Evilnight is a crushing speed metal band and here is an interview with bass player Clint Beastwood.

How did the band come to form and were any of you in any other bands before Evilnight?
Samuel L. Saxon and Ron Heresy first thought of forming the band in 2010. The basic idea was to just play metalpunk. All of us except Saxon had been in different bands before.

What were some of the early practices like and how long was the band together before the band started to write originals?
Early rehearses were not that much different from what we now have, except we had only one guitar player and didn’t have a regular drummer. We started to write originals straight from the beginning as Evilnight wasn’t going to be a cover band at any point.

At what point did you come up with your band name and were any other band names tossed around and who came up with the logo?
I think the band name came up pretty early on, can’t remember the exact process but I do know that it was Saxon that came up with it. The band logo has been done by a friend of ours, Satanarchist of a band called Bonehunter.

Your based out of Finland, is there a strong metal scene there?
Well, that depends on what you consider as a scene but we do have some great bands here. At the moment the ones I consider to be the most important new ones are the likes of Speedtrap, Ranger, Lord Fist and the aforementioned Bonehunter.

Now how long had the band been together when you released “The Redrum Tapes” release? How many songs are on this and how was it going into the studio for the 1st time?
The band had been together for around three years when we put up the songs of The Redrum Tapes. I think it should be mentioned that The Redrum Tapes wasn’t actually a release of its own and could be considered as a digital promo. The tape “Stormhymns Of Filth” actually includes all of the songs that are on The Redrum Tapes.
We also didn’t go to a studio as we recorded the songs by ourselves with the help of a few friends.

Now did this come out on cd or was it just a cassette tape or did a label release this?
The Redrum Tapes never got a physical release. Stormhymns of Filth is so far only a cassette tape and it was released by Hell’s Headbangers.

Have you played many live shows yet and who have you shared the stage with so far in your career and do you think you’re a good live band?
I think we have played around ten live shows. So far we have shared the stage with bands like Speedtrap, Ranger, Death With a Dagger and The Wandering Midget, among others. We do think that we are a good live band but that is not to say there is no room for improvement.

Now you have a new release called “Stormhymns Of Filth” on Hells Headbangers. How did you end up working with them?
They contacted us and as we have always liked the label it wasn’t a difficult decision to start working with them.

How did you come up with the title and artwork of the release and is this a cassette only release and if so why only on cassette?
I think Ron Heresy came up with the name and we all thought that that is a cool name. The artwork was done by a friend of Hell Gibson’s. It is a cassette only release so far because we don’t like cd’s and it would have been too risky to have vinyl for a first release. We hope to have releases on vinyl in the future.

Now what did you do differently this time in the studio as opposed to the 1st time?
As I previously pointed out, the songs are of the same session so obviously there is no difference.

Tell me how a song comes together and how about the lyrics?
Ron Heresy makes the songs and Saxon writes up the lyrics. Then, if there has to be some work done for the songs we do them together while practicing.

For someone who has never heard the band what would you tell them you sound like?
Well we have been compared to bands like Nifelheim and Venom (to some extent) and I think that is not far off. Basically it’s all about the riffs and the speed with drum battering that never stops.

Does the band have any goals at all and what are your thoughts on the underground these days?
The goal is to keep making music and to play great shows. Really can’t say if there are any thoughts on the underground, obviously there are great bands around the world and let’s hope more keep coming up.

Please plug any websites or merchandise you have for sale.
Anyone who wants our stuff, go check out Hell’s Headbangers  at shop-hellsheadbangers.com/evilnight-stormhymns-of-filth-cassette.asp or come see a show!

Interview by Chris Forbes

July 2014