw and heavy as fuck. What would be the most memorable riffs in extreme metal, in your opinion? Do you have any favorites?
Oh that’s a very hard question, for me it’s probably “The Mechanix” and the “Hit The Lights” opening riffs. Really hard to choose since there’s a lot of legendary and godlike riffs.
As I mentioned in the review I made for the demo tape, I think your style is closer to the early German thrash metal scene rather than the Scandinavian one. Since you are Swedish, I am curious why wasn’t Bathory your first choice of musical influence? Also, why did you choose this style of music? What does thrash metal mean to you?
Well that’s a hard question too and Bathory is actually one of our influences but mostly it’s the 80s German speed/thrash scene like Destruction, Kreator, Darkness, Violent Force etc.
We don’t really wanna relate or sound like one particular scene, it’s thrash of course but we try to put our own taste and influence to it so it doesn’t sound like some stupid rip off thrash band.
There’s a live footage of your concert at Fredagsmangel, in Stockholm, where you played the demo in full. What songs from this material are your favorites and how many do you think you’ll keep on the future playlists (or why not on the debut album)?
My personal favorite on the demo is “Witches Spell” since I love the riffs and the lyrics are ass kicking and straight to your face, we will probably play the demo in its entirety till we have too much material.
Coming back to the already mentioned live show, I could not help to see how good the band sounded (apart from the inherent small issues). The whole performance was extremely intense and energizing. How do you prepare for a show, how many times do you practice?
We don’t really prepare for a show, we just get up on stage and try to destroy everything in our path, I think that the attitude is more important than how tight you are live.
We have periods where we don’t rehearse at all and periods when we rehearse a lot. But we don’t rehearse a lot, only when we are writing new material.
Have you thought about adding a second guitarist to your ranks, so the sound could become even heavier? Or it works fine for you as a trio?
We have actually added a second guitarist to the band, his name is Tobias Ozzy Lindström from the band Slaughtersword and for us it’s a plus because he’s a really great guitarist and we can have more complicated solos now.
The band name sounds like a Hammer horror movie title from the ’60s. Was there a specific “evil” you were thinking of when choosing this name, or was this just a random choice of words?
The name was quite random, the main word was EVIL, we tried different band names and then Eternal Evil just fit our music perfectly.
After your self-released tape version sold out (only 35 copies were made), Iron Fist Productions re-released it recently. What kind of reactions did you get so far? Do you care what other people have to say about your music, do these opinions affect you in any way?
As I said we got some really good reviews from people that really warmed us, it’s nice to hear that people like it.
But opinions don’t really affect us, we have got some shit reviews from people but it’s not gonna affect us since we’re still gonna do evil blasphemous crushing thrash metal for as long as we can.
Judging by the song names, your lyrics deal with the dark side of life (occult, witches, devil, serial killers etc.). Will you consider changing the topics at some point to social/environmental issues, like some German thrash band(s) did in the past? (ed.note: I truly hope not, the dark side is much more fun).
I don’t think we will change direction of the lyrical themes; we really don’t give 2 shits about what the world is going through with politics, climate change or whatever the fuck, we just wanna thrash around the earth and not care about stupid stuff like that.
How much time does it take you to write a song, from the lyrics to the music? Who’s in charge with what in Eternal Evil?
We don’t have someone in “charge” in the band, it all starts on a rehearsal were I come up with a cool riff and then we go on from there and finish the music in 1 or 2 rehearsals, after that either me or Ginger write the lyrics.
What elements (or qualities) music has to have to be good, in your opinion? Is there a standard you’re looking for?
It needs to sound old school and original! And a lot of attitude too!
I recently saw that you have started to work on the new album. Can you tell us when it will come out? What can we expect from it?
I can’t tell when it will be released but I can say that it will be released this year, you can expect some raw sounding thrash metal!
If things will go well and the situation will allow it, in September (2020) will you embark on your first European Tour, which will cover several big cities, including Budapest. How excited is Eternal Evil about this upcoming European Tour? Are you a bit concerned about this pandemic situation?
Well at this point when I’m writing the interview the tour has been cancelled and were rebooking the dates to next year, we are very excited to see the different cities and playing to different crowds around Europe. (Note: The “Rise of Death European Tour” has been rescheduled for January – February 2022, keep an eye on the band’s FB page for updates).
The pandemic doesn’t really bother me at all, it’s just all these stupid restrictions that ban metal concerts!!
That would be all for the moment, thanks for accepting this interview for my webzine. If everything goes well, we will meet again soon, in Budapest. Till then, the last words are yours.
Play fast or don’t and keep it true!
Band Contact:
https://www.facebook.com/Eternal-Evil
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