- Our Story -

Formation

Sofia, Bulgaria, 1989. Two 3-year-olds riding bicycles in their neighborhood accidentally bumped into each other. Both named Vasil, they became friends over time and discovered together bands such as Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. Their shared passion for music and sound inspired them and soon Vasil Parvanovski started playing the guitar and Vasko Raykov – singing and playing the piano.

In ‘95, the 8-year-old Parvanovski’s classmate, Martin Stoyanov, joined them. Martin’s initial desire was to be the drummer of the band, but this idea quickly vanished as he received a bass guitar as a present from his neighbor. So Martin became and remained the bassist of the band to present day.

In ‘98, the parents of Vasil Parvanovski took him to a family friend’s visit, their friend happening to be one of the most famous blues performers in Bulgaria, Vasko ‘Krupkata’ (aka ‘The Patch’). 12-year-old Parvanovski heard hard drumming coming from the basement of the Patch’s house, and that turned out to be the Patch’s young son, the then 8-year-old Boyan ‘Bonzy’ Georgiev. Parvanovski got immediately impressed by Bonzy and proposed him to jam with the band.

1 August ‘98 is the date of the first rehearsal for the four band members which lineup remains unchanged as of today. Band’s first three albums appeared under their initial name, ‘Kaskadiori’ (‘Stuntmen’). Along with the club gigs, during the period 2001-2008 Kaskadiori were also touring & session musicians of ‘The Patch’.

New direction

2008 was the year when the band decided to change its direction. With years of experience behind their backs and their musical tastes getting more and more into bands like Pantera and Slayer, the band naturally got into playing heavier stuff. They changed their name to ODD CREW and released album ‘We Are What We Are’ at the end of 2008. The album turned to be a blast and constituted a huge fan base calling themselves ‘ODD CREW ZOMBIES’ and steadily supporting the band on gigs and tours all across the country.

In 2009, the band has already played on each and every club stage in Bulgaria and went on with the ‘11 Years of Brotherhood’ tour hitting various countries around Europe, among which Hungary, Germany, Switzerland and England. In 2010, ODD CREW transformed their rehearsal room into a recording studio in order to freely experiment and constantly improve their sound. Soon after ‘Butcher House Studio’ was built, they recorded their album – ‘A Bottle of Friends’, released in October 2010, followed by their first DVD in the end of the same year.

In 2012, ODD CREW released the album ‘Beyond The Shell’ which contains 15 long, heavy, minor-mooded tracks, including ‘Death Trap’ and 3 instrumentals. The musicians define it as ‘the roughest songs that the band has ever played’. This previously unexplored musical territory attracted more and more members to the ODD CREW ZOMBIES.

Crowdfunding

On December 27, 2014 the band started a crowdfunding campaign and announced that they were about to record their upcoming album ‘Mark These Words’. Throughout the campaign they managed to pre-sell over 300 copies of the album. ODD CREW recorded the album with Swedish producer Daniel Bergstrand (In Flames, Behemoth, Meshuggah) in ‘Dugout Studios’ (Uppsala, Sweden) and then sent the tracks to Floridian producer Jason Suecof (Black Dahlia Murder, DevilDriver) for mix/ mastering. The album was released in 2015.

In 2017, the band released the long-awaited live DVD – ‘Mark These Words – Live at Hristo Botev Hall’.

Acoustic Album

On February 14, 2018 the first video from the band’s new album – ‘Same Old Me‘ was released. March 19, 2018 is the issue date of the album itself called ‘The Lost Pages’. The album shows much more lyrical and acoustic sound than the previous studio albums. The recording process of ‘The Lost Pages’ did not consist of separate instrumental tracks recorded but whole songs recorded instead. ‘We decided to record it all together until we reached the best take’, the band members say. And they certainly reached it because the album was a blast since its very release. All their concerts around Bulgaria were quickly sold out.

Signing with a label and latest release

On November 24, 2021 ODD CREW announced that the band signed a record deal with the German label Drakkar Entertainment for a worldwide distribution. Shortly after, also announced a new album and so ‘Dark Matters – Part I’ was released on May 27, 2022. The CD was recorded, mixed and mastered in ‘ButcherHouse Studio’ in Sofia and contains eight songs alongside black and white emotionally shattering videos to all of them. That concept clearly implies the new direction in which the band intends to grow in the future. The record sounds more progressive and doomy, and also more mature and brings ODD CREW’s most melodic songwriting tendencies to the fore.

In 2022 the full-length movie “Dark Matters – Part I – The Movie” was aired in movie theatres in Odd Crew’s homeland Bulgaria. The movie tells the story of the band, the story behind the new album and the making of all eight new videos.

Future

ODD CREW announced that they plan the albums named ‘Dark Matters’ to be four. The direction is expected to be the same as ‘Dark Matters – Part I’ and to “experiment as much as we like”. The remaining three CDs as part of ‘Dark Matters’ are expected to be released in the near future.

Band members:

Vasko Raykov – lead vocals (1998–present)

Vasil Parvanovski – guitars, backing vocals (1998–present)

Martin Stoyanov – bass, backing vocals (1998–present)

Boyan ‘Bonzy’ Georgiev – drums and percussion (1998–present)

Discography:

KASKADIORI

  • And It’s Rock Again (2000)
  • On the Road (2005)
  • The River of Time (2006)

ODD CREW