Hyades is a switchblade in a country full of dull, butter knives. Hailing from Italy, the group takes the attitude, groove, and crunch of late 80's Heavy Metal and Thrash, and leaves the Hollywood scores to be done by those who...well, live in Hollywood. The last few years of the band's career have been amazing; opening for such classic metal acts as Helstar and Omen and unleashing "Abuse your Illusions" upon unsuspecting head bangers around the world. Guitarist, Lorenzo Testa and Vocalist, Marco Colombo spoke with Metal Mayhem about "Abuse your Illusions", the metal scene in their country, tours, the band's future, and many other topics of curiosity.
Metal Mayhem: Please give our readers some
history of your band up to your signing with Mausoleum Records and release of
Abuse Your Illusions.
Lorenzo: First off thank you so fucking much for your amazing review; we're very glad you like our music! So, Hyades'
history started back in 1996, exactly ten years ago. We were very young when we
recorded our first (and horrible, ha ha) demo CD... I was only 16 years old!
During 10 years, we evolved bit by bit towards the music style you can hear in "Abuse Your Illusions". For a wop band,
it's harder to spread its own music and find a record label interested
in it. Italian metal scene doesn't have a lot of credibility, and Italians are well-know
just for sissy power metal bands with nasty productions and sweet melodies. So
you can understand why we needed ten years to release our debut album. Finally,
it is out and we are absolutely happy by it! After ten unlucky years without a
deal we found a double record deal with Marquee Records for South America and
Japan, and with legendary Mausoleum Records for the rest of the world. Now the album is going well, we received
emails from all over the world and this is absolutely amazing! It is a dream
come true. We don't care about making money with this band; the greatest
satisfaction is to know someone loves our music. This makes me absolutely
proud!
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MM: How did you come up with your band's name, Hyades? Do you pronounce it like "Hades" or "Hi-ah-dees"? Marco: That is a funny thing about us, it has been pronounced in thousands of funny and impossible ways since our beginning. Our ex-bassist came out with this moniker in 1999. Despite being a shitty name, we decided to maintain it. We currently try to pronounce in the correct way, (Hi-ah-dees) but sometimes it is hard even for us!
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MM: You use the phrase "Thrash Now, Work Later". How did you come up with that phrase?
Lorenzo: Well, we were searching for a good
slogan to put on the back of our shirts and I came up with this one! I saw a
similar slogan on the beach... It was something like "Dive now, work
later" so I understood it was perfect for us! "Thrash now, work
later" is a good representation our way of life and our attitude. Playing
music is more than a "hobby", it is a different way to live our life,
to vent our anger against a rotten world and a fucked up society. Our
bass-player Rob moved from Sicily without a cent and without a home to find a
band to play in; we don't care about losing our jobs because of music and
touring Europe. We don't want to say that this is the only right attitude; but
this is who we are.
MM: In my review of "Abuse Your Illusions", I said your sound falls somewhere between Germany and California's Bay area
Thrash. Would you say that is an accurate statement? What bands were most influential in forming your sound?
Lorenzo: Yeah, you're right. We love US
thrash metal, but we can't forget our European origins... Compared with the
most of new thrash metal bands we have a classic metal background: we usually
play live songs from Accept or Savage Grace! We grew up with old-school metal,
from Speed to Epic and thrash metal of course. So I can't indicate a major
influence on our music...
MM: "Abuse Your Illusions" has a crunch-driven guitar sound. What equipment did you use to achieve this sound?
Lorenzo: Well, I recorded "Abuse Your Illusions" with my Marshall JCM2000 100W and ENGL cabinet. I like that sound,
but I've now changed my equipment, buying a Peavey XXX head... it sounds more
fucking HEAVY! I use EH and Ruby 6L6 tubes so I have a better and heavier gain.
It sounds like a mega-fist in a face! And as far as guitars... I play a Jackson
RR1, Jackson Kelly, and a Gibson Les Paul. I love them all!
MM: Italy is not recognized as being a Thrash hotbed. Do you have a Thrash scene where you live? Are there venues
for you to present your music to metal heads in your area?
Marco: I know Italy is well known for sissy-poser-symphonic-Hollywood metal, but yeah, we got a lot of great thrash
bands. Our friends Hatework and Vexed, Warmonger, Ground Control and many other
bands. We also have a bunch of good clubs in our area, but the real problem
here in Italy is the fuckin' audience. People raise their fat asses only for
Iron Maiden, Dream Theater and for every stupid tribute band who plays two
boring hour of crap.
MM: You have opened for such Classic Metal acts as Helstar and Virgin Steel. How do you feel about having played
those shows?
Marco: Whoa, man, amazing is all that I can say. Opening for such myths of heavy metal has been really awesome. Add to
this that we have often found great persons: Mark Shelton of Manilla Road
bought our CDs and asked us for autographs, James Rivera of Helstar spent a lot
of time with us, and finally our brothers, Omen and Phantom-X asked us to join
their European tours! What else can I say? We were really moved!
MM: Do you have any international touring plans, like Europe or the U.S.?
Lorenzo: Yes, of course! We'll tour Europe in September with Omen and Phantom-X. We'll play in countries where we've never been before as
musicians and this is definitely exciting! Then, we'll fly to U.S. to play in Texas with Helstar and
Phantom-X and maybe in California. But a US tour is still to be booked; it will
be approximately between the fall of this year and the first weeks of January.
Believe me: I can't wait to tour in the US! I'm sure it'll be something I'll remember all my life long!
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MM: Speaking of the U.S., how has the response been in the States considering the album's art work and overall theme? Lorenzo: So fucking good! Contrary to all expectations, it has been excellent! I know a lot of people in the U.S. would agreed with my lyrics. We don't want to make politics or similar bullshit, but we are all sons of this Society and we can't shut our eyes in front of injustices and lack of equal rights. I can understand a U.S. guy would like to ask me why I talk about U.S. government and war campaigns when we're from Italy. Well, both Italy and Europe are U.S. clones: we dress U.S. wear, we eat U.S. food, we watch U.S. movies.... And every single action of the U.S. government involves our everyday life...
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MM: The title and lyrics of September, 11 led me to believe this song was about the Twin Tower terrorist
attack in New York on September 11, 2001, but at the end of the song you say
"the 11th of September 1973". What is this song's story?
Hyades: "September, 11" is about Chilean coup in 1973. It is a tragedy no one seems to remember. In 1973 the
democratically elected Salvador Allende was killed by Chilean army led by
Pinochet and supported by CIA and the U.S. government.
MM: You made an interesting cover of the Beastie Boys' "Fight for your Right".
Why did you decide to include this cover on the album?
Marco: I think this song well describes the attitude of this fuckin' queer, unlucky band. We always try to do our best, but damn it,
we are also here just for fun! Italy is full of people taking everything too seriously, musicians, fans,
everyone! So, we decided to play this cover, just to let everyone know that
above all, we still have a lot of fun. But, it also describes quite well the
struggle we had to pass in our early years.
MM: How do you feel about next album that will be released soon? Can you give our readers some details about
this next offering?
Marco: Our new studio work will be named "And the Worst is yet to Come". It will be a worldwide released the 17th of November
by Mausoleum Records and Ed Repka will take care of the artwork! Be sure it
will be a shit-kicking album! We're extremely proud of "Abuse Your Illusions",
but this one will be definitely better and fucking louder!!
MM: What are your plans after releasing the next album?
Lorenzo: Playing everywhere, ha, ha! As I
told you, we're planning a U.S. tour for the first months of 2007. Then, we
hope to play as much as possible here in Europe and do a new tour in the
spring/summer of 2007. But it isn't the right time now to think about this...
we now have to spend all our time promoting the new album. I'm sure the new
album will kick asses, so it is important to spread it all over the world and
then let metal heads judge Hyades' music!! THRASH NOW WORK LATER!
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