Opening the second day of our Brutal Assault visit was none other than an acquaintance we had just met earlier this year; the folky nature metal group Negurǎ Bunget from Romania.

As the last time we saw them, Negurǎ Bunget played in full daylight, starting their show as early as half past one in the afternoon. The lacking darkness could probably have helped a little in the setting, but other than that I felt the band fit in at this venue quite perfectly.
They started their show with a booming horn play, after which the music began to spill out of the speakers. Sadly, it wasn’t very well mixed, as the drums were far too loud (at least were I was standing) and drowned out most of the other stuff. This resulted in the slower, traditional parts coming of very well and creating a nice atmosphere, whereas the metal parts became somewhat muddy and inane.

Even though it was still early in the day, festival counting, Negurǎ Bunget had managed to pull an ok crowd out of the wood-works, and they were now standing silently and calmly watching the band perform. A few nods here and there and a little bit of headbanging was all the life they could muster it would seem.
Then again, there was not much more life to be found in the band. This is of course ok for a band who put so much weight in the ambient parts of the music, here a wild hardcore jumping around would be completely out of place; but with the lack of movement and the very limited speaking from singer/guitarist Corb there was little or no contact created between band and audience, and I was also unable to discern how the bands own feelings about playing here were.

This was a nice and calm way to start the day, but the show did not leave a lasting impression on me.