Mark: Everything's right man! We formed back in 1996 and released 2 albums and 4 demo CDs so far, and , yes, we are from Italy! Many things happened during this long period of time; recently, on the 1st of March, we released our new album titled And The Worst Is Yet To Come and we are now starting promoting on stageour work. That's our most recent history!

Lorenzo: We were searching for a good back design for the first HYADES T-shirt; I was on the beach and I saw a Dive now, work later shirt...Whaddafuck! It was absolutely brilliant so I choose to stole it and change in Thrash now, work later!! Hahaha!! I think it well expresses our way to be, both in our music and life. Pleasure first, then duty! At the age of 21, our bass-player Rob moved from Sicily to North Italy, leaving all behind, just to find a band to play in. He lost his job position for the music, so as you can see our motto Thrash now, work later is something more than a...motto! That's our way to live.

Lorenzo: Yeah, Ed did an awesome work, as usual! We were talkin' about the cover artwork with Mausoleum Records owner, Alfie Falckenbach, and he suggested us to contact Ed Repka, who recently did the SUICIDE WATCH cover artwork. Well, Ed was absolutely perfect for the design I had in mind and for the music we play, so we give him a buzz and... well, it was excited by the idea and he started immediately to work about it. It's definitely an honour for us, 'cause we've always been maniacal fans of the works he did for EVIL DEAD, MEGADETH and above all TOXIK, one of my favourite band of all time!

Mark: I don't know how this typical HYADES' feature can be considered, I hope like something positive just because it reflects our way of being, simply. I agree with you that too many Metal bands/people usually try to give an evil image of their music to the world and take all of this bullshit too seriously. That's the reason why we decided to dedicate a song to all of this people that you can find in our new album; it is entitled Megamosh!

Mark: We started writing the new material at the beginning of 2006 and recorded the whole album during the end of July of the same year. We worked hardly on the new material since, according to the record deal, we had to release the second album one year after the release of the first one. This forced us to work in a different way if compared with the writing process of the first album but not in a negative one. We worked all together for the first time and all the songs were composed in a small period of time; I think this was a positive thing for the whole process and it can be heard on the album itself. For the same reason we are really satisfied by the final studio work.

Mark: So far feedback has been really positive both from the Media and from our loyal fans and friends. I think this new album is just what people that appreciated the first one weere expecting, but more mature, better done and better recorded. We are happy for this response and wanna thank you all for the support!

Lorenzo: Well, we can't do anything, but surely it's more complicated for an Italian band to spread all over the world this kind of music. Surely, if we were born in US or Germany, everything would have been easy, 'cause Italy's credibility have been seriously damaged in the past years by shitty music and pop-power-symphonic bands with obscene productions and sweety melodies. It has been hard for us to deal with a record label and it has been fucking hard to play live outside Italian borders. But we kept going on playing the music we like for 11 long years and now here we are, finally! It's a fucking cool satisfaction!

As for the lyrics: by reading the themes, I concluded you seem to be rather open-minded to various ideas. Politics, humanity, music ideals, fun. Who's in charge of the lyrics, really?

Lorenzo: Yeah, I usually take care of lyrics except a couple of them, written by Mark. There are different topics in the album; I usually try to talk about serious problems and social issues but in a sarcastic and funny way. It's very important, for me, to spread out a message 'cause I don't wanna waste my time writing bullshit or stupid slogans. I can't make you think, but I can make you feel, Ian Anderson sung in Thick As A Brick. That's what I try to do. Thrash Metal music is perfect to shout out the rage against a fucked up society, and there are too many lies, liars, problems and stupid government that I can't just stay quiet or stand aside and look.

Mark: Like I explained before, the main difference between the two album stands in the way we composed them. Abuse was just the collection of a bunch of songs written through a 2/3 years period of time, recorded in a home-made studio and without any certainty to see it released one day. A.T.W.I.Y.T.C. was composed in a shorter period of time, with a better production, in a professional studio and to be released for sure, and that's the main reason why I consider the new album a better one. In terms of music, songwriting, lyrics I think we evolved too, without changing our style but giving something different to it.

Mark: I've always heard about this opinion and from a listener's point of view I believe in it: I mean, 2 good albums could be just a casual connection; 3rd is a law, ahah! Even from a musician's point of view, from the other side, I feel the same: if a band really has something to say the third album could be a good way to prove it. And so the 4th, 5th, 6th and so on, ahah! I'm not anxious for a future 3rd release and think we still have something interesting to say to our fans!

Lorenzo: We recorded by ourselves our first album Abuse Your Illusions and once finished we sent it to the record labels. We received different offers, a couple of them from Italian record labels, but we chose to sign with Mausoleum Records. We thought it was perfect for our old-fashioned music. Yes, we're satisfied; of course we understand we aren't a big name in their roster, but our CDs are in the main record stores all over the world, we've reviews, we do interviews and last but not least we did in 2006 the Mausoleum Metal Master European tour together with label-mates and friends OMEN and PHANTOM-X. So, we got more than what we expected!

Lorenzo: Well, we grew up with this kind of music and we still listen to Metal music from ?s, from NWOBHM to Thrash Metal. HYADES started back in 1996 playing Heavy/Speed Metal, and then we evolved bit by bit towards a faster and harder Thrash Metal style. So we can't forget who we are... It is a part of us. Last week we were on stage here in Italy and we played a cover version of ACCEPT's classic Balls To The Wall. We usually also play Tons Of Brick from METAL CHURCH and for long time we played Heavy Metal Mania from NWOBHM band HOLOCAUST and Bound To Be Free from SAVAGE GRACE. A lot of those bands reunited in the past 5 years and the new albums really suck, but it's always a pleasure to see them on stage. I recently saw BLITZKRIEG and RAVEN, and I'm just got back from Keep It True VIII, where LAAZ ROCKIT played an awesome show!

Lorenzo: Honestly we tried to avoid collaborations with Italian record labels 'cause they've small distribution and often a bad reputation outside Italian borders. Enrico Paoli's Dragonheart is surely a really good record label, but it's mainly focused on Epic, Power or Doom Metal. We received a couple of offers from other Italian record labels, but we simply declined.

Mark: What can I say... touring Europe with bands like OMEN and PHANTOM-X last September has been the most important things ever done by the band in it's history. Something like a dream becoming true: playing every night for 14 days, travelling in a van all around Europe (I'm talking about 6000 km in less than 2 weeks!) and, most important, playing our music on some of the most important European stages! We played in Denmark, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy, made a lot of friends and new fans and had a great time with people from the other bands.

Mark: What I can see is that people during our shows really have a good time, always. And that's the most important thing; we just want people to have fun with us during our shows, and we always try to do our best to make it happen.

Lorenzo: Well, I personally agree. I haven't listened to a good Metal album since long long time ago hahahaha! I personally don't like Nu-Metal and happy-bombastic sound, but it's just the trend of the moment so who fucking cares about it. I simply ain't listen to it. But as you wrote, Metal music I like isn't still buried; there are young and kick-ass bands such as MUNICIPAL WASTE from USA or HATEWORK from Italy. And our friends GROUND CONTROL (in Punishment18 Records) kick ass too.

Mark: As long as it will be possible! You're right, we all work and have a lot of other things to do in our life, and HYADES is I think one of the most important of these things. I think all of this will continue until the band will be one of the first priority in our life, and that's the way things are going at the moment.

Lorenzo: Yeah, be sure, 'cause it's simply the music we like so we'll keep going on as long as we can! Thank you so fucking much for this interview! THRASH NOW WORK LATER!!!