Let’s start with a bold statement: If you claim to like folk metal and do not at least check this album out, your argument is, as the internet says, invalid.
Ok let’s back that up.
I’ve been a passionate supporter of Chinese Mongolian folk/pagan metal horde Tengger Cavalry since the days of MTUK when Thee Ed pointed me towards their demo back in 2010. Something about their sound and the commitment that bound everything together struck a real chord, Viking entrenched as my soul may be. You see black metal arguably had many of its finest moments germinating in isolated pockets before the Internet made us all watch endless kitten videos and the very real isolation of Tengger Cavalry, and everything about their music beginning and ending in Mongolian culture, marked them out as something honest and special and screaming to be heard.
Ancient Call is, depending on how you count, their third or fourth or fifth album. It gets tricky after their more black metal attack debut Blood Sacrifice Shaman: Their second hard to get Cavalry Folk also had a two disc version with a semi-acoustic album included, and their third and fourth albums Black Steed and The Expedition were domestic and international versions respectively of the same album but with different tracks and a high percentage of re-recordings of earlier songs. Confused? I was. But you have to understand two things: Firstly the effort retired to get any of those album’s available internationally was hugely steep so there was a bit of ‘catch up/compilation going on and second: Ancient Call is all new, and available worldwide and written as an album …
Boy, it’s worked wonders.
Tengger Cavalry gig a good amount at home (just check Youtube for extensive live footage) and have even supported Turisas there and I reckon that being a living breathing band (as opposed to main man Nature doing everything) has helped this album so much. What we have here is a varied but beautifully cohesive album, a single work in ten songs by a band fully rising to the challenge and with one vision of what they are about. They have addressed album pacing, upped the complexity of arrangements but also worked on their songwriting hooks and impact. The production is sparkling and the performance practically flawless. Basically they have ridden their wild ponies up to the border of the first division, armed to the teeth, and are totally, fully capable of taking on all before them.
Short opener ‘Dance With The Wolf’ is a beautifully strummed acoustic song showcasing the Mongolian melodies, that complex interplay between the traditional instruments and the extraordinarily effective throat singing. This latter item, sounding deep, resonating like keyboards, is no gimmick: It is intrinsic, skilful and hugely sombre and atmospheric. Then the stunning ‘Galloping Towards The Great Land’ drops in. Great, beautifully toned pagan metal riffing bouncing in, perfectly synched with traditional flute and horsehead fiddle. Exuberance doesn’t begin to describe the energy here; this is full tilt, cavalry by the thousand sweeping over vast grasslands beneath huge skies. Fierce, indomitable and proud nomadic warriors rush through your mind and even as they slow to a trot they just overwhelm you. You will not hear a better opening couplet this year. ‘Battle Song From Far Away ‘ is more introspective, leaning heavily on that deep fiddle sound but carrying the melody through the backing vocals and the guitars. The black/snarled vocals here as throughout are distinctive; fierce without malevolence, fired by the soul of the song. ‘Hymn Of The Earth’ begins with acoustic guitar/mandolin played as string and percussion and breaks into a driving pagan metal song with a hint of more traditional heavy metal in the riff and lead and those vocals fill it with flame.
This album is suffused with such a huge sense of place it simply transports you. It is a meeting where the great people gather under the Welkin, where the heavens reach down to brush the steppes. It has a vast cinematic sound, a rush. On songs like the acoustic ‘Echo Of The Grasslands’ it shows a kind of simplicity despite the consummate musicality, a kind of far Eastern Cajun blues feel to it connecting far beyond cultural borders. That’s the thing here. Exotic as this glorious sound is to Western European ears it reaches out to all countries and I defy the most hardened Viking or Saxon not to grin through his beard at songs like the rousing ‘Brave’ and the hard, heavy almost black metal fist pounding ‘Summon The Warrior’ as their blood stirs in empathy. This is truly such a step on from the Black Steed album I keep having to pick up my jaw.
‘The Battlefront’ is a scene setter, epic film music that ‘Chant Of The Cavalry’ hits with full force and rising power, pulling the rhythm and the melody like the wind through your hair. Wistful tunes thread through, times pass. The modern world stands at the end of ‘Legend On Horseback’ but you will be back. The gentle music, the warming fire in its huge heartfelt but warrior proud goodbye makes that certain.
Fierce genuine metal from truly fiery and immensely proud folk; Tengger Cavalry have not only outdone themselves here but this Mongolian sun is going to cast challenging shadows over all of folk metal for 2014. Make no mistake, compared to anyone you can name in the folk metal field: This Is Huge.
The challenge has been laid. 2014 is the Year of the Horse; the Horsemen are coming.
(9.5/10 Gizmo)
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