Former NEGURA BUNGET Members Slam Drummer For Launching 'Fake' New Version Of Band

Hupogrammos (guitars, vocals, bass, keyboards, archaic instruments) and Sol Faur (guitar),who recently announced their departures from NEGURA BUNGET, the Romanian band that incorporates elements of black metal, progressive metal, folk metal and dark ambient, have released the following statement:

"Our aim is to shed light on the recent developments in relation to NEGURA BUNGET. We also want to prevent further abuse of the name NEGURA BUNGET and our past activities. Our decision should be well understood and fans and media have a right to be correctly informed of the current development. We owe this to the public and NEGURA BUNGET itself. There is no intention to turn this into a personal issue between us and our former drummer Negru. We do not wish to create a public scandal, but a line has been crossed and it is time now to stand up and fight for what we believe in.

"With the last 'official' NEGURA BUNGET statement, things went too far. The selfish and greedy acts of a single person are doing too much harm. We cannot accept how our issues were presented to the world. In truth our gesture to step aside from the band was generated by the selfish behavior of our drummer Negru and by his lack of ability to connect, to work in a team as well as by his lack of honesty.

"We initially intended to remain silent on the reasons of our split. We all agreed to end our joined work and to release a simple and unspectacular statement to the press in order to prevent our personal animosity to become part of the story. It was agreed by all that none of the members would use the name 'NEGURA BUNGET' ever again in the future since the band as an entity was comprised by all three of its members. Negru's act of making a public statement that is completely different from what has been agreed upon proves once more a total lack of respect for the other members of our and his own band. It proves his honor to be questionable as his acts are serving only his personal interest.

"Our own statement, which we had sent to Negru for approval and adjustment, looked like this:

"'After fifteen years of experience in the metal scene, NEGURA BUNGET decided to end its activity. Negru will continue with his own project called DIN BRAD, while Hupogrammos and Sol Faur will continue the direction of the band under a different name that will be announced at a later date. The band would like to thank everybody, who supported and believed in NEGURA BUNGET and invites you to follow our further musical activities.'

"Unfortunately, we did not have the chance to see his final statement before it was sent. We were unable to change or to prevent it from becoming public in that form. Being in charge of all the logistic part of our work (i.e. all our contacts, our MySpace page, our official website, our newsletter and activities of Negura Music),Negru was entitled to send our statement to the media and to the public. However, he didn't consult us before posting a statement that did not care about our opinion, even though his statement makes believe this was a mutual decision.

"We think that it would have been much more natural, peaceful and wise decision, if he would have simply continued his musical activities under a new name or under the name 'DIN BRAD.' In this regard, we would like to express our deepest regret and disappointment that two of our guest musicians, whom we collaborated with during the last years, accepted to join his sham. Nevertheless, we consider it to be very inappropriate for them to continue performing songs that were composed by those members leaving the band.

"It is truly sad to see that the band is now becoming a personal business for our former drummer. He never was and he will never be NEGURA BUNGET by himself. If this is the spiritual endeavor which he is talking about, then this is a serious insult to the very name of NEGURA BUNGET and an unforgivable contradiction to the cultural and spiritual concepts that NEGURA BUNGET was standing for during all these years. It means an injury to us, the past members that dedicated 15 years of their lives to support and sustain an elevated path. It means an injury to anybody, who believed in what we were doing and maybe most of all it is a wounding of Spirit and Transcendence, the path that NEGURA BUNGET was honored to dedicate its very existence to.

"We, Sol Faur and Hupogrammos, who have composed nearly all music and written the lyrics of and for NEGURA BUNGET herewith, declare that this band is dead. Any continuation of it just means a sham and a fake in our eyes."

Negru's "new" version of NEGURA BUNGET consists of the following musicians:

Corb - Guitar/Vocals
Spin - Guitar
Gadinet - Bass
Inia Dinia - Keyboards
Ageru Pamanatului - Vocals/Pipes/Percussions/Xylophone
Negru - Drums/Percussions

Video footage of NEGURA BUNGET performing a new song at the Inferno festival in Oslo, Norway on April 9, 2009 can be viewed below (courtesy of "WolfFenrir").