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JOHAN | 2007-02-15 >>>
 CITRON
"Radegast"
LP (1987 Supraphon)
In the shadow of Radegast
After their mega successful
debut "Plni energie" Citron decided to immediately start working on
their new album and soon they became the most popular Czech band. But
then the complication came - Standa Hranický (vocalist) had a serious
leg injury and Citron live performances were not possible. In a hurry
the band asked Láďa Křížek (Vitacit singer) to substitute for the tour…
But the substitution eventually turned to a transfer. Citron thus got
a new vocalist.
"Radegast", as well as "Plni energie", was anticipated by a couple of
7" singles and it is necessary to talk a bit about them. The two
singles were released in 1987 very shortly one after the other. First
"Kráska a Radegast" / "Zase dál" immediately followed "Už zase mi
scházíš" / "Sedm životů". Although the covers are the old one from
1985 with Standa Hranický, Láďa Křížek was already the Citron new
singer. Each of the singles contains one unreleased track (and each of
them contains one album track). That is why I will write now shortly
about the unreleased ones, "Kráska a Radegast" and "Sedm životů".
Honestly, "Kráska a Radegast" is the best song sung by Křížek. He
showed all his talent in this song, using all the voices he was able
to use. Beginning with the soft high voice, through his traditional
one, up to the raw one. I have never been able to understand why such
a song was not on the LP. And… I can say the same about "Sedm životů",
again with an excellent Křížek performance, especially with the
chorus. Really strange why these two songs remained unreleased.
The LP "Radegast" is opened by a mid-tempo title track, followed by
fast and catchy "Zase dál", again with Křížek ingenious vocals. Both
the guitarist show how skilful they are! Only the drummer seems to be
little behind, the hands and the legs play here and there something
else and even the rhythm is not stable. "Hon na Bluda" we already new,
as it appeared little earlier on Posloucháte větrník vol. 3
compilation, and this song has the same qualities as the first two
songs. On the other hand I dont know why "Už couvám" appeared on the
LP. This song is an old Citron song, recorded with Hranický and
released on a 7" some years back. I liked that first version much more
than the remake on "Radegast". The B-side is opened by even more
perfect Křížek performance "Setkání s Radochem". The guitars are not
worse than the vocalist, their magic melodies cannot be omitted. Then
we have the second (and the last) slow song of the album "Už zase mi
scházíš". In this case I like more Křížek´s version than the one by
Hranický (recorded later) - probably the first version is always
better, ha ha. Křížek managed this ballad excellently, his voice
sounds as a third sologuitar. "Moravská děvčátka" and "Valašský rok"
are two songs which offer the average Citron music: but what is
average for Citron - that is far far ahead of other bands. But what is
necessary to criticise is the last track. Why they decided to use
"Radegast" II.? Who knows… In general this album is exquisite. If
there were the two EP songs instead of "Už couvám" and "Radegast", it
could be even better.
The album was recorded in their own studio Citron. After 20 years of
technical development we can easily criticise, but in those days it
was a top sound. On the other hand, what cannot be criticised at all (even
after 20 years), are the lyrics. They stress our old pagan tradition
and mythology - how funny are todays pagan black metal lyrics compared
to those of Radegast. There are no traditional metal lyrics used on
this album. Now we can listen about a honour to Radegast, about the
prettiness of Moravian girls, about a courage of people fighting
against unknown Blud… Well, the slow songs are naturally about love
and in this way do not fit to the album main ideas.
If I blessed the "Plni energie" cover, unfortunately I cannot do the
same concerning "Radegast". The title and the ideas of the songs urged
to use Radegast photo… But the product of designer Petr Čepický is
pure catastrophy. On the front side photo with Hranický, on the back
side with Křížek. Photos are located without any sense and the band
logo in the eye of Radegast… No, this cannot be accepted. And it could
be so easy, just a band photo in the front of Radegst statue.
Thanks to the new vocalist "Radegast" was a shift in Citron musical
direction. And their popularity was even higher. One of the result was
their victory in Zlatý slavík 1987 readers poll ("Mladý svět" magazine
was not a musical one, but it was the only one where - at least
sometimes - we could read about heavy metal. And the readers poll was
a possibility how to express the popularity of heavy metal). Thanks to
this poll victory Citron appeared in TV, some interviews and photos in
magazines were published and communists must realize that the power of
heavy metal cannot be stopped. After this success also some other
bands increased their popularity, mainly Arakain. But that is another
story… |
