Negură Bunget - Tău
It took me 10 years and an awesome concert to fully appreciate Negură Bunget and their music. I first came across them in the early 2000s, forgot about them and rediscovered them every few years. After an awesome gig at Paganfest in 2011 their material has made it into my playlist. As soon as "Tău" popped up on my recommendations I had buy a copy just to see how they sound on a good setup.
Quick Facts:
- Artist: Negură Bunget - www.negurabunget.com
- Album: Tău - released on February 27, 2015
- Version: Limited Edition, 180g Vinyl - Discogs Link
- Label: Lupus Lounge (a sublabel of Prophecy Records)
- Found at: amazon.de for 22,99 €
I am impressed by the quality of the whole record. The gatefold is pretty thick with a slightly glossy finish. It definitely feels better in my hands than other gatefolds. And they got the crease line right so there's no way for the record sleeves to get stuck which is a big plus. The record comes with a generic record sleeve and optionally a printed sleeve with lyrics. It's up to you which one you use. As the generic sleeve is plain white paper and not anti-static it does not matter. Included is also a glossy poster of the band which seems a bit off compared to the rest of the album art.
The artwork is in line with Negură Bunget's themes and videos: Nature. It's quite minimalistic. A full picture on the front with just the album title disguised in runelike writing, a panorama picture in the inner gatefold and a full picture on the back with just little information like tracklist, band, label etc. on it. The design of the gatefold definitely stands out between my more colorful records.
The sound/music:
The sound quality is great. The record I own is being advertised as incl. special vinyl mastering. While I am not keen on those adwords this usually means that they used a high quality master. You are able to distinguish the various instruments they used. This is great for music which easily may create a wall of sound.
Fitting Negură Bunget into a specific genre is nearly impossible. This is apparent on Discogs as every release is labeled differently. They are clearly influenced by black metal but use pagan, folk avantgarde and ambient elements too. Some wag even categorized Tău as easy listening. Well, it's not. The album is definitely more appealing to the masses than their past releases which I find great. Negură Bunget perfects their usual contrast rich play on Tău. Atmospheric tunes, harsh black metal and folk parts seemlessly string together. There are however differences to the past albums. First of all, Tău is more experimental in the choice of instruments in the folk parts and surprisingly keyboard heavy (for Negură Bunget standards). This is a blessing in disguise. The experimental parts work great sometimes and feels a bit forced and overused the other time. With music relying so much on atmosphere this can really ruin a song. When I heard the track "Tarim Vilhovnicesc" I was very surprised to hear a familiar voice. Sakis Tolis of Rotting Christ (vocals on "Tarim Vilhovnicesc") and Rune Eriksen (ex-Mayhem, guitar on "Impodobeala Timpului) appear as guest musicians on the album. This album is not a masterpiece like "Om" and it's different compared to their older releases. Not surprising with all the lineup changes in the past. It seems as if the band is trying out various new elements and while some work great some fail. Does this make Tău a bad album? No, the music is still Negură Bunget, they still manage to create that special atmosphere and it is still an album I listen to regularly. Die hard fans of the old stuff may be disappointed but with the changes made they surely manage to reach a wider audience. I am really looking forward to any new material as I am really curious about the direction the band is heading with their next albums.
Up next: Review of Conan - Revengeance
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