Excerpts from an all-new interview with singer Alan Tecchio (HADES / WATCHTOWER / NON-FICTION) have been posted at this location. In the excerpt, Tecchio discusses his involvement in the mid-'80s American underground Metal scene as a member of Hades as well as his experiences recording Watchtower's legendary Control And Resistance album. The complete interview appears in From Satan to Sabbath: The METAL Interviews 2000-2009, the latest book by author and veteran drummer Joel Gausten (PIGFACE / THE UNDEAD / ELECTRIC FRANKENSTEIN).

A portion of the interview with Tecchio is available below:

Gausten: I remember reading about Hades in magazines at the time, ­even before you were signed for the first album.

Tecchio: "I have to attribute all of that to Dan, because he’s just a promo hound. He will just beat down the doors, and there were a lot of doors to beat down back then that aren’t really around now. There was a multitude of magazines and fanzines. There wasn’t the Internet, but there was always a way to reach the hardcore audience, and Dan knew how to do it. I remember he called up the guy who had the T-shirt ad in the back of Circus. There were big bands in that ad. He called and said, ‘What do I have to do to get a Hades shirt in there?’ The guy said, ‘Send me shirts.’ That’s all it took. All of a sudden, Hades shirts were in that ad in Circus. In the fans’ eyes, the perception was, ‘Whoa, these guys must be a serious band. They’re right next to the LED ZEPPELIN shirts.’ That was Dan’s doing. I was the mailing list guy, and I would correspond with all the fans. I had a zillion pen pals everywhere, and I would make the flyers.

When we signed with Torrid Records, I know we all thought we were going to be absolute rock stars immediately because (Torrid) had EXODUS, who were exploding on the heels of METALLICA. We thought, ‘We’re on the same label! Of course we're going to be huge! They sold 30,000 records, so we’re gonna sell at least 10,000!’

We were so delusional. Singers always get a bad rap for having the ego, but I was that guy. I was the bad ego kid. When Kerrang! reviewed the first Hades record, they said I made Rob Halford look like Tiny Tim, or something like that. That blew up my ego beyond belief, like, ‘This British magazine thinks I’m the next big fucking thing! Isn’t it great?’ But then all the bad reviews start coming out, and you take them to heart. It took a number of years for me to get on an even playing field of, ‘Alright, some people are going to think I’m good, and some people are going to think I suck.’"

The 192-page From Sabbath To Sabbath includes the complete text of Joel Gausten’s out-of-print book The Sabbath Interviews, selections from Gausten’s books Prong: The Early Years and Pandemonium: Inside Killing Joke, cover art by Shannon Gardner-Gausten and previously unpublished, full-length interviews with past/present members of AEROSMITH, PLASMATICS, CELTIC FROST, OPETH, THIN LIZZY, BOLT THROWER, BENEDICTION, HADES, WATCHTOWER and NAPALM DEATH.

From Satan to Sabbath features in-depth interviews with:

Rick Dufay (AEROSMITH)

Bill Ward (BLACL SABBATH)

Eric Singer (KISS, BLACK SABBATH )

Bob Daisley (BLACK SABBATH / OZZY / RAINBOW)

Tommy Victor (PRONG / MINISTRY / DANZIG)

Ted Parsons (PRONG / KILLING JOKE / GODFLESH)

Troy Gregory (PRONG / KILLING JOKE / FLOTSAM & JETSAM)

Martin Atkins (KILLING JOKE / MINISTRY / NINE INCH NAILS)

Tom Gabriel Fischer (CELTIC FROST / HELLHAMMER / APOLLYON SUN)

Midge Ure (THIN LIZZY / ULTRAVOX)

Richie Stotts (PLASMATICS)

David Ingram (BOLT THROWER / BENEDICTION)

Nic Bullen (NAPALM DEATH / SCORN)

Dan Lorenzo (HADES / NON-FICTION / THE CURSED)

Alan Tecchio (HADES / NON-FICTION / WATCHTOWER)

Mikael Akerfeldt (OPETH)

From exploring Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward’s former life on the streets to revealing the real story behind guitarist Rick Dufay’s notorious stint in Aerosmith, From Satan to Sabbath cuts through the P.R. fluff and media propaganda and gets right to the flesh, blood and soul of the real world of Metal – straight from the mouths of those who live it.

Joel Gausten is an award-winning journalist and the author of six books, including Tales Of Horror: The History of The Misfits & The Undead and Words From The Third Side: Essays on Sex, Satan & Success. A drummer for nearly 25 years, he has worked with a vast array of artists including PIGFACE, ELECTRIC FRANKENSTEIN, THE UNDEAD and EFFECTIONHATE. He got his start in the music business as a promoter for THE MISFITS.

The paperback edition of From Satan to Sabbath is available at this location. A special hardcover edition, limited to 50 copies, is available here.