Negurã Bunget‘s Maiestrit, the album containing the last recordings of the band’s classical line-up, is out, released April 15, 2010. For all of those out there living in a cave, this is the most anticipated disc of the year, followed closely by Virstele Pamantului. The first is, as stated above the last of an era forever to be unequaled in the annals of black metal history, the second is the first in a new era yet to be heard and tested.

Maiestrit is Maiastru Sfetnic cloaked in new mist-shrouded garb perfectly re-imagined in the post Om world. If you thought the original was a masterpiece that should never be tampered with, like repainting the smile on the Mona Lisa, then you should know that the band was never satisfied with the way it turned out so they have set to work totally recreating the magic formula with the benefit of hindsight. Utter every epitaph known to you, how do you improve damn near perfection? Personally I love the original and very briefly lamented the news that it was being redone until I read that it was Negru, Hupogrammos Disciple’s and Sol Faur at work on the project and not the all new lineup.

Rather than tell you what was cut out, what was added, how the guitar playing differs, etc. I’ll just say the total power and majesty not only remains from the original but it is more beautifully captured this time, and I’m not referring to production quality. The recording is in fact much superior but it is the musicianship that makes for a more omnipresent air of spiritual supremacy. Where the original was cold and ominous and repetitive and ferocious, the new version is organic and warm and ominous and ferocious. The guitars drive the music forward through melodic lines meticulously played and the drumming is, as usual for this band, tightly controlled, creatively played and superior technically to nine thousand other drummers out there in wannabe land. The traditional instruments that added the mystique of the mountains are here again in all their glory as are all the huge riffs that we all know from the original versions. The folk instrumentation, be it keyboard derived or traditional instrument, are both more important here than before and more subtilely integrated this time than before, which should be no surprise since these guys have been playing together for ten years since the original recording.

I have concluded that this will not make me stop listening to Maiastru Sfetnic, it does not replace that release, it is not a remaster with better sound, it is re-sculpted from the original marble block, What Maiestrit does is give you yet another must listen to album. Time and again I am preferring the new song versions over the old, and then there are the acoustic versions. Simply mind-blowing. Not the songs, but the realization that this lineup is no more and this is the last recording we will get from them. Turn off the lights, hook up two stereos, cue up Maiestrit on one side of the room and Maiastru Sfetnic on the other, push continuous play.

[Visit the band's website]

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