Romanian Scene

Post by **DaN** » Fri Jun 18, 2010 9:57 pm

Has anyone heard or own mp3s of the self-titled '92 debut LP by SURVOLAJ? Not really Metal but great 70's style Heavy/Psych that I recently discovered via the Rock '92 Volumul 1 compilation. That "Cintecul Ploaiei" track got me quite a bit curious..

Metalipeiklo · Post by **Metalipeiklo** » Sat Jun 19, 2010 4:12 pm

I got the Metrock "A kind of hell" tape, not very recommended modern Pantera-wannabe metal as far as I can remember. Nice cover though.

A good band is Conexiuni and their "Tot ce-as vrea sa-ti spun". One of the most terrible East Euro-LP covers I have ever seen, that's for sure. But the music is solid 80's heavy metal, maybe a bit repetative in the end (haven't listened to it for about a year but will do now). See Metal Archives for more info, I think they're still around.

Early IRIS is good hard rock leaning to metal, I can agree with earlier comments.

Celelalte Cuvinte, pretty good, but very gay at moments.

I just miss any Transilvania-theme HM from the country of Dracula. Where is it?

Vaggelis · Post by **Vaggelis** » Thu Oct 28, 2010 4:56 pm

METALCHRIST-Nihil Sine Deo is so perfect Power/Heavy.The vocals are insane the guy sings like he is in the madhouse.By far the best Romanian band and one of the best from East Europe generally.

Other great bands include KRYPTON-Fara Teama(the track ''Sint Doar Un Noar'' could have been the anthem of Romania) and IRIS-IV and also the CELELALTE CUVINTE-Se Lasa Rau(a bit strange band) reminding me of ER MALAK.

I have heard CARGO but they are actually dissapointing since they play AOR/Hard Rock.

ION BRITTON · Post by **ION BRITTON** » Thu Oct 28, 2010 7:44 pm

Anyone heard of SUNET TRANSILVAN? I have an LP, they mix HR and heavy metal, some tracks are quite good although kinda weird.

omen of hate · Post by **omen of hate** » Thu Oct 28, 2010 8:18 pm

Never heard of. It sounds interesting, is it a band of the 80's ?

ION BRITTON · Post by **ION BRITTON** » Thu Oct 28, 2010 9:58 pm

I checked the LP and I can't find a date anywhere. But it must be from the 80's. Looks like very Ceauşescu era

It's not anything incredible, but it's at least a tad more interesting than most of that
crap eastern bloc countries have.

GJ · Post by GJ » Thu Oct 28, 2010 10:36 pm

I got that Sunet Transilvan LP too, bought it in Budapest (not -karest) in 2000. From what I remember it had it's moments but then again some flaws too. Need to re-listen. 1991 says the ol' german Heavy Metal aus Osteuropa (yellow) btw.

Post by **DaN** » Fri Oct 29, 2010 7:02 pm

ION BRITTON wrote:SUNET TRANSILVAN /.../ mix HR and heavy metal /.../ kinda weird

Salivating

I just looked around for downloads but came up with nothing. Would love to hear this! *hint hint"

ION BRITTON · Post by **ION BRITTON** » Fri Oct 29, 2010 7:17 pm

And who will do the rip, Dan? On a scale of 0 to 10 my level of laziness for this kind of thing is around 12.5 at the moment

Anyway, since you've been a good boy lately I'll see what I can do within the next week

Post by **DaN** » Fri Oct 29, 2010 7:38 pm

Just record the whole Lp in one long 320kbps file, send it to me and I'll do the hard work...

lynx · Post by **lynx** » Sun Nov 14, 2010 3:50 pm

There's several proto-metal bands:
Phoenix (also known as Transsylvania Phoenix outside of Romania): they were active since the 1960s. In the 1980s they were living in West Germany, I have seen some video of them in Germany with a girl guitarist, I don't think it's on Youtube. Here's a short history:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fipi8iD--1I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v4v2_6a ... re=related

Harap Alb: I don't really know much about this band
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcLQ6sFlC4w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kRsZsjf ... re=related

Pro Musica, this is from the 1980s, but it's more like progressive:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V63OfsOjduE
however, in 1990 (I don't think they had enough time in 1989) they put out a metal single about the Romanian Revolution, I really don't know if they had more songs like this (the b-side is just the English language version):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sTB8AXK ... re=related

jnfernal · Post by **jnfernal** » Wed Jan 12, 2011 2:29 pm

In the last times I have found a lot of rare recordings by Iris (lot of studio tracks recorded in the early 80's if not in 1977-1979, very, very nice: I wonder why they do not appear on the M.A.) and Voltaj (almost all their studio tracks recorded between 1983 and 1992, including the omnipresent "Aceasta i intrebarea" performed by almost every romanian rock band since the 80's and "Cenusa si diamant" a sort of cover/revisted version of the Judas Priest's version of "Diamonds and rust"...from early hard rock to Priestish metal style to a latter nasty thrash sound like in the song "Erou, erou"....very cool)

But what surprised me more was the only track I could find of a band called Impact, with the song "Voi boieri" presumibly recorded in 1984:

http://www.trilulilu.ro/Midomi/5aff0f36a504c8

It starts as a ska (!) song but later - despite a bad recording and even bad production/instruments - turns into a sort of primitive nwobhm with a lot of guitar solos in the ending....what do you think? I like this song though it's pretty simple and primitive

Do you have some more info about this band? I know there's another band called Impact, active in the late 90's/early 00's but they play awful pop/commercial music, nothing to do with this old band.
Therefore some sources say this song was recorded in 1994...I don't think so as the sound is typically 80's and recording is made in a studio - primitive but studio recording - and I can't imagine in 1994 there could be such kind of sounds...so I presume it really comes from 1984 as many sources say but that is the only information I have

lynx · Post by **lynx** » Thu Jan 13, 2011 7:29 pm

About the Voltaj song, "cenusa" means ash, I thought the song was loosely based on the Andrzejewski (Polish author) novel of the same name.

From what I've heard so far, they seemed more glam with a couple of speed metal songs in the 1980s, their first album (1996) is their only metal album, then all the personel changed and it became a cheesy pop band.

Here's another Impact song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sdbjAju ... re=related
except for the chorusy sounding stuff coming from an obvious cassette rip, it really wouldn't sound any different if it was 1984 or 1994. Only newer Romanian stuff sounds like it has a bad distorted high-end and an abundance of it.

I looked at one of the pages of the cheesy pop Impact, it says the project started in 1999, so it's just the same name, that's all. Actually not that uncommon to copy names in electronic music (not only in Romania), unfortunately.

LethylSteel · Post by **LethylSteel** » Thu Jan 13, 2011 9:06 pm

Yes, Sunet Transilvan LP is dating from 1991, but really nothing spectacular, just the usual eastern Euro Heavy Rock whenalso a few songs are very nice. Same as for the IRIS LP's, some outstanding epic Metal songs are always on the same LP with other softer Rock songs or almost Power Metal tunes. Celelalte Cuvinte's early LP's are rarely Metal but proggy Hard Rock, especially the debut I can warmly advice to fans of that genre. The Kripton LP 1988 is one of the most boring records ever. Absolutely lamest Hard Rock.
As for Phoenix, I'd pre-listen first. I had 1 LP of them (late 70's) and it wasn't even Hard Rock, just Prog Rock.

More bands with vinyl not mentioned (I think) yet:
Antract - LP 90 (like Bon Jovi and these)
Commando - LP 92 (softer Heavy Metal)
Conexiuni - LP 93 (softer Heavy Metal)
Metropol - LP (early 80's or even late 70's - Prog Rock/Hard Rock)
Neurotica - LP 92 (reminds me a bit to Megadeth but slightly modern)