It was a particular pleasure to have this review land in my lap as long suffering friends know how much I have raved about this bunch of Chinese Mongolian pagan metal Warlords since I first heard their demo when they were a one man project. And yes you did read that right, this is Far Eastern pagan metal complete with traditional instruments and the truly eerie and evocative throat singing (which for the uninitiated sounds a little like someone with a deep voice using a vocoder. (Except they don’t.)

This is a re-release of their second album (their first being the raw but excellent Blood Sacrifice Shaman) previously only available from China or via a couple of enterprising Ebay sellers. It has been given a bit of a production remix, spit and polish really, and with a new track in War Horse added it has finally got a well deserved European and US release.

‘Galloping Steeds’ is just about a perfect introduction to the band: With the frenetic sounds of the distinctive Horse Head violin this song does what it says. It is the sound of furiously galloping ponies carrying the warriors, a clattering and thundering charge headlong across the plains. Ethnic infused rattling pagan metal that in a couple off bars just plonks you on the horse in another world. It builds everything with sheer blazing inspiration and even taking into account Taiwanese heroes Chthonic there really is no one who sounds like this.

Tengger Cavalry are a wilder, harder proposition. Ok this isn’t bestial stuff but frankly it would trample most if not all folk metal into the tundra with the aggressive energy behind the hugely melodic songs. They have a hard and heavy pagan metal spine and riffs beautifully fused with their own lands musical roots without compromising either and at a ferocious pace, too. There is also a clean line of heavy metal to Tengger Cavalry, particularly in the solos (members do moonlight in the traditional heavy metal band Hell Saviour) which adds a little focus to the odd punch and helps highlight the pretty damned dazzling musical talent on display. Make no mistake, these guys are the real deal; talented and original and if you don’t mind heavy metal solos in there they are pretty thoroughly throat ripping. They even skirt the death metal world with some fine blasting on the title track and ‘Universe Shaman’. However they never, ever sound like a European band; this is the sound of musicians channeling their heritage through their chosen medium from the root source, not as a veneer over the top of it. It may be difficult for some of you to believe if you see the photos (short hair, t shirts and slacks, no corpse paint) but they aren’t just dropping in to our world to steal metal’s clothes like a hipster post rock band, they are here to add to it’s breadth without diluting the metal.

These songs are complex, intricate and sinuous beasts too. Not in a proggy muso noodling way, but in the musculature of these nomadic steeds. There are moments where they regroup before the attack like the short but truly atmospheric few moments of ‘Prophecy’ but then they  charge into ‘Leader Wolf’ with no warning, teeth bared, black metal snarl and the whirling tempestuous sounds of the riff and the violin and throat singing coming at you as one. It is an awesome sound, full of life and verve and with razor wires singing with energy.

It is also an album that has so many stand out moments it’s hard to pick one: Blade Of Blood, Golden Horde, the strange, quiet closing song ‘Under The Welkin’ (and before you ask, Tengger is the Father of the Welkin in Mongolian Shamanism, apparently). So honestly if you have a taste for serious and aggressive folk/pagan metal, great whirling storms of blood and colour or simply something different in your day you need this album yesterday. No fillers, no bad songs. All top notch.

Yes, critical faculties long gone out of the window but isn’t that what we look for in metal? Something that bypasses it all and grabs you by the heart, the soul and the throat and transports you?

(9.5/10 Gizmo)

http://www.myspace.com/tenggercavalry