Hyades - Abuse Your Illusions

*=Staff's pick	No Man's Land Smart Bombs, Dumb War* Hyades Liars Pictures Of A World* Blameless In The Deathrow* September, 11 Shut The Fuck Up* Abuse Your Illusions Fight For Your Right

Genre	Thrash Metal	Marco Colombo	Vocals
Tracks	10	Lorenzo Testa	Guitar
Runningtime	47 Min.	Marco Negonda	Guitar
Label	Mausoleum Records	Roberto Orlando	Bass
Release	21 Nov. 2005	Mauro de Brasi	Drums
Country	Italy	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	Exodus, Overkill, Anthrax

The Hyades, a cluster of stars 150 lightyears away that makes the head of Taurus, and also a piece of Greek mythology as in the five daughters of Atlas and Aethra, and the sisters of the Pleiades. But to hell with that information, screw science, forget about mythology, what is more important is that Hyades is pure kick ass thrash. Hyades (the band, that is) were formed in 1996 and after four demos and contributing to some compilations they are now ready to deliver their debut album Abuse Your Illusions. And the more I listen to this album the more I keep forgetting that Hyades actually is an Italian band, their sound has nothing Italian about them, this is purely old school American thrash, and good one too.

With full force Hyades are delivering highly energetic thrash with the basis in the American eighties, and it is bloody brilliant even if it sometimes sounds as if it is done in a rather than well manor. They have mosh parts riffing, leads and harmonies that are all that what you want them to be and they are also sounding as one could expect them to do of old school thrash. There is much of early Anthrax and Exodus within Hyades, a cocky attitude and aggressive thrash with detailed guitar parts that not seldom has the for the genre appropriate harmony parts as in the track Pictures Of A World. There is power in the riffs that drives the music forward and they do a very good job of filling the songs with classic thrash solos and furious leads that might as well have been written by Gary Holt of Exodus.

The vocals are of the strained kind that also fits their music splendid, not the best vocals I have heard but there is a will in the voice of Marco Colombo that hides the flaws. It switches between aggressive pit-bull Steve Zousa (ex-Exodus) kind of screaming and the harshness and darker voice from Peavey in Rage. Hyades lyrics are dealing with topics such as war and social criticism as well as they blend it up with a sense of humor as in the self-titled track that has a strong smell of Metallica in the bridge with the riffs. And at the end of the album they do a thrashed up cover of the Beastie Boys classic Fight For Your Right (To Party). I don't know if it is better than the original but it definitely has the same vibe.

Wait a minute…, what is this I see? THRASH NOW, WORK LATER spelled out big in the booklet. To hell with more words describing this album, I'm gonna to start up my own little thrash pit instead with Abuse Your Illusions from Hyades blasting out loud in my speakers.