Negură Bunget – Vîrstele Pamîntului

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There’s a disturbing trend in the black metal scene coming out of Eastern Europe right now, and it’s putting the scene in danger of being able to really call itself black metal at all. Romania’s Negură Bunget are, along with Ukraine’s Nokturnal Mortum, at the forefront of this movement that is slowly replacing guitars with strange, unidentifiable folk instruments and the traditional black metal vocals with distant, entranced chanting. Negură Bunget execute this style well, but even a well-executed dose of such a bizarre sound is tough to sink one’s teeth into. The first three tracks on Vîrstele Pamîntului take over twenty minutes to elapse, and only about two or three of those minutes are spent on anything remotely metal. Woodwinds and chants recalling the sounds of Mayan rituals from some unreleased Indiana Jones movie dominate the vast majority of that time, and rarely do they feel like anything more than an intro or an interlude. When an actual black metal song finally shows itself in the form of the excellent Ochiul Inimil, an indescribable feeling of relief washes over the listener, but after a few songs of excellently blended black metal and Romanian folk music, the latter once again overtakes the former. It’s not that Vîrstele Pamîntului is an exercise in futility because there are obviously people who are interested in black metal that sounds so Eastern, but it’s difficult to picture many metalheads west of Bucharest listening to this album. It’s good for what it is, but it’s an acquired taste with a very steep curve.

Written by Brad Sanders
More: 2010, Albums, Black Metal, Quick.Play Reviews, Negură Bunget