Released: 1998
Illwill was a part-parody side-project for a bunch of King Diamond/Mercyful Fate alumni in the shapes of Sharlee D'Angelo, Andy LaRocque and skinsman Snowy Shaw. With hitherto unknown singer Yonas af Dahlstrom making up the numbers, Illwill was turned out to be a very strange entity indeed.
Evilution is a schizophrenic album which one moment draws from the crunching staccato riff factory of Meshuggah and the next sounds like something Devin Townsend would do! In fact there's no telling where this band is likely to go from one track to the other, with Dahlstrom sounding different on just about every second song, moving from a Halford-style soaring to a sandpaper growl that recalls no one more than Udo Dirkschneider. Some of it is quite obviously a jibe at the posturing of the modern metal bands of the time too, like some of the deliberately orchestrated parts and the occasional Goth-y bits. Plenty of people revile this because of these aspects without realising that Illwill was actually taking the piss.
This is, in fact, one very bizarre piece of work, with the occasional deliberately out-of-tune guitar tossed in and the concept of a time-signature often tossed out. Such avant-garde touches may well be too much for some to come to grips with, but Evilution is well worth the listen, although the seven-minute repetitive a'cappella chant tacked onto the end of the last track ("365 Reasons to Commit Suicide") did get a little tiresome after the first three minutes or so!
- Singh Hai
- V is for Vulgarians
- Cult
- Il Organizatione
- Six Sec Sex
- Whether With or Without
- Eternal Sleep
- K.A.O.S.
- Bid Farewell to Welfare
- Who to Trust?
- This Barren Life
- 365 Reasons to Commit Suicide
- EWS
Rating: 85%
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