Tengger Cavalry was a heavy metal band originated from Inner Mongolia and Beijing and formerly based in

New York state New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...

and

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. They combine elements of the traditional music of

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

and music of Mongolia with heavy metal into a kind of

folk metal Folk metal is a fusion genre of heavy metal music and traditional folk music that developed in Europe during the 1990s. It is characterised by the widespread use of folk instruments and, to a lesser extent, traditional singing styles (for exampl ...

that

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

and

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

refer to as nomadic folk metal. The band also recorded game soundtracks for '' Civilization 6'' and ''

Doom Eternal ''Doom Eternal'' is a first-person shooter game developed by id Software and published by Bethesda Softworks. The sequel to ''Doom'' (2016), and the sixth main game in the ''Doom'' series, it was released on March 20, 2020, for Windows, PlaySt ...

''.

History

Tengger Cavalry was founded in March 2010 as one-man project by

Nature Ganganbaigal Nature Ganganbaigal ( – June 13, 2019) was a Chinese music performer, songwriter, producer and film music composer based in New York City. Originally from Beijing, he was of mixed Han Chinese and Mongol ancestry, and performed Mongolian Morin Kh ...

. The band is named after the ancient Mongolian and Turkic deity

Tengri Tengri ( zh, 騰格里; otk, 𐰚𐰇𐰚:𐱅𐰭𐰼𐰃, Kök Teŋri/Teŋiri, lit=Blue Heaven; Old Uyghur: ''tängri''; Middle Turkic: تآنغرِ; ky, теңир; tr, Tanrı; az, Tanrı; bg, Тангра; Proto-Turkic *''teŋri / * ...

. The first international review of their debut demo album ''Blood Sacrifice Shaman'' by German heavy metal magazine ''Legacy'' in 2011 was cautiously optimistic about the band's potential. Later

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

did an interview with the band. In 2012, a feature by UK magazine '' Terrorizer'' gave the band a wider international audience. Meanwhile, another UK magazine ''

Metal Hammer ''Metal Hammer'' is a heavy metal music magazine and website founded in 1983, published in the United Kingdom by Future, with other language editions available in numerous other countries. ''Metal Hammer'' features news, reviews and long-form ...

'' commented on their music. In 2014, Tengger Cavalry released their third album. ''Metal Hammer'' was again drawn to the new album. In October 2015,

did a video interview with the band. On December 24, the group's debut concert at

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...

was featured in ''

Noisey ''Vice'' (stylized in all caps) is a Canadian-American magazine focused on lifestyle, arts, culture, and news/politics. Founded in 1994 in Montreal as an alternative punk magazine, the founders later launched the youth media company Vice Media, ...

'', ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...

'', ''

Loudwire ''Loudwire'' is an American online media magazine that covers news of hard rock and heavy metal artists. It is owned by media and entertainment business Townsquare Media. Since its launch in August of 2011, ''Loudwire'' has secured exclusive ...

'' and ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. On February 27, 2018, it was announced the band had broken up. Less than five months following the breakup, Nature G announced the band was back together. On June 24, 2019, Tengger Cavalry announced frontman Nature Ganganbaigal died of undisclosed causes.

Band members

Final lineup

* Patrick Reilly -

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

(2018–2019) * Randy Tesser -

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

(2018–2019) * Greg Baker -

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

(2018–2019) * Tamir Hargana - horsehead fiddle,

Tuvan throat singing Tuvan throat singing, the main technique of which is known as ''khoomei'' ( tyv, хөөмей, xöömej, mn, хөөмий; ᠬᠦᠭᠡᠮᠡᠢ, khöömii, russian: хоомей, Chinese: 呼麦, pinyin: ''hūmài''), includes a type of overto ...

(2018-2019)

Former

* Nature G - rhythm guitar, throat singing, morin khuur; all instruments (2010–2019; died 2019) * Yuri Liak - drums (2015) * Alex Abayev - bass (2015–2018) * Josh Schifris - drums (2016–2017) * Zaki Ali - drums (2017–2018) * Robert McLaughlin - igil,

shanz Instruments of western origin, such as piano and trumpet, are excluded. History After the 6th century BC it is known that people of Mongolian ethnicity played stringed instruments. The most ancient instrument is probably the tsuur, which is shown ...

, throat singing (2015) * Borjigin Chineeleg - throat singing, topshur, jawharp (2017–2018) * Uljmuren De - morin khuur (2016–2018) * Phillip Newton - topshur, backing vocals (2017–2018)

Awards

* "Mountain Side" - 2016 Global Music Awards - silver (music video category) * "Independence Day" - 2017 The Academia Music Awards, Best Heavy Metal Song

Discography

Studio albums

* ''Blood Sacrifice Shaman'' (2010) *''Cavalry Folk'' (2011) * ''Sunesu Cavalry'' (2012) * ''Blood Sacrifice Shaman'' (2015) * ''Cavalry in Thousands'' (2016) * ''Ancient Call'' (2016) * ''Die on My Ride'' (2017) * ''Cian Bi'' (2018) * ''Northern Memory'' (2019)

Remix

* ''Grassland Rock''(2016) * ''Soundtrack of the Cavalry''(2016)

EPs

* ''KAAN''(2016) * ''Mountain Side''(2016)

Singles

* "War Horse" (2018) * "A Blade of Time" *"Heart" (2016)

Videography

* "Independence Day" * "KAAN" * "War Horse" * "Mountain Side"

References

{{Authority control Mongolian heavy metal musical groups Chinese folk metal musical groups 2010 establishments in China 2019 disestablishments in China Central Asian music