Spiritus Sanctus

This is the first album without Kempes on vocals and well... it's different. You can tell right away that old feeling is gone - I've always regarded Cargo's style as the quintessence of Romanian old-school Metal and Kempes' voice seemed to tell what it was like during the communist period. Life goes on.

As a whole, the album is pretty rockin'. Here it goes:

Spiritus Sanctus = Kinda like 'Ziua Vrajitoarelor' in that it's about strange things that start going on, occult and so on. It's heavier though, and doesn't have the same lugubrious feeling like in 'Ochii din sertar' for instance. Halfway through the song, the beat goes down and this Gregorian chanting thing starts after which the song picks up again. This would have sounded better as the intro, in my opinion.

Nu pot trai fara tine [I Can't Live Without You] = Heavy love song, basically. The chorus is somewhat catchy and anthem-like, dunno why.

Fraiere [Sucker] = Really dorky lyrics and chorus. If you're non-Romanian, here's a translation:

Fraiere, fraiere
Sucker, sucker
Ia-ti o masina
Get yourself a car
Fraiere, fraiere
Sucker, sucker
O limuzina
A limousine.

Otherwise the song sounds good if you're on the road.

Daca ploaia s-ar opri [If The Rain Should Stop] = Lotsa keyboards in this one. Again, typical commercial love song, which is why they also made a video for it.

Calare pe motoare [Riding On Engines] = Er. '80s sounding song about motorcycles. I just noticed how simple the rythm guitar is.

E vreo problema [Is There A Problem?] = I'm not very sure, I maybe shallow or something, but I think this is your every day rebel song. Not very rockin' though.

Toamna [Autumn] = This is some good stuff. Over 4 minutes of smooth guitar soloing with some nice orchestration. Very cute.

Next there's a short version of Spiritus Sanctus (the original opens up with some footsteps and other movie-sounding effects for about 3 minutes), and as a bonus, the songs Mama and Baga-ti mintile in cap from the eponymous EP.

This album is rather mainstream compared to their earlier stuff, and there's of course the Dickinson vs Bayley-type argument around about who was better at vocals. It's too early to tell if Adrian Igrisan will manage to fill Kempes' shoes. Stay true, Cargo!