VIRSTELE PAMINTULUI

Virstele Pamintului is the 5th full-length studio album by Romanian experimental/ progressive black metal act Negura Bunget. It´s the first studio album since the split up where the two of the three founding members of the band, Hupogrammos and Sol´Faur, left Negura Bunget to form Dordeduh, leaving Negru as the only founding member left in the band. Negru opted to continue with the Negura Bunget name and has added no less than five new musicians to the lineup making Negura Bunget almost a completely new band. Virstele Pamintului is the last release out of a three album record deal Negura Bunget signed with leading Italian experimental extreme metal label Code666. The album is released in a regular CD version but also in a special limited version which bears this description: "The special limited version comes in a handmade woodbox, roped and filled with the very earth of the place it comes from". The latter falls in the catagory of rather bizarre collector´s items if you ask me, but it would be pretty great to show to the friends.

Almost simoultaniously with the release of Virstele Pamintului, Negura Bunget also released Maiestrit (2010) which is a re-recording of the 2000 Maiastru Sfetnic album with some added tracks. Maiestrit was recorded with the original trio lineup of Hupogrammos, Negru and Sol´Faur before they split.

The music on Virstele Pamintului is a mix of dark ambient ethnic music and experimental and for the most part quite melodic black metal. The former style is very dominant on parts of the album which is best examplified by the fact that you won´t hear distorted guitars or extreme vocals before about 15 minutes into the album. Negura Bunget include lots of traditional Romanian folk intruments in the music, but also more regular instrumentation like guitar, bass, drums and keyboards. The vocals are a mix of various clean kinds of vocals/ talking and raspy black metal ones. The music is very dark and atmospheric and the dark ambient element makes me think of Ulver at times but also a band like Dead Can Dance comes to mind.

The production is professional and suits the music well.

After having released what many consider one of the most important experimental black metal albums in Om (2006), Virstele Pamintului does come as a bit of a disappointment IMO. There are many excellent ideas and parts on the album but overall there are too much dark ambient ethnic music and not enough metal for my taste and a 3.5 star rating is warranted. It´s an interesting mix but not without flaws. Virstele Pamintului is recommended to those who enjoy the more experimental side of black metal with an ethnic ambient touch.