The Rock Blogger

Negura Bunget. OM. 2006. 4 stars.

Powerful black metal from the forests of Romania, Negura Bunget offer a tour de force of the genre, incorporating folk, thrash and progressive rock styles into a cohesive and atmospheric whole. The songs are epic and devastating, with hefty doses of aggression and intelligence, with great attention to detail and mood. The drumming is incredibly fast and fluid, providing a sonic field for the intense growling vocals (they’re in Romanian, so I don’t understand them), ethereal synth passages and wiry guitar lines.

Towards the end of the album, the songs branch out into unexpected directions, with acoustic flourishes and the occasional horn and woodwind accompaniment. The tracks are carefully composed, with distinct intros, bridges and codas, with deliberate pacing to build up their emotional impact. You get the sense that there is some harrowing narrative going through OM, tales of desperation, longing and vengeance riding on these dark melodic waves. This is an incredibly fascinating and rewarding album, though it requires endurance on part of the listener. This is Black Metal after all, aimed at the deep and stoned end of the spectrum (what spectrum, I don’t know, but its sure good to jump across it).

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