Cian Bi

Shortly after the release of this album, Tengger Cavalry announced their disbandment. The Mongolian folk metal leaders’ prolific tendencies make such an occurrence inevitable, but their endless lineup changes, struggles with sleazy industry practices, and even a couple of health scares do make their decision understandable. Unfortunately, Cian Bi sees a group that once charged into battle now sputter to a stop and fade with a whimper.

Despite the overcast of finality on Cian Bi, it isn’t a drastic departure from Tengger Cavalry’s other recent ventures by any means. A crunchy guitar tone provides backbone, the melodies are delivered by the folk instruments, and the vocals are almost exclusively in the signature throat singing style. The appropriately titled “Electric Shaman” dabbles in electronic sounds and there’s a more contemporary feel like their previous couple outings, but there’s not much that they’ve done before.

That said, something is amiss in the performances. The hollow, buzzing guitar tone that had started to creep in comes to a head here, resulting in a lifeless foundation. From there, the folk instrumentation starts to feel like mere window dressing due to the indistinct melodies they present while the vocals just come off as monotonous and tired. It’s hard to tell if the musicians are fatigued, phoning it in, or somewhere in between.

This fatigue also bleeds into the songwriting. Fifteen tracks on an album is questionable enough, but the compositions often feel sloppy. It’s as if there wasn’t much thought put into their creation beyond tempos and chord progressions, many of which end up sounding alike anyway. The songs generally running at a three-minute average fortunately makes for a breezy listen, but it’s a shame when the album’s most memorable moment is the awful lyric on “One-Track Mind.”

Cian Bi isn’t a disaster, but it’s clear that Tengger Cavalry still would’ve run out of batteries if Nature Ganganbaigal hadn’t decided to pull the plug. The band’s signature atmosphere is still present and there may be some listeners who can still appreciate the novelty, but you’ll get much more out of Blood Sacrifice Shaman or Ancient Call. Hopefully Nature can recharge, take some time to get in a better headspace, and come back stronger with a new project.

Highlights:
“Electric Shaman”
“Ride into Grave and Glory (War Horse II)”
“You and I, Under the Same Sky”

Originally published at http://indymetalvault.com

Less than a week after the release of Cian Bi, Tengger Cavalry called it quits after the band had grown tired of being manipulated by shady businessmen. It's the end of a downward spiral for a band that had started as a unique mixture of Sino-Mogolian folk music and melodic death metal influences in the first five years of its career and had become an odd one-man project with unstable line-ups that had ended up recording numerous vapid versions of its own classics and unnecessary cover songs that flooded the market. Cian Bi isn't the band's nadir which was the faceless kAAn two years ago but it shows a once passionate musician who has run out of passion, creativity and conviction. The record proves that it might have been the right decision for the band to call it quits before it would have ended up fully ruining its reputation of past glory.

On the positive side, the execution of the folk instruments such as morin khuur and tovshuur still sounds exotic and intriguing. The mysterious choirs add a cinematic note making the listener travel far away to Mongolian steppes. The throat singing is another cultural reference that gives the band its unique identity. Its more melodic use in a few tracks adds a haunting atmosphere and a few select catchy moments. In some tracks, the mixture of traditional folk elements and contemporary metal sounds works rather well as in the diversified and epic title track ''Cian Bi''.

On the negative side, the guitar riffs on the album sound one-dimensional and too simplistic if compared to the rich folk sounds. The rhythm section is only a blur and doesn't leave any deeper impression. The throat singing skills may sound intriguing at first contact but end often up sounding quite droning and repetitive. The lyrics are at times strange, being performed in English and with quite a few unnecessary swear words as in ''One-Track Mind'' which doesn't go along with the spiritual Sino-Mongolian identity the band established.

In the end, Cian Bi is basically Tengger Cavalry's career in a nutshell. It's quite a mixed bag. It's an odd side note in the history of metal. An intriguing concept and skillfully performed folk instruments with atmospheric depth meet at times odd lyrics, disposable metal riffs and bored vocals. Certain parts of the album are as contradictory as the band's strange career with its abrupt end. Tengger Cavalry might one day be remembered as that almost bipolar band lost between Mongolian steppes and American metropolitan recording studios, between honoring its own identity and getting tricked by greedy businessmen, between being a band and becoming a headless one-man project. Tengger Calvary will be remembered as the band that broke apart when it was almost about to make it and become the next big thing in the metal scene. One can only hope that band leader Nature Ganganbaigal will take a step back to take two steps forward. Maybe he should go back to his home country to find new musical inspiration related to his cultural influences, reliable band mates and a smaller label like Mort Productions that will truly support him. This might be the end of Tengger Cavalry but it shouldn't be the end of Nature Ganganbaigal as an artist. Let's wish him all the best.