Longtime Evile guitarist Oliver Michael "Ol" Drake has recently left the UK thrash metal band and the guitar virtuoso has now signed a multi-album worldwide recording deal with Earache Records, the same label of Evile. Ol Drake is currently working on his debut solo album, which is due to be released in 2014 under the project name of Old Rake and is set to include a number of guest musicians. So watch out for that.

Ol Drake comments: "Very excited to announce signing a solo deal with Earache Records. I established a great friendship with the guys at Earache over the years while I was with Evile and I was happy to hear they wanted to work with me in a solo capacity. This will be a studio project entitled Old Rake. I won't be touring, and I'm thankful to Earache for being understanding of this and for giving me this opportunity; I wouldn't rule out doing a few clinics here and there though."

"I've always been inspired by Steve Vai, and I've always wanted to do something in a similar approach orientated around metal with injections of other styles and ideas which interest me. After recently seeing the film Not Dead Yet about the amazing and inspiring genius, Jason Becker, it really kicked me into gear to do something with my playing; music is all I can really do, so I'm thankful for the opportunity and ability to still create music for people to hear. Looking forward to getting the music out there!"

Source:	earache.com
Band profile:	Evile