Monolith

Only a small group of devotees remember the first years and concerts of one of the most loved and popular Bulgarian rock bands - Monolith.

In 1983, long before most of the contemporary Bulgarian rock stars actually appeared, Tony Chembara, Valko Andreev, Vladimir Petrov and Ivailo Ivanov formed a new band and within a few years gained experience as well as popularity, penning their own songs, which they sang in English.

In 1986 this band fell apart but only to reappear in 1991, this time with a different line-up consisting of the only original member Toni Chembara and the new-comers Pavel Vasev (guitar), Milen Savov (bass) and Stanislav Kostadinov (drums).

In 1992 Monolith's first album "One More Chance" came out, released by one of the first independent Bulgarian music labels - Riva Sound.

"One More Chance" soon became one of the most sought-for albums on the market and Monolith now enjoyed huge support on the part of their many fans, which turned their concerts into an event.

With the release of their new album "Heads or Tails" in 1993, began the band's most successful period. The album contained the songs "Hello", "Hooligan", "Going Back", which became hits and received considerable radio airplay, while "It was fun at my funeral" proved to be indispensable at student parties and became extremely popular with the so-called "underground". This success led to the release of Monolith's first compact disc "Ballads".

In 1996 their third album "Monolith 3" came out, followed a year later by their fourth album "Sisyphus".

In 1997 the drummer Stanislav Kostadinov left the band replaced by Dani Godjev. Simultaneously with their work for Monolith, Pavel Vasev and Toni Chembara also released solo albums, the former - in 1991, and the latter - in 1996. Toni's solo project was called "Alien" and was released by Riva Sound. Even those who are new to Monolith's music notice immediately Toni's specific many-sided voice, Pavel's unique guitar playing, Milen's "swinging" bass and Dani's characteristic drumming. As to the music, Monolith is among the few Bulgarian bands, which manage to successfully combine blues, rock and roll and art rock. Equally successful proved to be their songs performed in English and those performed in Bulgarian, thus rendering the debate among the Bulgarian bands and solo artists which language to use pointless.

In 2000 Riva Sound released the compilation "Dr. Rock 'n' Roll" containing 16 of Monolith's greatest and most popular hits, such as "Hello", "I Wanna Make Love To You", "Hooligan" and many others, all of them digitally remastered for this special occasion. "Dr. Rock 'n' Roll" presents to us the fullest and most qualitative retrospection of Monolith's work so far, while the new songs in this album are the best proof that the band will not lose their ability to remain among the best.