Style: Atmospheric black metal, folk black metal
Primary Emotions/Themes: Getting lost in an unfamiliar forest, a combination of wonder and terror all at the same time
Thoughts: I was really excited when this album was announced. This was a project for the continuation of arguably the most integral part of Negura Bunget: Sol Faur and Hupogrammos. These were the guys that really amped up the traditional Romanian instruments in the later Negura albums and were often the primary song writers along wide Negru.
I was exceptionally hopeful that this project would pick up right where they left off in Negura Bunget... unfortunately, it does not. While the DNA of Negura is in here, the quality is not quite up to the standards set by the legendary albums such as 'n crugu bradului or Om. It's a few steps down.
All of the individual components are here: the quiet soundscapes, the dark ambience, the aggressive black metal, the ominous atmosphere. It seems that all of the attempts to put these together fall just short of greatness.
For example E-an-na starts out incredibly ominous and slowly builds in to a vocal choir. Things keep building and building until... nothing happens. The song kind of peeters out and fades away. Flacararii has everything that a Negura song should have, up until and including their signature keyboard work... it just sounds hollow in comparison. When the band starts blasting, the atmosphere goes away and everything is lost.. including the intended aggression.
There are moments on here though where the band does realize all the potential that they have had in the past. Calea Rotilor De Foc is vintage Negura. It's a twelve minute epic that goes through several peaks and sonic valleys. There are traditional instruments used alongside the guitars, keyboards used to heighten the atmosphere, the vocals have a biting venom to them that has been lacking to this point. It's really what I wanted out of the album. It's one of too few examples of what these guys are truly capable of.
Is Dar De Duh a bad album? Absolutely not. Is it a great album? No, it falls short of that. It falls somewhere in between... and given the legacy that these guys have I can't help but find it disappointing. Fortunately though the follow up, Har, corrected all of these shortcomings and then some.
Written August 6th 2024
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