The first fans of the Romanian Metal institution and their companions for this evening, ODEM ARCARUM and AMYSTERY, linger already at half past seven in front of the Titanic City in the wonderful quarter Schwabing, the heart of Munich. The last cigarettes are smoked in a relaxed atmosphere and full of anticipation before the doors open shortly after eight: “Drop by, ye dark souls!”
I am unfortunately not that good at estimating, that’s why I hope, that the dear Titanic City crew excuses me. But I guess that, in spite of the rivalry event with Slayer, Amon Amarth and co. in the Zenith approximately 120 fans found their way to the Titanic.

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Once inside, I nip down the merchandise stand and lo and behold, hoodies for 20€, I had to grab one immediately. Generally, I’d like to state clearly that the congenial Romanians offer extremely fair prices both for the poor student/pupil as well as for the working metal head, no matter if you take the ticket prices or the very merchandise. An A+ for that.

First act of this evening is the Munich-based band :: ODEM ARCARUM ::, the band around NEGURA BUNGET bassist Michael aka Arioch, who appears as singing guitar player here. And he’s really good in this role.
The band convinces from the first song on with its complex Black Metal, acts mainly in mid tempo and presents itself technically very matured. Arioch is responsible for the leadwork on his axe, which always is an impressive fact for me. For the double challenge instrument/vocals is anything but a bed of roses, which gets confirmed by NEGURA BUNGET singer Hupogrammos in a conversation after the gig (who – honest as he is – admits that he passes the vocal parts down to the percussionist Ageru when being busy with extremely difficult guitar riffs… More later!), who watches and bangs throughout the whole gig in the first row. After scarce 25 minutes the gig is over. A furious beginning – we should keep an eye on ODEM ARCARUM by all means!

:: AMYSTERY :: as second act is geared very intensely to the beginnings of the second Black Metal wave from Norway. The Bavarians particularly seem to be taken with the primitive element of Darkthrone and the keen sense of melody and harmony of Endstille. There is no need to whinge about the performance of AMYSTERY even though the frontman Nephesus (a class A eccentric) seems pissed about the passiveness of the crowd and doesn’t endear himself that much with moronic actions (once stubbing out a cigarette on his tongue, once on his breast… which was regarded rather amusing than frightening by the crowd) and sentences (“Come on, you wankers!”) to people who haven’t known the band before. Odem Arcanum have proved and especially Negura Bunget will prove how confident one can present oneself without image amorousness. Compared to the opening act AMYSTERY grapple with sound problems on the guitar. The distortion seems to have a defective contact; and that’s why it comes to unintentional variations in dynamics in the guitar wall here and there. Apart from that I can’t find fault with the performance and so far, Negura Bunget prove once again that they set value on variety in the stylistically part and mainly on quality when choosing their support bands.

But now it’s time for Romania’s export hit number one. No trace of airs and graces and whatnot. :: NEGURA BUNGET :: take care of preparing all the live equipment themselves, whereas other bands who have a similar popularity prefer to stay backstage as long as the gig starts. Guitarist Sol could give me a crash course in Romanian linguistics right after entering the venue and afterwards I could worm out of the shy live keyboard player Inia that she considers herself not as a permanent band member but more like a session musician. Negru [author’s note: NEGURA BUNGET drummer] sees this in a different light. While having a short and enjoyable conversation after the gig, he tells me he’s enthusiastic about the current line up of his main band and assumes that NEGURA BUNGET could cooperate in this constellation in the long term, even though the song writing process passes off in the infamous infernal trio (Hupogrammos, Negru and Sol). Alongside, Negru confirms that the band has just one song written for the forthcoming album so far. The song writing tempo shall be accelerated considerably in the next few months in order that the Romanians can entrench themselves in the band’s own studio as early as possible, to feed the hungry fans with new delicacies. So much for the news…
Dajana hasn’t piled it on when she mentioned that the NEGURA BUNGET performance in Essen a couple of days before would rank among the top3 gigs of 2008 for her. This also applies for me with some minor flaws here and today.
The sextet goes about highly concentrated, but extremely relaxed and presents the grateful crowd in Munich about one and a half hours of material to dream, to meditate and to dislocate the one or the other cervical vertebra. The main focus is on the one hand on the groundbreaking milestone and THE reference work in intelligent Black Metal of the 21st century Om and on the other hand on the 2002 album ‘N Crugu Bradului which is performed almost completely tonight. It was clear from the beginning that the crowd, which mainly knows NEGURA BUNGET only since their last album, would react the most intensely on that one. But it still was a wise move to present older (but not less interesting) material to the attendants.

Each instrument and Hupogrammos’ vocals appear flawless in a crystal clear sound (thanks to the soundman that also did a great job at the Summer Breeze 2008 in spite of a delay and thus a shortened five minute sound check). The frontman shares (as already mentioned) the vocal parts with the likewise extremely talented percussionist Ageru. Well, that’s understandable. For considering such complex music and technically highly demanding riffs one should make use of all the available resources to achieve maximum efficiency…
Easygoing and experienced, but never overconfident nor arrogant, Hupogrammos communicates with the crowd and focuses on the most necessary stuff. He considers himself not as a great orator but provides the laugher of the evening, when Arioch’s bass starts to bug. The singer uses the resulting break for a cool “Well, I’m not that good at speeches… So, I suggest… silence!”. As the bass problem is finally solved, Hupogrammos adds a cool “silence always helps”.
The only downer (besides the technical problems with the bass) was a drunken visitor who faltered back and forth in front of Hupogrammos and permanently touches both the singer and his guitar, which results in putting the axe out of tune. The begun song was professionally finished. After the last tune of the song the singer moves the mike stand aside and gives the obviously surprised drunkard a bollocking. Just as well!
And in spite of that, NEGURA BUNGET seems taken with the Munich crowd. For after a thunderous applause the friendly Romanians enter the stage once again to send the black souls into the icy cold night with Vazduh.
Setlist: IIII, Intro Bruiestru + Cunoasterea Tacuta, Inarborat, Norilor, Hora Soarelui, II+III, Cel Din Urma Vis, Tesarul De Lumini, Vazduh

Finally I’d like to go along with Dajana’s closing words. Countless, gaping boring bands release live DVDs (oftentimes more than one) and really revolutionary bands often miss the necessary financial support to finance such a project. Let’s see if the band will find a bigger label, which offers them the possibility to capture their memorable live performances on DVD, because the contract with code666 [author’s note: NEGURA BUNGET’s label] expires after the forthcoming album.
Hupogrammos & co., you are always welcome guests here and you definitely have assembled a lot of new friends thanks to your friendly and honest kind!

story © Haris • photos © Michel Winterer