In Romania, around the seminal Negură Bunget, a scene of musicians flourished in the new century, capable of perpetrating their artistic and conceptual legacy in an autonomous way. And unfortunately, talking about legacy is not at all out of place, remembering the recent and untimely death of Gabriel Mafa (Negru), founder and leader of the band in this decade. Just under his management within Negură Bunget, as we said, many musicians have alternated and we can find them in different projects of great depth. This is the case of these Argus Megere that, as the progenitors, come from Timisoara to propose a black metal that bears with strength the imprint of their land, starting from the use of lyrics in mother tongue and passing through a sound that transcends the stylistic features of the genre to rise to an austere solemnity, bringing us back to the deeds of Negru’s band (but even before that also of Hupogrammos and Sol Faur who, just to close the circle, took care of the recording of keyboards and drums parts), compared to which the differences are still marked, as VEII lacks the folk component that is predominant in works like Tău and Zi. It should be noted that these references are not to indicate a derivative work, but are useful to better understand the work of Argus Megere, especially since the genesis of the band dates back to an unsuspected time as the mid-nineties, when Fulmineos (who we also find in the excellent Ordinul Negru) and Agerul Pamantului under the moniker Argus were dedicated to a traditional black with a lot of face painting, before changing their name in 2005 and start to develop the genre according to a musical and compositional sensitivity that treasured their roots. All this culminated, after a long pause, in this new album, to record which the two founders made use of the contribution of keyboardist Inia Dinia, also with a past in Negură Bunget, as well as in the parallel project Din Brad. VEII, made the necessary premises, is in essence a splendid album and that, in the end, can be traced back to black metal more for the need of cataloging than for actual adherence to the genre: if you eliminate the minority accelerations and the use of scream, what would remain would be about forty minutes of music from cosmic breath, austere, epic, dramatic and rare intensity. The four long tracks are imbued with that aura that has made and continues to make peculiar the music played by bands whose origin transilvanica cloaks an ancestral charm, reproducible only by those who this culture is pervaded since birth. The final Tabla is perhaps the most representative track of Argus Megere‘s skills, managing to convey in the same song, in addition to the black base, post metal and progressive drives, for a result that makes, as a whole, a disc as VEII something not to be missed for those who love music from this fragment of Europe beautiful and rich in history.

2017 – Loud Rage Music