ECHOES FROM TRANSCENDENCE EVENING
Dordeduh + Thy Veils (Bucharest, The 24th of January 2010)

 And so, we inaugurated another Special Evening, held in an elegant club, among hundreds of fans, who willingly came to see at work, two salient bands of our quality underground. The mix of styles brought to The Silver Church, a very different public, an important part interested only in DORDEDUH’s performance and another who left right after THY VEILS finished their musical “discourse”.

 We had cold feet concerning this evening, mostly because we had decided to organize this Special Evening Sunday, instead of Saturday or Friday. The decision was taken during late August and the official announcement was made during ETHEREAL AMBIENT EVENING, in Brasov on the 12th of September 2009.

Subsequently, things were sort of highballed, since the overnight appearance of another 2 gigs during the very same weekend, one of them set on the exact evening as ECHOES FROM TRANSCENDENCE.  Therefore, two days before the show, we became worried that the location we had picked up was going to turn out too spacious for the event. The result was beyond expectation, bearing in mind the conditions presented above, and everything went according to plan. The access was allowed starting with 18.30 and until 19.30 the AGALLOCH DVD was presented on the screens. No more than 100 persons were present at that time.

Shortly after the officially announced hour, Daniel Dorobantu and his crew got up on stage, being backed up by an eerie light show perfectly intertwined with the ambient music they were about to perform for everybody’s ears.

 THY VEILS performed in front of about 250 persons and did a great job, at least for those who were willing to digest this sort of sonorities. Having as background two different multidimensional projections, their music made up of keyboards, a trumpet, flute, guitars, drums and feminine vocals, overflowed with incredible expressivity and dark atmosphere. Still, it looked as if they lacked something in the dynamics department, as most of the crowed, having difficulties with getting into this ethereal phonic aura, favored doing something other than watching in silence. This carelessness, managed to perturb the needed resonance without which THY VEILS can seem a tediously unvaried, almost boring band.  I am certain that this “weird”, “rhythm less” “maybe some other time” dark ambient show was mostly appreciated by connoisseurs of the genre.

 The key moment of the performance was when two of the DORDEDUH members joined THY VEILS on stage to perform alongside, on two of our traditional instruments (the cymbal and the alphorn).

 After a 20 minute break, the ex-Negura Bunget band members accompanied by their guests went on stage. The curiosity of the now 350 persons present was outstretched to the maximum, as all wanted to now what kind of music DORDEDUH was playing now, weather they had any connection with the past whatsoever, if they were capable of creating something different, if, if, if….

 Their show was towering, full of charm and atmosphere, but at the same time aggressive and heavy (here and there). It’s quite obvious that DORDEDUH must be regarded as a new band that doesn’t have anything to do with NEGURA BUNGET anymore. Even if Hupogrammos keeps saying that his recent work is only the continuation of what he did with NEGURA BUNGET, I think there’s a semantics problem involved here, which should not be linked at any cost with the band names. The new tracks he started working on with his other new Nonmetal project, I dare say, will also be a continuation…

Even if they admirably played the well known Negura Bunget tracks, the genuine elements were visible within the acoustic versions of songs like “Măiestrit”, which were really amazing – one can say, even breathtaking. The public had a great reaction even to the songs played featuring NEGURA BUNGET on “Hora Soarelui” and “Cunoaştere Tacuta”.

For a debut band the concert was flawless and one of the kind. On the other hand I take their moving towards the experimental side to be a bold one, as in Romania there is not so much appreciation for avant-garde music, most classic metal heads regarding it as boring. But this innovative and fresh new direction got to me, right after I have listened to “Măestrit”. The event hosted in The Silver Church on the date of 24th of January got many positive reviews, a fact that allowed us to look less pessimistically towards the future. I hope to see most of you at ELITE DARK METAL EVENING as well!

P.S.

I’d like to say a few words about NEGURA BUNGET here as well because Friday I have been invited to audition their latest album and to see them live. Well, after doing that, I can state that we’re talking about a new line of approach with them too, a line that has broken from the past, implementing lots of atmospheric, acoustic and traditional passages and leaving Metal somewhere in the background. An interesting track was left dwelling on my mind after the performance,“Dacia Hiperboreana”, a song who kept reminding me of old IN THE WOODS (atmosphere-wise).

I’m allowing myself to make a few assessments about the concept and musical orientation of this two bands, of whom, even if one doesn’t want to talk about, they still manage to come up to mind. That’s why it’s best to put the cards on the table and look to the future, for every one’s sake. The new NEGURA BUNGET has been characterized in terms of being Spiritual or Pagan and I think this is the way to go for them from now on. It seemed to me (I have only listened to the album once) that the musical drivers are the drums and the keyboards. The traditional musical instruments which bring this folk flavor to the entire mixture were inserted, I think, to spice up the music. DORDEDUH, on the other hand, reveals itself in a more Transcendental and Experimental manner. Their approach, founded on expressivity and furious guitar work, transforms the whole concept of classic Black Metal into a sound who will probably enclose a lot of Post Rock (think of still prolonged guitar passages, perfect trance-like accords), and finally will take the sound further, into a new realm, a psychedelic and hard to digest one for followers of rhythm and atmosphere.

It is, if you prefer, a re-orientation of the two half who made up Negura Bunget in the past, one towards melody and folkloric influences (in the vein of Pagan/Viking culture who has now submersed the entire Europe, but in a more refined and traditional manner), the other towards an oppressive and hermit-like Black Metal, much more complex, incorporating lots of elements and different styles together, so unlike what the usual Metal consumer is used to. The listener will have his say in this battle – whether he will choose to discover something new about the old Black Metal genre or not. 

26th of January 2010.