Several days ago, we posted about Romanian metal band Negură Bunget‘s new album ZI, which is the second album in their “Transylvanian Trilogy”. Coming out September 30th via Prophecy Productions, the album is the follow-up to 2015’s Tau.

Direct from the official press release, the band has, “…further immersed itself in the traditions and practices of local Transylvanian inhabitants, exploring their connection with nature, and the way this relationship has shaped spiritual horizons. Within this framework, ‘ZI’ closely examines the core of the most important traditions and rituals connected with the well-being of this community. Life events such as funeral ceremonies, soil tillage, and human growth and evolution (i.e. youth to teen to man to warrior, through to outcast) are spotlighted, in what is undoubtedly some of the most heady, thinking-man’s metal produced in recent memory.”

To give you a taste of what’s to come, we’ve got the exclusive video premiere for the opening track “Tul-ni-ca-rind”, which slowly builds through beautiful folk into an aggressive attack of chaos and majesty.

You can pre-order the album via Prophecy.

Drummer Gabriel ‘Negru’ Mafa tells Bloody-Disgusting:

‘Tul-ni-ca-rind’ is a song about sending a message; a message between places, between worlds, between different states of conscience. It all starts from a traditional Romanian instrument called tulnic (horn), which is still being used in the traditional communities as a signaling tool, but also quite a lot as part of funeral ceremonies.

Based on this tradition, and on the overall local funeral ceremonies, where there’s a complex connection between the world of the living and the one of the dead, with actions reflecting between worlds, we developed the song as a kind of language between the natural and spiritual dimension, between ceremonies, rituals and silence.

Most of our songs can hardly be explained, and this one makes no exception. Although it starts from some concrete elements, ‘Tul-ni-ca-rind’ moves a lot further into unknown and mystery, where death is not the end, but merely a transition into another dimension.

Track listing:
1.) Tul-ni-ca-rind
2.) Gradina Stelelor
3.) Brazda Da Foc
4.) Baciu Mosneag
5.) Stanciu Gruiul
6.) Marea Cea Mare

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