Ziua vrăjitoarelor

As overwhelming as the title of the album may sound, “Ziua vrajitoarelor” (The day of the witches) fails to reach the same high peaks as its predecessor, “Destin”. Looking at the play list, we spot right away two re-recorded tracks, “Clasa muncitoare” (The working class) from “Destin” and “Batacanda” (Batacanda is a sort of gypsy dance, so there’s no proper translation into English) from “Povestiri din gara”. These are unplugged versions of the originals and they drain all the energy out of them. Shortly, they are there so that to make the album last longer. Bad move, guys!

Now that I started with the cons of this record, I feel obliged to enumerate them all. Further more, there’s a little mall-core injected here and that can be tracked down into two songs: “Ochii din sertar” (The eyes from the drawer) and “Anarhia” (The anarchy). The latter also presents Cargo making a featuring with a Romanian hip hop band, so the outcome is pretty much Linkin Park like.

Let the pros come into the scene, shall we? The title track is the best one in the entire album. It is melodic, riff-oriented and despite its lack of guitar solos, the keyboards conjure up a fairy-like atmosphere. As the title suggests, “Ziua vrajitoarelor” treats fantasy themes which includes all sorts of supernatural characters: witches, wizards, The Fates together with their spells and fortune telling.

“Doi pasi in urma ta” (Two steps behind you) reminds me of Scorpion’s “Can’t live without you”. I’m 100% sure that Cargo stole again the structure of the mentioned song, what the chorus is concerned. It has the same rhythm and almost the same guitar notes. But, leaving this behind, “Doi pasi in urma ta” is a very well- constructed track (again, let’s ignore the chorus), as it emphasizes again a great guitar solo execution followed by an outstanding vocal performance while the keyboards serve as catchiness giver. Speaking of catchiness, the funniest track on this record is definitely “Nu mai am tigari” (I’ve ran out of cigarettes). Lyrics are what give this song its uniqueness. Just imagine a filthy guy waking up pissed off in the morning, noticing that he has no more cigarettes. The negative is simple and predictable, not to mention that even a houser or a hip hoper has heard of this song in his life time, so you can tell how “famous” it has become.

Definitely a step backwards! This is how this record should be labeled as. Either they wanted to catch a little mainstream or that they were sick and tired of this underground heavy metal movement….Cargo succeeded in the end to create a decent record, despite its mall-core influences spotted here and there and its lack of speed metal influences. Better than “Povestiri din gara” but weaker than “Destin”…all in all, it is one of Cargo’s classics.