Povestiri din gară

So, what do we have here?! Another Romanian rock band full of hope and potential would be a decent answer. Cargo was founded in 1985, but they finally released their first album in1992, a time when most of Romanian rock bands of the 80’s dissolved into other projects or they purely disappeared from the firmament of rocks stars.

“Povestiri din gara” (Tales from the railway station) is not 100% a metal album, but a mixture of cheesy hard rock and traditional heavy metal. Imagine Rainbow merging with Scorpions together and there it is…Cargo’s first album. The keyboards open the title track, managing to set a positive atmosphere into the listener’s mind, and then, step by step the guitars take over with crunchy riffs and melodic solos. Impressive start, if you’re just a little patient to get to the core of it. This song is followed by a heavy/speed metal track, “Ana” (Ana), dominated entirely by rapid guitars and unfortunately by silly lyrics. Apparently, Ana is some kind of hot chick with a beautiful hair who cannot be reached by any means by the lyrical ego of the vocalist.

Among the cheesy hard rock songs, “1989” is worth mentioning, not only because it expresses the state of mind of the ordinary man during the Revolution that took place in Romania, Revolution that put an end to the Communist Regime in this country (FUCK YOU, RUSSIA!!!), but the song itself catches you into a nest of despair and confusion, despite its low-paced rhythm and minimal use of guitars. “Brigadierii” (The brigadiers) is my favorite song from this record. It criticizes Communism again, making a short reference to the fearless and brainless brigadiers that had the control over working people involved in construction projects. As the lyrics point out, “Noi suntem brigadierii ce trec fluierind/ Nu ne opreste nici ploaie, nici soare, nici vant” (We’re the brigadiers that keep marching and whistling/ Not even the rain, the sun, or the wind can stop us), nothing could stop the stupidity of man thrown under the wheel of Communism. All that mattered was hard work, hard work and hard work. Communism just reversed the human values upside down. ¾ of the song is dominated by heavy riffs and the rest by touching keyboards ironically playing the anthem of Romania during the Communism era (again, FUCK YOU, RUSSIA!)

The last song, “Erata” (Errata) is a happy speed metal song that has been performed in almost all their life performances since then. Heavy riffs, great vocal performance, catchy chorus…what do you want more?

I didn’t rate this album more than that because of its production, which is not at its best. The next albums are by far better, if not perfect, as far as production is concerned. All in all, “Povestiri din gara” is great debut album, marking a landmark of Romanian melodic metal