It only took a year for HADES to be almost transformed entirely into a Thrash Metal entity in their local scene. As a part of a large Thrash family, in the vein of the Bay Area movement, HADES did their part immensely and with much success I might add. With the release of their second album, "If At First You Don't Succeed...", HADES proclaimed their rightful place among bands as HEATHEN, EXODUS and their peers.

While being less technical and more head on with straightforward energy with their Thrash, I think that HADES created an impressive piece of music. Cyclone Empire did well on reissuing this old school Metal gem. However, I would have done something different with the bonus tracks. Yet, those also showed something else, which from my end, hurt HADES more than it helped. In a way, this reissue made a clear comparison between HADES's older material to their rather new material from the late 90s and early 00 and clearly showed why the continuance of the 80s was so crucial but wasn't actually done in later years.

The original album of "If At First You Don't Succeed..."took HADES into new horizons and if they would have kept up the same vein in their later era, they would have been one of the greatest complex Thrashers in the worldwide scene. Nevertheless, theydidn't last after that album and broke up to only officially make a comeback with 1995's "Exist To Resist". Unfortunately, it was hard to ignore that from that point on it wasn't the HADES of the 80s.

Moreover and strongly connected to this album, the later material wasn't even close, whether in approach or the ratings, to the band's earlier era. The insertion of the six tracks from several of the band's periods after 1995 didn't help this reissue to get the rating it deserves. The re-release of the album alone should have been sufficient in order to do the band tribute. Maybe the only track that actually did justice for the band was "Responsible", which was taken out of the "The Downside" album of 2000. To summarize, in comparison to the tracks inserted to the "Resisting Success" reissue, I didn't think it wasn't such a good call in first place to mix the past with the near present.

As for the album itself, it clearly passed its predecessor. Even though their Power / Speed era showed quite a technical abilities by the players, in this album's case, my attention was centered on somewhat different things like if the band's attempt to implement Thrash into their material succeeded or not. Fortunately it turned out for the better for these guys. The production continued to be loyal to the US sound of Thrash, which sounded excellent, the band itself, with its then new guitarist Ed Fuhrman as a replacement for Scott LePage, was very tight on its performance while the vocals by Alan Tecchio, were even more dominant and profound than before.

Some of the greatest examples out of this one were in the likes of "Opinionate!", a total full force Thrasher, "In The Mean Time", "I Too Eye", "Rebel Without A Brain", "Process Of Assimilation" and even the nice epos of "Aftermath Of Betrayal (The Tragedy Of Hamlet)". With such a massive assault of strong riffages and well-done lead guitar menacing, HADES were a staggering figure in one of the greatest Thrash scenes in Metal.

Although their last release of 2001, "DamNation", showed a band with a different material, with almost the same lineup as in the 80s, I still hope that they will come around to perform as they once did because age doesn't seem to be a factor.