MONGOL — Chosen by Tengri (review)

MONGOL — Chosen by Tengri album cover Album · 2014 · Folk Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
UMUR
"Chosen by Tengri" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Canadian, Devon, Alberta based folk/melodic death metal act Mongol. The album was independently released in July 2014 through the band´s Bandcamp profile and is available both as a digital download and on CD. Mongol was formed in 2009 and released their debut full-length studio album "The Altan Urug" in 2012. They were a four-piece on the debut album, but on "Chosen by Tengri" the lineup has been expanded to a six-piece.

Stylistically the music on "Chosen by Tengri" is extreme folk metal with elements from both black and death metal. As the band name may suggest, Mongol have opted to pursue their interest in the Mongolian Empire, both in their lyrics, in the cover artwork, and in the band image. While the basis in the music is often an old school sounding death/black metal hybrid, featuring both death metal growling and black metal style higher pitched snarls, folky elements are omnipresent, which provides the album with it´s folk metal tag. I´m not exactly sure the folk melodies, or the use of instruments like banjo, mandolin, and accordion, are ethnic Mongolian in nature, but they do provide the atmosphere of the album with a certain fantasy/old ages feel, that suits the concept pretty well.

The music can be both raw and more epic in nature. The latter helped along by keyboards and clean male vocals (and sparse female) and choirs. It´s all pretty well performed, and it´s obvious the band have some good compositional ideas, but overall "Chosen by Tengri" isn´t the most interesting release (the material simply don´t stick). That feeling is further enhanced by the sound production, which doesn´t exactly provide the music with much power. It´s decent, but not much more than that. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.
Share this review

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Traumatica Metalcore
NO GUERRA
Buy this album from MMA partners
Within the Visceria Death Metal
NECKBREAKKER
Buy this album from MMA partners
EP 1 Sludge Metal
CHAOTIC AGGRESSION
Buy this album from MMA partners
Songs of Blood and Mire Black Metal
SPECTRAL WOUND
Buy this album from MMA partners
Everything Hurts And I'm Dying Atmospheric Sludge Metal
NEGATIVE BLISS
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us