80s-90s in Central & Eastern Europe
by dzorrilla
So I’ve always had a fixation for Central and Eastern Europe, mostly because I spent a while living in the region. Many people are aware of modern bands from these regions – like Behemoth, Vader, Nokturnal Mortum, etc. However, even when the iron curtain was in place, the USSR/Soviet Bloc/Yugoslavia housed a lot of talented bands that wrote some pretty great metal. This is in spite of the fact this type of music was frowned upon by authorities. Since it is underground Friday, I wanted to pay tribute to some of the acts from this era. I’ll mostly just be posting trad/speed metal (although not exclusively) with releases up until 1991 when the USSR officially collapsed. I will also exclude some of the very well-known bands (like Vader).
Russia
Круиз (Kruiz) Kruiz were essentially the Russian version of Judas Priest if KK Downing decided to crank up the speed by 100%. One of the best and probably my favourite Russian act. I recommend you get your hands on their albums Kruiz-1 and the self-titled.
Ария (Aria) If Kruiz is the Russian version of JP, Aria is the unabashed version of Iron Maiden. Игра С Огнём is arguably their best work, taking a lot of cues from Powerslave.
Мастер (Master) Solid Russian thrash, obviously influenced by Metallica and other bay area thrash acts. Pick up the self-titled.
Крематор (Kremator) Somewhat unconventional death/thrash.
Магнит (Magnit) It’s difficult to classify these guys, but it’s obviously they took a cue from Marty Friedman’s Cacophony. Great leads.
Чёрный кофе (Black Coffee) Decent heavy metal/hard rock, kinda reminds me of AC/DC .
Shah Good thrash taking a cue from Testament
Ukraine
Adem More Testament worship. Not the best, but not bad for a bunch of Ukrainians back in 1987.
Poland
Kat So famous even people who don’t listen to metal in Poland know them. Their album 666 is fantastic 1st wave BM ala Venom.
Turbo Fast and furious speed metal, how it should be.
[TSA] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ewPCJYRGQE) For fans of Black Sabbath, AC/DC and Rainbow/Dio.
Exorcist Frantic thrash attack. The production is quite raw, but it doesn’t detract too much from the quality in this demo.
Imperator Vader is generally recognized as the first Polish DM band, but these guys were releasing demos around the same time. Very raw, but still competent.
Magnus Very harsh death/thrash, it even has a kind of South American vibe to it ala Vulcano.
Hungary
Pokolgep The premier Hungarian metal band from back in the day. Totalis Metal and Pokoli Szinjatek are killer albums.
Tormentor Many will recognize this because Attila from Mayhem provided vocals. Excellent 80s black/thrash.
Detonator Somewhere in between Possessed, Slayer and Bathory lies this band.
Fantom Raw and primal 1st wave black metal
Rotor A faster version of German power metal like Accept or Helloween.
Czech Republic/Czechoslovakia
Citron Traditional metal ala Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and others in that vein. Radegast is a very catchy album.
Master’s Hammer One of the more internationally recognized bands, Master’s Hammer origins was certainly rawer than the black metal on Ritual.
Torr Black/thrash attack.
Root They changed their style a lot over the years, but this one is more straight up black/thrash.
Debustrol Kind of reminds me of a Czech version of Kreator.
Lithuania
Katedra Fast and melodic heavy metal with some insane guitarwork and high pitched vocals.
Bulgaria
Ахат (Ahat) Catchy melodic heavy metal. The lead singer sounds almost like a Bulgarian version of Ozzy.
Croatia
Evil Blood Pretty impressive Croatian thrash when you consider a lot of their stuff was written between 1983-1986. It has that sloppy 80s underground feeling that will appeal to a few here.
Slovenia
Sarcasm Another somewhat sloppy thrash act, but not too shabby at all.
Serbia
Bloodbath Somewhere in between Kreator and Morbid Saint
Albania
Thunder Way I know this one breaks my initial rule, but I had to include it. Had this been released in the US or anywhere else in Europe, it would have been a cult classic. Very catchy and epic power metal akin to early Helloween, Running Wild and even some USPM influences.
Bosnia
Bombarder I guess if Lemmy was Bosnian, this would be the result.
Georgia
Diaokhi I’m cheating once again, but I felt it was so unfair not to at least include one artist from the Caucasus (also Georgia is an awesome country). This is somewhat heavy keyboard-laden black metal which takes heavy inspiration from Emperor. They even got Christophe Szpajdel to do their logo (also worked with Emperor, WitTR, etc).
I probably missed out quite a few, but hopefully this will give many of you a sample of what metal was like behind the iron curtain/early transition to capitalism. I will end this post by recommending a new band from one of the guys of Enforcer paying homage to these bands: Terminal (lyrics completely in Slovenian!)