lista zespołów Hard Rock CETI Ghost of the Universe - Behind the Black Curtain

Few Westerners knew what the hell was going on behind the communist curtain of the 1980's. But while we were rocking out to the big 4 of thrash, metal fans in the infamous Warsaw ghetto were rattling their heads to the early Thrash Metal of Turbo. I viewed some of their videos on You Tube and they rocked out pretty good. I wanted to buy some of their albums, but they aren't available in the states. Details about that band are rather sketchy. It looks like Grzegorz Kupczk joined Turbo just in time to sing on their 1982 debut album. He worked with that band through another 4 or 5 albums.

Then in 1989, Grzegorz quit Turbo due to disagreements with the management, and creative differences with the band itself. But at the same time, he had already started a new band of his own called CETI. The letters in CETI stand for "Communicate with Extraterrestrial(ET) Intelligence", which was an old NASA program from the early 1970's. Why did he choose to name his band after such a ridiculous program? I suspect that it might also have some sort of a double meaning in the Polish language. The band had released 7 studio albums within the years 1989 through 2007. Many of those earlier albums were critically acclaimed in Poland. But recently, their sales have been slumping in their homeland. So the lyrics of this new album, Ghost of the Universe-Behind the Black Curtain, were written in English to attract foreign customers. They also attempted to return to their musical roots, by focusing on a "classic" Hard Rock/Heavy Metal style.

Once you push play, you get a short intro, before The Wolves, which is arguably the best track on the disc. It's nothing fancy, the bass chords are just as simplistic as they are heavy. The notes are suspended with plenty of distortion, for maximum emphasis. This is accompanied with the somewhat melodic guitar picking of Sadura, which gives the song an effect that's similar to something from the songbook of Montrose. Grzegorz's voice sounds husky and gruff, with plenty of range. He's got most of the vocal qualities of Scott Stapp from Creed. But since the music adheres to a more traditional sound of old school Hard Rock, his singing style is delivered with a character that sounds closer to that by Rolf Kasparek of Running Wild.

The keyboard music that's played by Maria "Marihuana" Wietrzykowsa, adds an extra dimension to the musical atmosphere. She usually gives their sound an ambience like what Jon Lord did with Deep Purple, this is especially apparent in the songs; In the Eyes of the Rising Sun, and Forever. Sometimes she plays a keyboard style that is more reminiscent of Robby Steinhardt from Kansas. A female musician always adds to the scenery of a band's stage presence. Watch her do her thing in the video.

The mood is never cheery within the course of this album. A somewhat gloomy temperament prevails throughout Ghost of the Universe-Behind the Black Curtain. Maybe that's got something to do with the band living in Poland during the cold war years, when their nation was controlled by the USSR. There are a couple of acoustic guitar spots, that bring a folksy sound, which recalls the music of The Cult. Urbaniak plays a lot heavy bass lines, like Geezer Butler from Black Sabbath, but it's not carried on in all of the songs. Each song has it's own distinct approach. Some of the songs are played at a faster tempo, with Sadura shredding the way that Majk Moti did with Running Wild.

Ghost of the Universe-Behind the Black Curtain features CETI playing a style of extra hard Hard Rock music, that's flirting with a Heavy Metal classification. It's a mixed bag, some of the songs rock and some of them get tiresome. They've got a few snoozers mixed into this track list. CETI have confined themselves to their comfort zone in Poland, for over 20 years. So their music is very obscure to the Western world. Their home market has been stagnating as of late. So now they're looking to expand their sales into the international markets. They should have come out of the woodwork 20 years ago, when the getting was good. Now their style seems a bit outdated. So their best bet would be to tour in the UK, where people are still open minded to this brand of music. That would help them to build up a reputation to the rest of the world.