Valkyrian Music

Mongol
The Altan Urug
Due for release/Released: August 2012
Folk Metal/ Melodic Death Metal
Released via Label: Self-Released

‘The Altan Urug’ is the debut album from the Canadian folk metallers Mongol. It is a concept album focusing on the Mongolian empire.

As if the idea of a Canadian band making an album about ancient Mongolia wasn’t odd enough, they decide to have ‘Das Ziel’ as the intro. Ancient folk dance melodies and German voice-over, anyone? Yes, I’m sure this will all make sense eventually…The weirdness doesn’t stop there either. With ‘Kriegesmarsch’ we get some actual metal; melodic death metal to be precise, with a touch of folk music which in this case equals a banjo, mandolin and an accordion accompanying the guitars.

‘Pipe Dragon’ features less of the folk elements which makes the track sound more like melodic death metal thanks to the growly vocals and powerful drumming. Comparisons to Equilibrium spring to mind though this is slower and lacks the power metal influences. There’s some symphonic elements on here too such as the keyboard parts on ‘A Light From The East’. ‘Valkyrie Cry’ sounds like a homage to the Swedish vikings Amon Amarth with some additional banjos mixed in securing Mongol’s position as one the most unique sounding melodic death metal bands ever.

Next we’re in for full-blown folk metal assault with the first Mongolia themed track ‘Eekum Bokum’ which features more banjos, mandolin and catchy vocals resembling something you might hear sung by drunken warriors at a feast. I’m guessing that’s where they got the idea for the cover art from. Then there’s tracks like ‘Changeling’ which is more or less pure melodic death metal.

3.5/5 – Great for those who like their melo-death metal with a touch of banjo/mandolin.

Iza Raittila

This entry was posted on 22nd August 2012 at 11:22 am and is filed under Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.