Negură Bunget – Maiestrit (2010)

Negură Bunget hails from Romania and their musical style has evolved into a completely autonomous beast that many try to emulate but nobody can quite get. The mysticism behind the band’s sound creates chilling passages that freak out even the bravest metal heads of the world.

Maiestrit is a re-interpretation of the band’s legendary album “Maiastru Sfetnic”, plus two unreleased acoustic versions of two tracks of this album. As you can expect from the band, you get a master piece in Atmospheric Black Metal that is definitely better than the original incarnation of these songs.

Featuring the ‘classic’ Negură Bunget lineup (Hupogrammos, Sol Faur and Nergu) this release is the last one to do so, since the bad later split up and re-formed with Nergu as the only remaining original member.

The music as always is both haunting and beautiful, and the Black Metal parts are just the icing on top of the cake. I always liked the band’s ability to create bone chilling atmospheres and overlay carefully crafted Black Metal parts. The BM riffing itself is not as traditional as most old-school/raw Black Metal bands, and it sounds different than other bands in the scene that are trying too hard to copy Negură Bunget’s efforts.

I find the idea of a re-interpretation better than just re-mixing and cleaning up old master tapes, if you hear both albums side to side, you can tell the difference between them. The band has surely come a long way since 2000 and this re-interpretation is a great way to see this. Too bad this lineup is no more, but gives way to have another re-interpretation in the future.

With a new album coming out after this release, I can’t wait to hear how the new lineup can make Negură Bunget sound even more demented than before. But until then we have “Maiestrit” to keep us deeply submerged in Negură Bunget’s dark and foggy world.

Release: April 6th, 2010

Country: Romania