28th March 2024
It’s that time of year again, when, in the UK, you may be forgiven for thinking that the entire music industry is camped out at Glastonbury. This, however, is a chronic misrepresentation, and all around the world, there are quite literally hundreds of thousands of music-makers who have absolutely no connection with the event, no currency, and no interest.
Seeing a few brief snippets on BBC news, with grinning attendees being asked for their views on their experience so far and who they’re looking forward to, I was stuck by just how middle class – and / or middle-age – a lot of those taking heads are. These are the type of people who can afford the £350+ tickets on a punt for ‘the experience’ and the increasingly limited off chance of some decent or interesting acts. The headliners are so safe, predictable, bland, and there’s not much to be said of much of the lower orders, either: the only acts worth seeking out are probably those you’ve never heard of playing in the minor tents who’ve probably had to pay a heap to get in.
Despite the immense coverage and the vast audience, it’s not representative of the majority of the music scene, industry or beyond, and for that majority, things go on as normal. And so it is that we have a new single from Brighton’s brightest, brashest metal new hopes, Eville, hot on the heels of whipping up some crowds on tour with Glitchers, and likely winning new fans in the process.
Anyone who discovered them on this tour will not be disappointed, and having followed them from their very incarnation, I’m not, either.
This latest offering, co-written and produced by Harry Winks of South Arcade, pulls everything that makes Eville an exciting act together and blasts it out hard. With their roots and influences firmly in early noughties nu-metal, they’re as much, if not more about Deftones and Pitch Shifter than Limp Bizkit or Korn, exploring the darker terrains of a genre which came to be maligned as it mutated into sports metal.
As is typical of the genre but also a defining feature of what Eville have come to own as their sound, ‘Dead Inside’ pitches clean melody and rabid growling vocals against one another over a backdrop of guitars denser than lead. It’s the perfect balance of accessible levity and monstrous heaviness.
But they also embrace contemporary pop tropes, with the overt and sometimes quite wince-inducing application of autotune. In this respect, they’re quite the conundrum, and products of our confusing, conflicted, incoherent times. They are the very manifestation of the widening generation gap, appropriating from their parents’ generation while staunchly representing their own. There are no limits.
It’s both musically and emotionally articulate, and represents another flawless entry to their killer catalogue.
AA
Aural Aggravation 