রক্‌স্টার্‌টা / RockStrata - রক্‌স্টার্‌টা / RockStrata (1990) - Heavy metal pioneers from Bangladesh - 74% (03/12/12)

Asian metal music gets more and more popular these days as leading countries such as Japan are now rejoined by China, Taiwan or Vietnam that all have a very diversified metal scene. Bangladesh has a smaller metal community but was in fact one of the first countries of the entire region to have a metal band. রক্‌স্টার্‌টা or RockStrata have actually already been around since 1985 and they released their first and until now last studio record in 1990. All of this happened before the rise to fame of bands such as China's Tang Dynasty or Taiwan's Chthonic to only name a few but the world forgot about the unknown band from Bangladesh that recently reunited to finally realize a follow-up of their classic release.

The band's debut record doesn't only deserve some recognition for its historic value, it actually is a solid metal release, too. Of course, we have some quite evident flaws on here. First of all, the sound is plain awful. The bass guitar is way too dominant. The guitar sound is quite beefy and unclean most of the time. The melodic vocals featuring a slight doom metal touch are surely intriguing but sound as if they had been taken from a forgotten Black Sabbath or Blue Cheer demo from the early seventies. I'm sure this wasn't the intention of the band and this only proves that the sound quality comes about twenty years too late. Concerning the song writing, you shouldn't expect anything truly outstanding. What we get is mostly mid-paced standard heavy metal stuff without any unique edges or fascinating ideas.

But what these guys seem to do is what they can do best. They deliver eleven mostly simple but charming heavy metal tracks performed in Bengali. After a few spins, one can even discover some variation and a few notable highlights. "সামান্য দুঃস্বপ্ন" or "A Little Nigtmare" has a few more thrash metal orientated parts that make you nod or even bang along to this nice effort. "পাগলটা" or "Pagolta" goes even further and adds some well needed energy in form of pitiless speed and thrash metal riffs to the record. This song is by far the hardest one on here.

On the other side, "শান্তির স্বপ্ন" or "Dream of Peace" is a chilling ballad with acoustic guitars. All these things are of course nothing new for American or European metal fans but Bangladesh's first metal band definitely tried to sound as diverisfied as possible on their first strike despite a few too many hints at their Western idols, a horrible sound quality and a lack of unique song writing. The record has many flaws and didn't really pass the test of time but the music still sounds like a fresh, honest and sympathetic product of its era.

There are even a few more respectable tracks on here. Let's also cite "মুক্তি দাও" or "Released From..." for example that features one of the best vocal performances on the entire records because a few higher notes are hit on here that give the song a slight New Wave of British Heavy Metal touch. The closing "কাল রাত" or "Tomorrow Night" goes even further and features many epic story telling moments that are clearly inspired by bands such as Iron Maiden. The track peaks at almost eight minutes and has its strongest moment in form of an atmospheric and bass dominated middle part reminding us at least a little bit of "Rime Of The Ancient Mariner". The vocals are almost as good as on "Released From..." but the song suffers from a lack of variation in the main riffs. The track varies in fact from promising to pointless passages and one can clearly observe that the band wasn't used to write longer songs. At least, the five guys tried to pay some tribute to their heroes and created the country's first epic heavy metal song. It's the kind of accident one can still be quite proud of.

In the end, the band offers nothing new to the genre but these five guys introduced their country to the sound of hevay metal back in the days by sounding as open-minded as possible and by creating their own Bengali lyrics to mix both Western and local culture. The final result is not always impressive and has its flaws but that's nothing one could criticize the band for if we take into consideration the age of the musicians, their cultural background as well as the the lack of money and a professional sound equipment. The five guys still manage to create a few catchy and gripping moments here and then and their music always sounds like an honest pioneer work. That's why one shouldn't forget these guys and pay some tribute to them when it's time to talk about the first heavy metal bands in Asia. Let's hope that their reunion and a possible second release may help to contribute to a bigger recognition of RockStrata.