MăIASTRU SFETNIC

Maiastru Sfetnic is the second full-length studio album by Romanian experimental black metal act Negura Bunget. The album was released by Bestial Records in November 2008 and was limited to 1000 copies which came in a hand made box. A very rare release that one. Maiastru Sfetnic has since been re-released on Disc 3 as part of the Triology (2004) box-set.

The style of music hasn´t changed much from the style on the earlier releases by the band. The music is still mostly mid-paced black metal with tortured raspy/ howling vocals, simple riffing and atmosphere creating and at times epic keyboard parts, but the quality of the material is much higher than on earlier releases IMO. The atmosphere is actually darker than dark on Maiastru Sfetnic and if you´re looking for bleak emotions this album is a good candidate for a purchase. Supposedly the album is a concept album but I don´t understand the Romanian language so the concept is unfortunately lost on me. The music isn´t though and I´ve been pleasantly surprised by Maiastru Sfetnic. The playing is a bit sloppy at times and it does drag my rating down a bit but otherwise this is a great album.

The production is pretty lo-fi and murky but I think it works pretty well this time around. I usually don´t enjoy lo-fi productions but this one suits the music well even though I could have wished for a more professional sounding production if I had to chose.

Maiastru Sfetnic has really opened my eyes to Negura Bunget and I´m definitely going to check out the rest of their discography. A 3.5 star rating is well deserved and had the playing been a bit tighter and the production just a bit more professional this could have been a 4 star album.