Sometimes in life magic is happening and very often it occurs unexpected. This time the Slovakian Black Metal outfit EVIL was responsible for a stunning experience. My first thoughts about the band were pretty pessimistic. EVIL, the most boring band name in the whole Metal genre. There must be dozens of bands with the word “evil” being part of the name. In fact, the “Encyclopaedia Metallum” (metal-archives.com) is listing up eight (!) bands with the same name and some more than 200 (!!) other bands having this word as a component of the band name. The cover of “Legenda Neskrotných Zivlov” …well, obvious drawn by an amateur. The five songs (plus intro) are influenced by a novel from an absolutely unknown writer from Slovakia, named František Švantner. He is so obscure that the German Wikipedia even does not have an article about him. Astonishing in a time where every moron is featured on Wikipedia. During the dull intro I felt that my prejudices are correct, but then the magic happened. The first song starts slow, some guitar melodies are introduced, replaced by other tunes and the song develops and the listener is picked up by the gloomy, dark and grim atmosphere. You just can not stop listening, the songwriting is excellent and even after a dozen listenings you are still able to discover new details, the music has not lost any of its magic. “Legenda Neskrotných Zivlov” presents mostly fast played Black Metal with a lot of mid-tempo parts to avoid the music getting uninteresting. Just like SATYRICON played on “Dark Medieval Times” and “The Shadowthrone”. Despite being a debut the sound is exactly what this music needs, a perfect mixture between rehearsal-room atmosphere and a proper production. All lyrics are done in Slovakian language and it fits absolutely. Like the Norwegian language of some songs on the mentioned SATYRICON releases. By the way, I have always asked myself how IMMORTAL or EMPEROR would have sounded using their mother language instead of pidgin English. The two musicians, Dlog and Carpath, are active for more than fifteen years and also played together in several other bands and under the sign of EVIL they recorded many split releases and demos. If my information is correct, the origin of EVIL dates back to 2001 and it is a pretty long time for a debut. But damn, “Legenda Neskrotných Zivlov” is definitely worth the wait. Genuine Black Metal, the way it should be played. www.thetruevil.wbl.sk, www.facebook.com/evilslovakia, www.hexencave.wz.cz