MONARCHY is a Romanian Power-Progressive Metal band from Bucharest. The MONARCHY journey starts in 1990, when Iulian Rob and Marian Leusteanu decided to form a rock band. During those times the heavy metal was ruling the world of music and almost every kid was picturing himself as a Hetfield, Halford, Dickinson and so on, so their basic influences were naturally from that area and offcourse adding to this a little hard-rock, thrash and power metal.
Right after the ..89 events when the comunism regime fell, Romania started to awake as a nation, ...more or less..., and the rock movement began to emarge as well. The problem was that when you want to start something like this, you also need to find people who share the same vision and goals as you are which translates into finding the rest of the band members. The bands that succeeded in finding an optimal, stable formula are now well known, as for the underground, there is a massive turnover of band members, where formulas are changing everyday...and offcourse they also needed equipment.
Well.....the issues of money and equipment made of MONARCHY a garage band. It was absolutely impossible to elaborate and play a pretty sofisticated metal genre without even having a guitar processor, ....by the way, the old tube transistors at maximum volume create a pretty good distorssion effect...
In 1992 the band recruited Dan Posirca as a drummer, playing on the Romanian legendary crap drums Doina...and now MONARCHY also had a rehearsal room, ....Dan..s bedroom...
Alright!...the MONARCHY machine was slowly starting to move...but it was moving, there was also a pretty good line-up of songs, ....now we needed a bass player and a vocalist (as Iulian and Marian were the band..s guitar players). First thing...you ask your friends...”Dude, ...you know how to play bass?...or let me hear you singing this, see how it sounds...!”...”Neaaaah...unfortunetly, it didn..t work...
In 1993 the band..s formula was refreshed with Eduard Moraru doing the rhythm guitar, Marian switches on bass, Iulian lead guitar and Dan as a drummer...still without a vocalist...this formula was actually the inner core of the band....precisely Iulian, Marian and Edy.
Offcourse the band auditionned several people for the vocalist job (among whom also Catalin Mitroi), but none of them was able to sing heavy-metal style...
In 1994, one year break as Iulian, Edy go to serve in the army.
Regathering in 1995, witout Dan on drums, reminded us of the very beginings when we were looking for a drummer and offcourse ...a vocalist.
For a while the drums part was taken by Gabi Bratulea (former Careu de Popi), who also sourced out a rehearsal room at Metrorex Republica, but unfortunetly he didn..t manage to integrate himself into the bands music line. Some drummers are the so called „band..s friends”, that means they play a still 4/4, straight drum line, only that for sime music genres it takes a little more than this....so after a while we had to let Gabi go. At that point the band was joined by Ionut Camburu (John) for the vocals part, with a more agressive voice line he could..ve been the solution to the problem the band had regarding the vocalist.
Among the band..s members hobbies there was a „disease” called mountain hiking, Iulian and Marian were already active members of Hoinarii Bucuresti, a group that participated at all kinds of mountain competitions, and that included singing as well, where thay won several prizes. In this group there was also someone (thank you Alfuletz!) who made the connection between the band and their future drummer...Geani Matei.
Geani was 17 at that point and had a lot of energy and some experience working in a band, that experience was gained playing in an American glam band called Squish, with whom he also released a studio album. At that point also, it was revealed to us that we weren..t playing thrash nor speed...just Progressive Metal. Everything had to be complicated with us, let..s put it like this....there were only a few straight 4/4 lines...
At that time John departs from the band, leaving the band to be consisted of Iulian, Marian, Edy and Geani. Everything sounded very well except that the problem still was with the vocal part, we just couldn..t find anybody to be able to perform with us.
A while we rehearsed in Geani..s basement, and little by little we also succeeded in gathering some good equipment, but still, the formula could not be complete without a vocalist.
In 1997, Andrei (Tusiu, one of the band..s closest friends and supporters), one night when he was returning home, heard someone playing guitar in a park, ...and also singing...and singing very well...he went to see who creates those sounds.
In the park on a bench, there was this tall blond guy with a guitar in his hands, playing songs from Led Zeppelin and Queen, and the „issue” was that he was sounding just like them. After getting aquainted with the guy Andrei manages to set up an audition with the band for the vocal part.
Said and done, the guy comes at the studio sets himself on the keyboards and plays Bohemian Rapsody – perfectly!
At that point the band was complete, finally, ah...I forgot to tell you who that guy was, ...his name was Dan Radu, or well known today as Dan Byron.
Now, it was only natural for the band to perform well, but it just wasn..t to be...in 1998 Dan decided that the band..s music direction was not the same as his and decided to leave the band starting his own band called Byron, ... the other guys bitterly split up separate ways.
It seemed like it was over...
Iulian played with Byron for about a year or so and tried several colaborations with other bands pretty well known at that time, Geani gave up after trying a few small projects, Edy has done the same and Marian continued playing with The Teachers Orchestra and Aria (his own project).
Years have gone by without the guys even talking to eachother, it was a a common thought between them: „Just leave it!...” or just a terrible frustration.



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BACK TO ROCK!!!
After 10 years, precisely in 2008, Marian, Iulian and Geani get back together for a beer, and decide to give the MONARCHY project another shot...”just for fun” for old times sake. Now it..s different, they have families, kids ...and 10 years older or let..s say wiser...
The joy of getting back together reached its peak when, and it was only natural for the other band..s guitarist, Edy, to respond positively to the challenge and these time we..ve reunited at the studio with real guitars, processors, amps and professional drums.
It was clear!...MONARCHY needed to get out on stage and do what it was suppose to do best...and that is ROCK!!!...play and reintegrate themselves in the old times spirit that made them friends for life. Well...some men like going fishing, some men like to collect different things, our „sweet desease” is MUSIC!...just for fun.
The MONARCHY band..s formula completed having Dragos Cretu as frontman and Cornel Stefan handling the keyboards...and started to play.
Slowly but steady everything started to connect, working with a stable vocalist and the multitude of opportunities that a keyboard brings to the table has made things much easier for MONARCHY. Coming from the Thrash/Death Metal area, Dragos discovered the essence of melodic rock, something that he wasn..t able to experiment with his previous bands (Apocalyptic and and Thorns of Hate). The best part is that he experienced the same course of facts as MONARCHY , departing from the music industry some years ago due to band internal differencies and formula issues. But he never let his dream go and after a lucky „google search” he found us and his assimilation into the band and more importantly as a friend was very quick. As a token of the other guys gratitude and faith, the band decided to have Dragos represent them as well on promoting the band, in charge of the marketing&management of the band until a major contract
Welcome Dragos!
Cornel (or Cornelius Maximus as the guys like to call him) is the veteran of the band and after many years of rock..n..roll discovered the beauty of making music form the heart and soul and his contribution is decisive to the bands more melodically made line-up. As a matter fact, while it was a common conception among us that keyboards would soften the band..s sound for many years, now we couldn..t imagine ourselves without their sound and many of the ideas and song passages are strictly connected to the keyboard tones os the classic piano. Experience has its own important role and there is an old Romanian saying that stands up till today: „You don..t have old wise men, buy them!”
Welcome Cornel!
The first four songs were quickly written with every member..s thorough contribution and what it used to be MONARCHY..s struggle for many years, came to a first fruition with the first Demo Album called „Jamming”. All four songs were recorded in the bands rehearsal studio and the mastering was done by Gabi Mitran.
Waiting for reactions the band continues to write songs preparing itself for stepping out on the big scene....and who knows....

So!...you can hear the sound of the guitars again, louder and louder!
The biggest challenge now is to find the common denominator beween 6 genres from 6 people with 6 different thinking modes...THE BIG 666.