Tengger Cavalry: Beautiful Pagan Folk Metal from China

I was kinda casually checking out this week’s Chinese rock charts when a new intriguing name popped up: 长生天铁骑 roughly translated as Longevity Cavalry.. Never heard the name before so low and behold when i find their douban and myspace: it’s a freaking Pagan Folk Metal one-man band from China. I’ve been listening to their douban stuff for the last 30mn and I’m loving the beautiful melodies mixed with heavy guitars.

The band’s official westernized name is Tengger Cavalry and is for all practical purposes made up of one man, 张天然 Zhang Tian Ran (甘根白格勒gān gēn bái gé lè) who supposedly was an apprentice of our friend Kou from ChunQiu and Suffocated and plays all the instruments on the records. So far, he’s had 3 releases that are all completely different so go check it out.
It’s a cross between early Voodoo Kungfu and heavy Hanggai, something I really enjoy! The samples from the full length release, Blood Sacrifice Shaman, are my favorites so far, mostly due to the central Asian/Mongolian flavor. The Metal part is not outstanding but it’s very serviceable.
Here is a video sampler of the sounds

Tengger Cavalry also has a taobao store with CDs, T-shirts, Keychains etc…. I wish that t-shirt was in black because I’d be all over it.

Tengger Cavalry
douban: http://site.douban.com/tenggercavalry/
taobao: http://tengger.taobao.com/