METAL YOUTUBE: HEAVY METAL OF EASTERN BLOC

 

  

CLICK FOR POLISH VERSION 

Link: Heavy Metal of Eastern Bloc 

Today, another group of youtubers, who deserve nothing, but biggest praise that is possible.

I am too young, to remember the communist times, as I was kinda born after its collapse, but judging from the stories told by my parents and grandparents, it was quite a gray picture. Constant scarcity of basic goods, poverty, boredom, threat of nuclear war and alcoholism. And that's one side of the coin. The other is that due to all of that difficulties, subcultures were created, which had their dreams and determination, to create something they loved, in spite of the system.

Looking at various websites archiving Metal bands, there is indeed a black hole, when it comes to Eastern Europe region, to the point that one could think that nothing was happening there. And nothing more could be further from the truth! H.M.O.E.B. reveals to us basically a whole new universe, about which, even the biggest conoisseur might have been oblivious about.

Stylistically, good ole Heavy Metal / Hard Rock are dominating the channel, but one can also find every other Metal genre, featuring, but not limited to, Death, Thrash, or Black. Everything is explained, including bio and trivia in the description.

From what I gathered, many of the material goes back to the tape-trading phenomeon, and was often taken from the mastertapes, courtesy of some really dedicated Metal afficionados. Quite often, there were only few existing copies of the material, including unpublished studio albums! As a matter of fact, plenty of bands spotlighted on the channel don't even have a page on Metal-Archives!

It's also worth mentioning that because many of the stuff wasn't released "officially", they had no cover art. And again, H.M.O.E.B. is spoiling us, contributing impressive looking art, with logo and the title, perfectly in the vein of the old school era. In case any of the material finally receives a professional release, it certainly would be a good idea to use these particular versions.

The channel is elegantly divided between the groups (in order from the biggest amount of output, to the smallest, as per year 2025):

USSR, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Yugoslawia, Bulgaria, Eastern Niemcy, Romania, and Albania.

Personally, I was quite pleasantly surprised to discover the richness of Czechoslovakian and Bulgarian scenes. On the other hand, no matter the circumstances, it's quite striking how little the Eastern Germany produced, when compared to their Western counterpart. And despite being well-versed in my own Polish scene, I still learned about many gems I was not aware of.

I feel bad that I can't contribute and help our heroes with any rare material, therefore the least I can do is to recommend their channel wholeheartedly - visit them frequently!