When it came to picking my album of the decade I chose ‘Om’ the 2006 release from Negura Bunget without a second’s hesitation. It was pretty much everything I looked for in my music; atmospheric, passionate, transcendental, mesmerising, majestic, brutal and I could go on but you get the picture. However the utter shock that saw 2/3 of the essential line up leaving in 2009 made me wonder about the follow up album and despair that we were never going to even see it arriving. I was in fact rather angry as things unfolded in the press to hear that Negru was going to carry on with the band after the departure of Hupogrammos and Sol'Faur, against their wishes. How dare he, was my initial thought but after calming down and learning that the previous members were going to come back with new project Dordeduh and that Negru had got new members on board as well as some of the previous live players all sharing in the writing of the music, I realised that we might even end up with two good bands from the turmoil.
Firstly and importantly I am pleased to say that I very much consider ‘Vîrstele Pamîntului’ as being the natural evolution of what we heard on ‘Om.’ It is an incredibly spiritual and natural listen and again that word transcendental springs to mind. The ideology behind the recording is to quote the band “about places of the earth and places of the spirit, about bounds transcending worlds,” and once the first few hesitant listens sunk in that is exactly what I realised I was hearing. We never did hear exactly why the others left the band and I can only hypothesise about this. The real brutality behind previous recordings has been on the whole replaced by this feel of (well in a word) Omness. Perhaps they were wanting to get back to the primitive, which is something the departing members did with aplomb on the reinterpretation of the Maiastru Sfetnic album ‘Maiestrit’ which you can also read about on this review update.
Apparently the album title translates as ‘The Ages of the Land/Earth’ although as for the actual song titles and lyrics I have no further information. What I can describe is the music itself and the album that weighs in around 55 minutes starts on a completely breathtaking note with ‘Pamint’ Think of the pan-pipe breezing out melody around tinkling cowbells. You are immediately taken to lush mountains as it fragrantly meanders and builds. There is some definite Ennio Morricone about this make no mistake and it is possibly the greatest piece of music not to great a cigarillo chewing Clint Eastwood striding purposely to unleash carnage. Instead we have new vocalist Corb passionately addressing the heavens as the music builds to a crescendo and at highest peak everything else comes blazing into play as we explode into majestic guitars, bass, drum and the ever atmospheric keyboards. What an entrance and if this does not literally floor you all I can say is that someone must have stolen your soul. As things progress you will pick out fragments and nuances that take you back to ‘Om.’ Inia’s keyboard playing is fantastical and otherworldly as we enter ‘Dacia Hiperboreana’ and witness that unique trembling guitar sound that the band seems to have. Acoustically this is really enchanting stuff and if anything lack of brutality is not so important as the music literally bristles with life and you know there are going to be moments of aggression to come. Come they do with the vocals becoming more strident and heartfelt; what Corb is cursing is beyond me but he does a fine job of it. There is a really uplifting melody too as this one unravels so perhaps the gods looked down, heard the call and offered some reward.
The songs are long, involving and have a wealth of ideas about them. It must have been interesting getting a full band contributing to the writing of this and the players no doubt all brought plenty of different facets to the recording. ‘Ochiul Inimii’ finally sees a bloodcurdling rasp unleashed and the music does go off on a charged gallop for a while with the xylophone clattering hell for leather behind it. The vocals are actually pretty versatile and we get some clean crooning on ‘Chei De Roua’ which really suits the song and makes things take on a bit of a different vibe before the drums batter in again and they growl away. It is impossible to pick a highlight although the first track is perhaps the most evocative opener I have heard in a long time. This is very much an album that needs to be listened to in one hit and woe betide anyone interrupting. I also think that like ‘Om’ it would be fantastic if the band played it completely live. After a highly charged and downright eerie instrumental section the jagged guitar fire of ‘Arborele Lumii’ stands out and sees the band playing a song without any real traditional instruments and retaining a metal feel to things at odds with most of the rest of the album.
As far as Vîrstele Pamîntului is concerned the question is not shall I buy this album but which version shall I get? There is no question about the fact that this is every bit as essential as seeing the band on tour is. As per usual the group are releasing a special version “handmade woodbox, roped and filled with the very earth of the place it comes from.” And yes with music as good as this it’s actually worth buying what is essentially a lump of mud! Another album for those end of year lists, whether it will be remembered as fondly at the end of this decade however remains to be seen.
http://www.negurabunget.com
http://www.myspace.com/negurabunget
