| CD REVIEW Hades |
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Band : Hades One of the great “thinking man’s” Thrash Metal bands of the ‘80s, New Jersey’s Hades combined technical prowess to intelligent lyrics. By all normal means, they should’ve become one of the bigger bands in the scene of those days, but fate (or rather founder and guitarist Dan Lorenzo) would decide differently! Things stabilized somewhat with the enlistment of bassist Sandy Handsel and second guitarist Scott LePage (formerly of Prophecy). When singer Alan Tecchio (also of Prophecy) joined, Hades also enlisted new bassist Jimmy Schulman (at that time playing with Attacker), and with this line-up Hades recorded their 1985 single The Cross. Throughout 1986 the band released several live tapes, one of which would land ‘em a deal with Torrid Records for the February 1987 released debut album Resisting Success (a copy of which I was lucky enough to find back in the days, thanks to the fact that Roadrunner licenced the album for release in Europe). Just before the release of the album, Schulman had a bad car accident, which took him out for quite a while with a broken leg, so they got a temporary replacement for him to fill in for live promotion duties. Then Lepage wasn’t able to join the band on tour, so Ed Fuhrman (previously of covers band Warning, who had once opened for one of Hades’ shows) came in. Schulman eventually recovered, and the band went into the studio to record their second album If At First You Don’t Succeed, released in 1988. In 1989 the band travelled out to Europe, from whence they’d gotten raving reviews and fan requests for live appearances. But the tour was a big disappointment and had a disillusioning effect on the separate members. Playing in what they felt to be the most out-back venues, the attending audiences would fluctuate between 50 and 800, but usually be only a good 100 people! Midway the tour (with Sweden’s Midas Touch as support, by the way) Lorenzo decided the band had had it, and after their return to the US the band members went their own ways! Lorenzo formed Non-Fiction (which also included Tecchio, whom had already joined Watchtower for their Control And Ressistance album) and released three albums with that band. Schulman participated in the recording of an early Non-Fiction band and then somehow saw himself auditioning for a position with The Ramones. He then joined Nevermore for a while. When that didn’t work out either, he started up a couple of bands of his own. Fuhrman got into martial arts, and didn’t even play guitar for three years… And then in 1995 Lorenzo decides it’s a pity the songs that he’d been working on when Hades split never got used. He’d of course come up with some additional riffs to make good Hades songs, and so the band reunited to record the Exist To Resist album, originally intended as a final farewell to comply to multiple fan demand. Yet further fan demand resulted in the 1998 release of the band’s old demos in the form of the The Lost Fox Studio Sessions album. The timing couldn’t be better, as the music scene definitely saw a boost in the market for Thrash Metal. A deal with Metal Blade was soon signed, and the 1999 album Savious Self was the fiirst réal comeback album. Lorenzo, Tecchio, and Fuhrman re-enlisted Schulman, and then recruited new drummer Ron Lipinski in August 2000. this line-up made a triumphant return to Europe, playing at Germany’s top festival event Wacken Open Air. Two more studio albums followed: the 2000 released The Downside, and 2001’s last musical endeavour DamNation. Hades was then again put on non-active for a while, the band members occupying themselves with several other projects (Lorenzo starting a solo venture, of which Schulman was also part; Fuhrman started Ten Ton Truck; Lipnicki first played with covers band Southern Shift, was then diagnosed with testicular cancer of which he was eventually successfully operated, then joined Havochate, and also enlisted with Overkill for European dates in May 2005; Tecchio made his return as frontman for Seven Witches, first appearing on the 2005 Metal Nation album). Getting back to the DVD at hand, I would have to say that it is most probably meant mainly for the die-hard fans, as the footage recorded that night in Boston back in 1988 (where Hades played in support of Wargasm, Manowar, and Nuclear Assault) is of rater shaky quality, both soundwize and imagewize! The If At First You Don’t Succeed album just released, the 7-track set-list concentrated on songs off that album mainly (“Oppinionate”, “Diplomatic Immunity”, “In The Meantime”, “Aftermath Of Betrayal”, and “I Too Eye”), but also included “The Leaders?” and the concert-closing “Nightstalker” off the debut. All in all, the concert part of the DVD is over after only 33 minutes! Luckily, there more! During the recordings of the 2001 album The Downside, the band recorded a nearly 46-minute documentary titled Behind The Metal, including old video material (clips, live footage, tv show appearances) and interviews with all the then current members and Scott LePage. The whole history of the band up to that point is explaned in detail…which is something Hades fans are simply gonna salivate for! Further bonus material comes with a video clip for…well, the info sheet we got with our promo copy of the DVD (which has limited info on the promo package cover) doesn’t mention…but I suppose it’s something from a Dan Lorenzo solo album (seen as he’s singing himself in a 3-man band with Schulman on bass, that is the best assumption I can make, really)! In conclusion, a fairly short DVD…but I hear it would come at a fairly reasonable price…so definitively something the Hades fan might pick up in spite of the awkward sound and image quality of the “main” feature! DVD, so no rating…but I’ll add that I’ve really enjoyed watching that Behind The Metal documentary…yes, I have indeed! I’ve some additional info that Hades (in their last line-up) has confirmed (in November 2008) to plan reuniting for an appearance at the German Keep It True XIII festival in April 2010. Tony. |