Chuck Schuldiner Project

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Tengger Cavalry - Blood Sacrifice Shaman


A lone figure cuts a stark contrast with the horizon. He sits playing a horsehead fiddle. Suddenly seemingly out of the ground comes another musician, this one practicing tuvan throat singing. The sky turns black, a deranged metal band descends from the heavens bringing the stormy power of death metal into the mix, and somehow it works. Tengger Cavalry represent the perfect sacred combination of traditional Mongolian music with death metal, and their upcoming release, a re-recorded and reinvigorated version of 2010's classic Blood Sacrifice Shaman.

With an expanded tracklist and much better production we see the band at their peak, crafting exciting songs that fuse two seemingly disparate styles of music. There is a sense of otherworldly power in the shamanic wanderings recorded on these tracks. We hear the band also pushing an avant garde edge at times, something also found in the bands lead songwriter, Nature Ganganbaigal's other work. Their is something distinctly atavistic here too. It creates an interesting duality with the forward thinking nature of the death metal roots of the music. Tengger Cavalry are perhaps the single most fascinating band in heavy music, and Blood Sacrifice Shaman stands as proud proof of that. 

As the album winds down with two 2009 recordings of Tengger Cavalry tracks it's possible to see how far the band has come. Blood Sacrifice Shaman is a truly exciting and inspiring record standing as a proud reminder that there is still much to be done in death metal. A band who break all the rules, none are as inspirational or soul-shatteringly confident as Tengger Cavalry. With a sound that seems truly out of this world, largely because we are so underexposed to Mongolian music Tengger Cavalry fuse the majesty of the steppe with the shitty metal bar, and it is glorious.

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