MetalMinute.com recently spoke with HADES guitarist Dan Lorenzo. An excerpt from the interview appears below:

The Metal Minute: Hades sort of got the jump on many of the elite thrash bands of the '80s, though it took a lot of hard work, starvation and pushing your group's original Deliver Us From Evil 7-inch to magazines such as Kerrang! in order to get noticed. All of that effort and sacrifice, and what I wonder is how did you view the thrash bands cropping up in your territory as well as the west coast, which widely gets credited as the birthplace of thrash?

Dan Lorenzo: "We ended up being on Torrid Records whose first release was EXODUS’ first album and then Hades was their third-ever release. I remember when METALLICA first came here, we thought the band name was pronounced 'metal-licka' and they played a show in front of 50 people. Hades' guitar player Scott LePage was one of those 50 people, so we knew about these bands because we were a part of the Old Bridge Militia; we were honored to play Metal Joe’s Basement. So we were in the scene early on and hearing rumblings of these other bands on the west coast and I remember Scott Ian would come to Hades shows and sing the chorus of 'Denim And Leather'. I didn’t know who these people were back then! I’d heard more about the bands that weren’t in Kerrang! yet. It wasn’t like I felt they were competition. NUCLEAR ASSAULT called me up one time when Hades had broken up and I think I had an ad in The Aquarian saying 'Guitar player available and looking for musicians.' Somebody from Nuclear Assault -- I think it was a temporary drummer -- tried to get me in the band. I’ll never forget him calling me and asking 'What do you think of ‘Fight Fire With Fire,’ the new Metallica song?' I said 'I love it!' and he was like, 'No, no, it’s too slow; we’re going to have all of our songs faster.' I was like, 'Well, I don’t want to be involved in it if all you’re going for is speed!' I was more into the songs; I don’t care about the bpm’s; I care about the songs!"

Go to this location for the complete interview.