Get ready to take a trip with Evil Island.
After delivering debut single “Tiger Baby” earlier this year, the new, self-described “feral pop hardcore” band from members of the Blood Brothers and OFF! have revealed the details behind their first full-length, Terraform the Afterlife. The upcoming album features guest spots from members of Fugazi, XCOMM and more, though they’re teasing the release ahead of time with a gothic beach-punk bash called “Animal.”
“Animal” is a touch more pop-forward than “Tiger Baby,” yet still locks into the sneered, screamed and sassed sound of vocalist Johhny Whitney, here threading through sinisterly surrealistic tales of “debauchery” and “selling kids for slavery.” The pop-subversive bop hits like a bat wrapped in barbed wire and bubble wrap, and concludes with some twisted surf guitar sounds. Filth is Eternal’s Lis Di Angleo adds backups.
“‘Animal’ felt enormous almost immediately. It’s the only song we’ve ever written that sounds authentically like us while also sounding like it could be blasted through the PA at a football stadium,” Whitney shared in a statement.
Notably, the video— which continues the “death cult” angle of the “Tiger Baby” vid, and shows us a lot of blood drinkin’ and one seriously hammer-smashed face — also marks the on-screen debut of recently instated guitarist Todd Weinstock, formerly of Glassjaw. Weinstock doesn’t perform on the upcoming LP.
As previously reported, the group had been recording music with Ross Robinson, the Korn and At the Drive-In producer whom Evil Island members Whitney, Cody Votolato (guitar) and Mark Gajadhar (drums) had previously worked with on the Blood Brothers’ 2003 full-length, Burn, Piano Island, Burn. Shortly after that band reunited for a series of shows in 2024, the three musicians realized they wanted to make more music in the present.
“Evil Island was born out of the firestorm of creative energy that Cody, Mark and I felt when the Blood Brothers reunion tour ended in 2024,” Whitney explains. “My brain was on fire; I was gripped with a kind of mania. I had so many ideas rattling around in my skull that if I didn’t make something new with my friends, the psychic damage probably would’ve manifested as some exotic form of cancer.
“I knew our story wasn’t over. More importantly, I knew our particular strain of feral pop hardcore felt more necessary than ever given that the world is boiling in bullshit. So, we wrote eleven songs, brought Ross Robinson into the fold, then Autry joined the band, and suddenly everything locked into place.”
Terraform the Afterlife also reunites the Blood Brothers members with Fugazi vocalist-guitarist Guy Picciotto, who had co-produced the older band’s Young Machetes release in 2006, and now adds guest vocals to Evil Island’s “T-Hexx.” This is Picciotto’s first recorded vocal performance since Fugazi’s last album, 2002’s The Argument.
The Evil Island album also features guest spots from XCOMM vocalist Michael Gatto, Sleigh Bells’ Alexis Krauss of Sleigh Bells, and an on-record reunion with the Blood Brothers’ other vocalist, Jordan Blilie.
Terraform the Afterlife is out August 14th via Blowed Out Records. That’d be the artwork and tracklisting down below, while a pre-order can be found here.
Terraform the Afterlife tracklisting:
Melted Heart (ft. Alexis Krauss)
Termantrixx (ft. Michael Gatto)
Animal
Tiger Baby
T-Hexx (ft. Guy Picciotto)
Evil Island Death Cult National Anthem
Grow Spikes
I Bought a Spell (ft. Jordan Blilie)
No Good
Moonlight Doomlight
Blinding Rage
King Death
Suicide By Cop