Italy seems to be a good breeding ground for oldschool thrashmetal these days. A (long) while ago I received a cd from a band called Hyades. The guys play thrashmetal like it was done in the 80s, and to proof that they still wear old LA gears and probably drink a lot of beer. I`m down with that!
The band’s overal sound is a lot like "Kill ‘Em All" era Metallica and old Exodus, including a similar sounding production. Vocalist Marco Colombo has a good voice but sometimes utilizes a cookie-monster kind of singing. Nothing really wrong with that altough it did sound funny on the first time I heard it. Maybe the guy needs to throw some more whiskey down that throat to make it a bit rougher.
Guitarwise everything is sounding good. The duo of Testa and Negonda clearly got their main influences showing through with their playing, with some occasionally great riffs that makes you want to get into a timemachine, fly to San Francisco and get yourself drunk at a metalshow. Personally I would prefer the guitarsound a bit heavier to make things more "in your face". The track "Hyades" does have an almost similar riff as in Exodus’ "War is my shepherd" tune, borderlining on being an actual copy. I suppose this is just a coincidence, but that that cover of "Fight for your Right" from the Beastie Boys makes up for that.
Lyrically the band doesn’t cover any new material, mostly variations on "war is bad" (and I think that if you want to hear original lyrics, you shouldn’t listen to music in the first place, so lyricfans: grab a book). Some of it is goofy as well: "There is a terrorist hidden in your sandwich, please be careful, the hot-dog can be toxic". Allright, I`ll have two of those then!
To put it clear, this is by no means a bad metal record, but it could have been MUCH better. The overal playing is good but only rarely exceeds standard thrashing, and the production could put some more 'oomph' behind it all. The singer could sound a bit more "heavy" as well. Sometimes I just can’t get the idea out of my head of this small pizza deliveryboy yapping at me because I didn’t have the correct change (and hey, this kind of metal is supposed to make you want to slam things!), but if the band works on that I can see them being one of the best "traditional thrashbands" coming from Italy.
02. SMART BOMBS, DUMB WAR
03. HYADES
04. LIARS
05. PICTURE OF A WORLD
06. BLAMELESS IN THE DEATHROW
07. SEPTEMBER, 11
08. SHUT THE FUCK UP
09. ABUSE YOUR ILLUSIONS
10. FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT (BEASTIE BOYS)
MARCO NEGONDA: guitars
ROB ORLANDO: bass
MARCO COLOMBO: vocals
RODOLFO \"RODEATH\" RIDOLFI: drums