Negură Bunget - 'n crugu bradului (2002)^{Release ID: 1388}

Neura Bunget are a band I've always somewhat appreciated for balancing their boldness in the avant-garde department with a consistent flow.  The album tight before their signature OM, named 'n crugu bradului, is known among black metal fans for pushing those boundaries, walking the tightrope until picking a love or hate side is basically unavoidable.  I suppose this is the album that cemented them as an experimental band.  I never really had a problem with it, personally.

When I first heard this album, I gave it a 94/100, almost matching their signature, OM, which had a 97.  In fact, I would even go as far as to say the opening epic (the album is divided into four 12-13 minute epics, each numerically named in Roman) is one of the finest black metal songs I've ever heard.  It's like what would happen if Rod Serling and Edgar Rice Burroughs decided to collab, and the end result was a Twilight Zone venture into the mythology of an ancient tribe.  As for the other songs, they deliver some new ideas while following up on the same format as the first, also showcasing another side of them by perfectly implementing light amounts of the folk sounds of their home country, Romania, like people have been doing it for fifty years.  There's one very mellow, lengthy and carefully constructed solo in the middle of III that just tugs at the back of your head, demanding that you try to go to sleep and let yourself be absorbed in the sound until you're rudely awakened by a black metal alarm blaring like a vulture.  Now some of the general black metal riffs here are not the most originally compose, but the production style allows the storminess of their black metal genre to burst through the headphones while going above the Richter scale.  The windiness aspect is made into a piece of wonderfully empty but chilling ambiance on IV which only allows the faint echoes of singing and guitars to bleed out, giving it personality.  It drags on just a little longer than I'd like before the black metal comes back, but it was still impressive.  even then, it includes alien whistling in the midsection that I honestly wanted more of.

This may come as absolutely no surprise to anyone who knows me, but IMO, 'n crugu bradului boasts a lot of brilliance in the way genres are played with among the more typical black metal riffs.  This could make the album a regular for me to blast while trying to drown out noises on the outside, and maybe just because I wanna soak up some of the weirdness.  Like I said in the first paragraph, when I first gave this album a spin, I gave it a 94.  I think I was right.

Negură Bunget - Beautifully Haunting

Now I just had the added experience of listening to this amongst a rainstorm while driving and maybe that covered some of the weaker spots on this album, but I have listened to this multiple other times as well and still enjoy where it's coming from. I love the musicianship of this album and the haunting black metal shrills that are drowned out by the furious drumming and guitar playing that just goes full speed. This is not the most technical or talented album. This feels like a young band that was able to find a better than average producer to mix this album in a way that elevated what they were going for. It's not perfect by any means.

I can really feel the, "throw it at the wall and we'll see what sticks" vibes but in my opinion more of what they try at least sticks well enough to make me continue to come back to this album and not want to turn it off by any means. That doesn't make it memorable, but something in this works for me when i'm in that kind of mood. Though, the songs do have a hard time to get going. I forgot about the first minute of song 2 (II), being just skippable but then it starts to get into the song with a more folky vibe that I actually enjoy. But that also is another thing on this album, it's only 4 songs that makes up a total of 53 minutes long. This isn't a doom epic so 15 minute long songs in black metal is a bit off for others but I liked it here. Each song changes quite a bit you could probably make this one long song and it would probably feel the same. 

I don't know why I like this, because when I think about it more it's not something I would normally go to but I can see myself falling asleep to this or just having it play in the background without wanting to turn it off. There are a bunch of transitions that are oddly smooth without noticing you're still listening to the same thing so when I put it on I easily forget what I put on but it still is enjoyable when actually paying attention as well. Easy to zone out too for me.

The main problem here is a tale of two halves, one infinitely better than the other, over a real short number of tracks.  Having never heard this record through until this past week, the rigour of trying to figure out if the band have tried to be clever in making a true “grower” of a release or if they genuinely had brain storm issues and put everything into the first two tracks is tiring work.  I am leaning towards the latter opinion though.

For the opening two (of four) tracks, I am utterly lost with this album (if we can call it that).  The band’s songwriting and composition style appears to be an “anything goes” type format and literally the kitchen sink is in there as a result.  If I am not lost in the directionless and swirling chaos spilling out of my speakers like an exploding dishwasher then instead I am just completely baffled over how the band decided this was a good idea?

The pace, tempo, timing and structure aren’t anchored to anything and flit and dart all over the place like flies on a bin lid.  The changes aren’t even clever proggy shifts that layer tracks up making them more robust over their term.  They are just confusing and unnecessary disruption to what is a very limited release at just four tracks.

Occasionally some consistency of structure shines through and when it does it isn’t half bad but it isn’t around for long enough.  By the time things do actually settle down on tracks three and four there is a real sense of too little, too late.  Like we are shutting the gate and the horse is already five fields away.  The atmospheres and textures that occupy the more stable half of the release hold the attention well enough but only if you have the patience to sit through the near unlistenable first couple of tracks.