Darlington melodic-hardcore punks In Evil Hour are no strangers to the UK punk scene, having already played Manchester Punk Festival before, as well as Rebellion Festival and Boomtown Fair. They may not need an introduction – but I’ve gone ahead and done one anyway!
We spoke to the band about their sound, lazy comparisons, and what they’re working on right now…
Firstly, how did you all meet and when was In Evil Hour formed?
Gareth (Guitar) and Gib (Bass) met at school in the dim and distant past of 1997. Alice met them both in 2002 at college and the three of us have been playing in various guises together ever since. We formed In Evil Hour in 2011 after our last band – an ill-advised horror-punk outfit called the Zombie Headhunters– broke up.
How would you describe your sound?
I mean we’ve always found it quite hard to describe ourselves without sounding pretentious or providing a broad and non-specific genre. We always felt the most comfortable saying we’re melodic hardcore punk rock. We’ve had comparisons to late 90s AFI which we think it probably most accurate, and also Rise Against and Bad Religion which is all rather flattering as they’re obviously front-runners in the genre and we love those bands too. I’m not sure how truly accurate they but we’re probably in that wheelhouse, we will take the comparison! We also obviously have had the obligatory Distillers comparisons which unfortunately seem almost inevitable for every punk band with a female vocalist. I don’t think people are drawing the comparison in bad faith but we also definitely don’t sound like the Distillers. We did an AFI cover set at MPF a couple of years ago and realised that most of our gear and sound is modelled on that band – we wondered if people less familiar with AFI would just think, hey – In Evil Hour have written a whole new set!
If you had to recommend one of your songs to a new listener, which one would you choose?
2050 – it’s the best we’ve ever sounded and probably the most coherent musical/song concept we’ve had. It’s basically written about environmental collapse from the point of view of the planet. We’re really proud of both the lyrics and music in that song and it’s got all of the things we do best in it – harmonies, screaming, depressing lyrics!
What can we expect from your set at MPF?
Sweating, screaming, fast songs, bleak lyrics with upbeat delivery, lots of pointing at the crowd and woahs. We have fun when we’re playing, don’t like to take it all too seriously. We also like each other very much and enjoy spending time together so we hope this comes across when we play.
Are there any other bands on the line-up you’re particularly looking forward to seeing?
The MPF lineup is always ridiculously good so we can’t list all the awesome bands playing but here’s a small list we want to catch: Strung Out, ONSIND, Faintest Idea, NEX0, Bratakus, Pizzatramp
What else are you up to this year – any tours/festivals/releases you want to tell us about?
We’ve got other shows and festivals booked. After seeing how well our acoustic set went down at Rebellion last year we’re currently working on an album with an acoustic reworking of a selection of our songs. We’ve also had a new lot of songs in the works for a while now so will hopefully be releasing those as an EP/album soon.
And finally, is there anything else you’d like to add?
Have a great MPF! Free Palestine.
Thank you so much to In Evil Hour for answering these questions. Manchester Punk Festival takes place 18-20 April 2025 – full details and tickets here
You can find In Evil Hour on Facebook // Instagram // Bandcamp
