Long-running speed metal outfit Hades first took shape in 1978 when high-school students Paul Smith and Dan Lorenzo came together in Paramus, New Jersey. An opening slot for Twisted Sister in 1982 significantly expanded the group’s regional profile, and after Tom Coombes and Lou Ciarlo joined on drums and bass, Hades released its first seven-inch, Deliver Us from Evil. Spots on Metal Blade’s Metal Massacre VI and Megaforce’s Born to Metalize soon followed, leading the band—now featuring Dan Lorenzo, Tom Coombes, vocalist Alan Tecchio, guitarist Scott LePage, and bassist Jimmy Schulman—to sign with Torrid Records and issue its debut album, Resisting Success, in 1987. Ed Fuhrman took over guitar duties from LePage for the 1988 successor If at First You Don't Succeed, yet the unit splintered while touring Europe. Lorenzo quickly started Non-Fiction, whose debut EP Green arrived in 1989. After a period with Watchtower, Tecchio returned to New Jersey and entered Non-Fiction as well; Hades continued staging yearly reunion concerts at Newark’s Studio One, one of which, in 1991, produced the live album Live on Location. Once Non-Fiction ended after finishing the album It’s a Wonderful Life, Lorenzo and Tecchio reassembled Hades with Fuhrman, LePage now handling bass, and drummer Dave Lecsinsky. Their reunion recording SaviorSelf appeared in early 1999, followed a year later by The Downside.
