One of those “old and forgotten Eastern European jewels“ that I Hate Records has been mining as of late, the rediscovered, repackaged, and reissued Let Draka/Flight of the Dragon from the Czech Republic’s Drakar nearly defies classication. Progressive thrash? Sort of. Quirky metal? You’ve just gotten in warmer. Creative music? Let’s go with that one. Vocalist/guitarist, founder, and visionary Ivan Sekyra takes us back to beginning, moves us through the middle, fast forwards to 2011 and tells the tale of a small Swedish label reissuing a little known album – in two-disc format for English and Czech speakers alike – from a killer cult Czech band . Read on; you just might learn something.

Please pardon the pedestrian nomenclature, but this is one of the coolest albums I’ve heard in some time. Honestly, every time I spin this sucker it never fails that at some point along the way the words “this is such a cool album” enter my mind. Is that so wrong or should I be showering […]