EVILE Forced To Cancel LORCA ROCK Appearance

British thrashers EVILE have been forced to cancel their appearance at this weekend's Lorca Rock festival in Murcia, Spain. Vocalist/guitarist Matt Drake was diagnosed with flu and with a serious throat infection yesterday afternoon. Under the circumstances, Matt is not able to perform — he can barely talk, let alone sing.

Commented Matt: "I'm so desperately sorry that we have to cancel our show at Lorca Rock. As the entire world knows, there's a big thing about flu going around and I have come down with some of the symptoms. There is no way I would be able to give a vocal performance this weekend anywhere near what you would expect — I'm simply not physically capable of doing so.

"I would like to take this chance to apologize to everyone for letting you all down especially the promoter of the festival and our Spanish fans as well the rest of the band".

A brand new EVILE track, "Infected Nation", is available for streaming on their MySpace page. The song comes off the band's sophomore album, "Infected Nations", which is scheduled for release on September 21 in Europe and September 22 in the U.S. via Earache Records. A DRM-free copy of the track is available for download at this location.

The cover art for "Infected Nations" was created by Michael Whelan, famous for his sci-fi artworks along with classic album covers from such bands as SEPULTURA and OBITUARY.

"Infected Nations" track listing:

01. Infected Nation
02. Now Demolition
03. Nosophoros
04. Genocide
05. Plague To End All Plagues
06. Devoid Of Thought
07. Time No More
08. Metamorphosis
09. Hundred Wrathful Deities

EVILE frontman Matt Drake previously stated about the new CD: "When we did [2007's] 'Enter the Grave' two years ago, it was made up of songs we had been playing for a few years and some written in the excitement of actually getting to record an album. We were happy to just be making noise, but since then, we've learnt a few things and we're more interested in making music.

"EVILE fans can expect to hear a more mature offering, an album that concentrates on all aspects of what each member can do; it's a heck of a lot more focused, more satisfying and we're really proud of what we've achieved with it. Russ Russell has helped us to push ourselves to the next level and pull us out of the '80s. The whole retro thing has been cool but we feel it's time for us to leave that behind and stand up for ourselves and show people what we can really do, but fear not, it IS a thrash metal album, it is a 2009 thrash metal album, and we're dying to blow your minds with it."