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.