Out of the green, polluted valleys of England, comes Evoke. They are a rare bird in England; namely an ultra-brutal Death Metal act. Incredible, but true. They have just released their brilliant debut album "Dreaming The Reality" on System Shock/Pavement Records. We caught up with them through the promotion company Sure Shot.



1. Evoke is a good example that you cannot be prophet’s in your own country ‘cause you are virtually unknown in U.K. But you are very much respected and popular in all other countries. Why have you never broken through in U.K. ??

I guess the reason why we have never really broken through in England is pretty much the same reason why any band from England has never broken through simply because not many people from the U.K. really give a shit about British bands. They would much rather go to see a foreign band and shun the stuff from the U.K. and that’s very sad seeing as there are as good musicians and bands from this country, I think people should just take a look at what they have music wise and show some respect !!!

2. I am one of the U.K. metal heads who are, shamefully, more or less blank on Evoke. Please give me an update. When and where was Evoke started ?? Could you give us a brief biography ??

Evoke started in about August ’93 and just wanted to play Death Metal the good old fashion way. After some rehearsals we got a few songs together and made a demo entitled "I am my own God" which sold around 800 copies worldwide. And after that we went onto do a couple of split ‘7 singles. One of which was a split with Kadath, a German band, and from that we then went on to do a debut album for System Shock/ Pavement Records entitled "Dreaming The Reality" and as they say; the rest is history.

3. Please give us a list and presentation of your earlier releases.

This is pretty much the same as question 2. We did the "I am my own God" demo in ’94, then the debut ‘7 single (on MegaGrind Rec., Sweden) in ’96. Then we did the split ‘7 with Kadath (on Paranoia Syndrome) in ’97 and now we have the debut CD "Dreaming The Reality" out on System Shock Records.

4. How did you get in touch with Pavement Music ??

I sent a promo tape of the album. I think it was just two tracks and that actually went to System Shock and then probably passed on to Pavement Records and then they just sent us the contracts and everything was just done there and then.

5. Your album "Dreaming The Reality" was released this summer through Pavement Music. Please tell us more about this album. For example the recording, the lyrics, the writing process and the featured tracks.

Well, "Dreaming The Reality" has 12 tracks, 13 including the intro. It is a very brutal release. It was recorded at Blank Tape Studios (Sheffield, U.K.) and then it was sent to Dan Swano in Sweden to be mixed and I think he did a great job on the production side of things. The lyrics I cannot really tell you that much about, only that some are based on books, facts or human emotions, and maybe some about religion as I don’t write the lyrics. It’s hard for me to tell you more about them. The writing process for the album came around quite quick. Most of the stuff came to us so spontaneous towards the end of the writing, especially tracks like "Body Rites" and "Manipulate Then Ridicule", they just seemed to be so off the wall and very much fun to write.

6. How would you compare your new album with your earlier releases ?

Compared to our earlier releases the album is faster definitely more dynamic in the production & writing side of things. I think maybe it is more hate filled but we still have some of the things if common with our earlier releases and that is the fact that all of the tracks are different from one another rather than just the same old stuff all the way through. I guess we just try to make things interesting for the listener.

7. How would you compare Evoke to other U.K. metal bands ?

I don’t know if we are any different but I guess it might be the fact that we just do our own thing and don’t try to follow any trend !!

8. What is your political, religious and philosophical views ?

I think Tony Blair ought to stand down as Prime Minister because he is running this country into the ground in my opinion. He is just another fascist Tory ( the Conservative party -ed) ‘cause as far as I can see, everything he promised to the people, he has gone back on. I mean, look at the minimum wage. Although it is going ahead it isn’t as much as he first said it would be the guy just talk bollocks and never gives a straight answer like all the rest of them.
As far as religion goes, I don’t believe in heaven or hell, god or satan. I just believe in the alien theory and that we are just an experiment to see how long we will last before the whole world just runs into total chaos. My philosophical views are have the fucking best time you can while your here because tomorrow it could all be over and you may not get another chance at life !!

9. Are members of Evoke involved in other bands/projects ?

Not one of us are involved in other projects simply because we don’t have the time I guess Evoke is pretty full on and some of us have jobs as well so it makes it kind of hard to do loads of different stuff as I am sure some of us would like to do.

10. What are your plans for the coming months and year ?? Any tour plans ??

Hopefully next year we maybe doing a package label tour around Europe with Master, Malevolent Creation and Vader. But at the moment it is only talk so we will have to wait and see about that one.

11. Do you have a merchandise list ??? From what address can the band be contacted ??

No, we don’t have a merchandise list at the moment, but if you write to any of these two addresses, we will be able to give you the prices of our CD and ‘7 singles. The addresses are as follows:

John Redfern
45 Priestsic Road
Sutton-In-Ashfield
Notts
NG17 2AN
U.K.

Or:



John Parkin
208 Alfreton Road
Sutton-In-Ashfield
Notts
NG17 1JB
U.K.