Galloping Coroners is a Hungarian original shamanic band active between 1975–2001, and since 2009. The band established a unique "shaman punk" or "psychedelic hardcore" sound, and is regarded as one of the most important alternative bands of the 1980s from the Eastern European bloc. Permanent restrictions by Hungarian authorities made worldwide tours difficult for the band, but its ecstatic concerts garnered surprising success across Western Europe. Though relatively obscure and commercially limited outside of Eastern Europe, Maximumrocknroll described the band as "equal in spirit and grit to faves like Sonic Youth or Big Black but with an identity all its own". VHK has been praised as a highly important band by Iggy Pop, Henry Rollins, Jello Biafra and Einstürzende Neubauten.