HYADES is a band that plays old-school metal in the vein of Armored Saint,Iron Maiden,and many other great 80's bands. Since the band formed in 1996,they have released two demos and played numerous live shows in their native Italy. The band is planning on recording a third demo,and hopefully it will get the band noticed outside of their native land. Marco (Nego-guitar), Marco (Mago-vocals) and Lorenzo (Txt-guitar) were kind enough to answer my questions...so check out their site,download some mp3's,and rejoice in true metal. Interview by Chris O'Brien
U.F.-How did the band HYADES form? How long have you been a fan of heavy metal music? What made you want to form a band instead of doing a zine or something else? What bands had the biggest impact on you as far as forming a band went?
Nego: Hyades started about 5 years ago as a speed metal band, playing music from early Helloween
and other power speed metal bands of the eighties. Since the beginning the members of Hyades have always
been metal maniacs and we want to show our faith by playing our music but not only. Me and Lorenzo
write on the web about heavy metal, we try to have always our hands in metal music!
The bands that nowadays most influenced our sound can undoubtely be considered band such as Rage,
Running Wild or Grave Digger, but also Virgin Steele or Judas Priest are present in the odiern Hyades
influences.
Txt: I've been listening to heavy metal music since I was about 8 years old (!!!) thanx to my father devotion in hard rock music and in band such as Black Sabbath or Deep Purple. My first records (from Judas Priest and Iron Maiden) were a gift from my father too and my first live show was an Iron Maiden one when I was 10 years old.
The first records that most influenced me when I started playing my guitar were the ones from early Metallica or Helloween and Grave Digger but also other power speed metal bands of that time.
U.F.-What can you tell us about the early lineups of the band? Were you guys seen as assholes with all the changes? What made you change the members all the time?
Txt: When we started as a band we only wanted to have fun together playing our favourite songs. At that time
it would have been great just to have a little gig even in our school! As time passed by things became more serious and also our songs started enjoying our fans (better, friends!). We started a live and studio activity and we needed people really interested in our future and in Hyades in general so that the line up changes were essential.
U.F.-What made your brother,Luca,join the band? What can you tell us about his previous band,Grindzone? How did you find Andrea and the vocallist you had
at the time?
Txt: When I started I needed a guitarist, my brother was one, so he joined the band, of course!
His previous band, Grind Zone, was a death/thrash influenced metal band, they published only 1 demo tape
and splitted 2 years ago. It's a pity they didn't exist yet, they were a really good band, very talented.
We found our vocalist of that time during a sort of audition 'cause we were looking for a singer; while I met our bassist Andrea during a party. We were both drunk and we started singing "How many tears" from Helloween, then I knew he was a bass player so we started playing togheter!
U.F.-What were the bands early shows like? How long did you carry on with your vocallist before you found Marco (vocals)? How many original songs did the band have at the time? What covers did you guys play,if any?
Nego: The first line up carried on about two years and during this time the band didn't have the possibility to play many live shows and we were also very young so the few shows we performed were not so great...
At the moment we have 6 songs ready to be recorded and we use to perform them all on the stage. About the covers we try to do our best during our shows to perform great hits of the past such as songs from Saxon
Running Wild, Judas Priest or Armored Saint. We split our shows between our songs and covers in equal
number.
U.F.-How did the recording for the first demo "Princess of the Rain" go? Are you happy with the demo now at days? Was that the first time you guys had been in a studio?
Txt: We recorded "Princess..." 'cause we needed some stuff to make Hyades music known among metal pub
and 'zines. I've never been proud of the quality recording of our first demo: we didn't spent enough time on it and the production was disgusting. It was our first time in a studio and we were unexperienced, our singer Marco had already join the band and he didn't have enough time to give his personal interpretation to the vocal lines. Anyway we sold a good number of copies of it and the people who buyed the demo was very happy for the work.
U.F.-What made the band decide to change styles? Is this why Luca left the band? How hard was it to find Marco (guitarist)? Were fans of your previous demo happy with the newer sound? Were the fans happy with the change?
Txt: The musical direction present in "Princess..." was greatly influenced by Luca and our old singer music taste. If Marco used to sing that demo as he now actually does it would have been much better! After that experience we returned to our early sounds that are the bands actual ones. Marco was Andrea big friend and he used to follow the band so the choice was obliged! Surely our fans are happy for our new musical direction especcially if you consider that there are not many bands who play true metal as Hyades do. The metal scene is full of new metal or melodic power metal bands, but people want to hear direct metal music and bang its head and we are here for that!
Magò: Simply we noticed that it was not the right music for us…we want to play HEAVY metal…loud, strong,
direct and bastard as it can be…and this was not that we were doing…so we started a sort of evolution, and the outcome of this process is what you can hear and see on the stage during our live shows: we are different even if compared with MCLXXVI…our sound is becoming more and more heavy and violent…
Luca left the band at the end of 1999: he was too engaged with his work, and was not fully convinced about the style we were searching…Marco was one of our best friends: it has been extremely easy and natural to choose him for replacing Luca;
Luckily, fans of our first demo completely understood and approved our line-up and sound changes…they are
really enthusiastic about everything…
U.F.-After a while,you recorded a concept demo named "MCLXXVI". What made you want to do this demo as a concept piece? What is the story and history behind the concept?
Nego: The idea of the concept was born from the title track song composed spontaneously by our bassist, then we decided to develop its theme in other 3 songs.
Behind this concept is the historical event
of the Battle of Legnano (1176), a very important moment in the story of our country and of all the italian middle age. During this event the northern italian towns defeated the emperor Federico Barbarossa from Germany thus giving freedom and independence to all north Italy countries and, of course, to our own
country, Legnano.
U.F.-What has the band been up to since the recording of the "MCLXXVI" demo? Are there any newer releases for people to hear how your sound has evolved? How are the reactions at the live shows you guys play?
Nego: After the recording of our second demo we started an intense live activity to support our new record and to spread Hyades' music around. We are very happy because in about 1 year we performed a great number of shows here in the north of Italy reaching great conseses from the people we played for.
Our idea is to record a third demo (or maybe something more than a simple demo) in the next autumn giving
to the product the right attentions to obtain a professional work.
Returning to our live shows I can tell you the people we met down from the stage has always been very happy
and enthusiast for our performances. I think the reason why is that on the stage we always try to give our best not only from a musical point of view, but also from a stage one.
Magò: We played a lot of gigs in contests, festivals, motorcycle meetings and clubs, where we recorded also some live tracks.
People's reactions during our shows are simply great: this because WE ARE metalheads ;we exactly know what
guys want and expect from us: they wanna sing, headbang, come on the stage to drink, and scream: simply, they want to be involved and see a REAL show, not something like an album played by 5 statues! We are able to give them what they need: using leather, spikes, pyros, burning axes and swords…but most of all our heart and our sweat. This is the reason of our live success…
U.F.-What do you think of the current metal scene in Italy? Do you think that bands like LABRYNTH,RHAPSODY,and WHITE SKULL are bands that represent Italian bands in a good light? What do you think of some of the older bands from Italy,like BULLDOZER? What do you think of the metal scene world-wide in general?
Nego: Very good question! I think the italian metal scene has actually reached a very good level both for the bands and their quality. The bands you named are only the most popular out from our country and they partly represent the whole italian metal scene, but there are also a lot of speed or thrash great metal italian bands, miles away from symphonic/power metal music from Labyrinth or Rhapsody. This is the way they represent our country I don't know if in a good or bad one, it depends from the people who listen to them. I personally don't appreciate these bands (except White Skull) but I admit they contributed to spread the italian metal music worldwide.
I think Bulldozer, such as old Death SS or Adramelch, greatly represented italian metal scene of that period.
I've always loved these bands (as also Skanner or Vanadium) but I think a lot of people talking about Italy and heavy metal in general, nowadays, will always tell you the name of Labyrinth or Rhapsody, but this is not the way I mean italian heavy metal.
About the metal scene world-wide I am quite happy for the come back of some 80's sounds and the reunion of great past band, such as Angel Witch, Agent Steel or Manilla Road just to name a few. About the new productions I think there are very talented bands but also a lot of shit and I can't understand the reason why these bands still exist!
U.F.-What are some great underground bands in Italy that you think should be signed to a deal? Have you guys gotten any offers from labels to record a full-length album? Do you plan on releasing the two demos on one CD soon?
Nego: Italian underground metal scene is full of talented bands I think sholud be signed to a deal, but in our country, it is very difficult to reach it. Don't ask me why, but italian labels seem to be not really interested in italian metal bands! We haven't already gotten any kind of interesting offer to record a full-lenght; we are looking for the right label yet and we hope to find someone really interested in our music to produce our next album.
I think the songs of the second demo will for sure be present on the next one but I don't think the same about the first one: it is far from our odier way of making music, it belongs to the past and nothing else.
U.F.-How can fans get in contact with the band? What can you tell us about the official HYADES website?
Nego: As you said we've got an "official" web site (www.hyades.6go.net) managed by ourself where you can find all the news about the band, our tour and our history. Here our fans can also download 4 our songs and tell their opinion signing the guestbook. I think it's a great way to get in contact with the people who appreciate our music.
U.F.-Have you guys tried to play any of the larget festivals in Europe like Dynamo or Wacken or Bang Your Head? Does Italy have their own metalfests every year or two?
Nego: Hey guy, are you joking??! It's only a dream!!!
I've been 3 times in Wacken and 1 at Bang Your Head festival and I love them, but it's quite impossible for us to play there! Maybe in the future... Also in Italy we have our metal fest called Gods Of Metal every year in June. This year played a lot of amazing bands such as Judas Priest, Savatage and Motorhead. I know also in the US there are a lot of interesting metal festival, so if you know someone interested in Hyades to play there...here we are!!!!
U.F.-What are some of your favorite records of all time? If you could play with any band,which band would it be and why?
Nego: Here the list could be neverending!! Personally I can tell you my favorite records of all time belongs to historic bands from Iron Maiden to Motorhead, from Metal Church to Riot. The band I would love to play with I think is Running Wild above all, if possible on the vassel!!!
Txt: My favourite record ever is "Walls of Jericho" from Helloween, I grew up listening to it and I'm deeply fond of it. Other preferences go from Abbattoir to Witchfynde releases. I think if I could play with a great band that would be Rage or Virgin Steele.
U.F.-What is next for the band? What can your fans expect from the band in maybe the next six months?
Txt: We hope to record our next album composed of about ten songs after this summer but we are not yet sure of the exact studio dates. For sure we will continue performing in live shows, in fact we're gonna have a gig with White Skull next month so our fans will continue to have the chance to follow us on stage!
U.F.-Thanks for your time,guys. Any final comments for the people reading this right now?
Txt: I really hope all our fans and not could be deeply satisfied from our next record! For sure we will spend more time (and money, of course!) to make it really better! But we are a live band and so
our biggest hope is to go on playing our shows world wide and to come in your country one day (it would be a dream!!) to bring there our fucking heavy metal!
Last but not least a big special thanks to Chris and Unstoppable Force webzine for support and to believe in true metal music and not in bullshit (fuck!); thanks to all our fans everywhere and to those who support us: you are great!
HEAVY METAL TILL LAST BREATH
Discography
