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Negura Bunget is probably one of the most harmonic and unique Black Metal bands to date. Bands that creatively use so many elements from the worlds of Folk and Avant-Garde Metal are truly hard to find. Similar to, yet much finer than the old Norwegian style, Negura Bunget unleash their Black Metal via the new album Virstele Pamintului.

Actually, Negura Bunget gave us two wintery albums this year, Virstele Pamintului, reviewed here, and Maiestrit. Both albums are marked by the same distinctive sound as the band's previous material. Despite the lyrics being sung in Romanian, the band's affinity for nature comes through clearly. They combine their top-notch writing skills with percussion, pan flute, xylophone, kaval, tulnic, keyboards and other Folk elements from their Transylvanian heritage. Negura Bunget amazed me with the extremeness of "Dacia Hiperborean?" and the melodies of "Chei De Rou?" and "Ochiul Inimii." Most of the songs on Virstele Pamintului are long but are well worth the investment in time.

The one thing that bugs me about Negura Bunget has to do with the production. I certainly wasn't expecting a modern job, but if you are going to go raw, do it right. The same mastering problems I've encountered on several releases this year crops up on Virstele Pamintului; phase resolution. It is a shame that, while trying to enjoy the atmosphere of Virstele Pamintului, this nagging problem sticks out like a sore thumb. A band like Negura Bunget, with their long experience in the music business, should have noticed something like this. There are also some inconsistencies with the volume of the rhythm and lead guitars.

Although there are some problems, the magic of Negura Bunget is there, alive and kicking, evil to one side, the tenderness of nature to the other. Hopefully they will try English in the future and open up their music to even more fans.