Tengwar - Flight of the Dragon

[genocide roach]

Tengwar - Flight of the Dragon
Self Release - September 30, 2006
By Ryan Starr



HOLY HARMONICS BATMAN! Boy do these guys love their pinch harmonics. Maybe a little too much…

Here we have Tengwar’s debut full length Flight of the Dragon. A blast from the past, bringing back those classic Iron Maiden riffs with a bit of modern flair. Well, if you can call Dimebag worship modern any more. What we have here is a lot of Iron Maiden with some wannabe Dimebag riffing. And they almost pull it off! The riffs are well conceived and musically everything fits. But there is one problem, and its one that can only be fixed by time, it’s sloppy. I get the feeling they rushed into the studio as soon as they had the songs and barely enough cash. While it’s obvious they have some great music, they need to spend more time practicing to get super tight. Some of the solos, especially at the beginning of ‘We Are Tengwar’, are sloppy and out of sync. And that can be easily fixed by more practice, or even another take in the studio. The vocals also need a bit of work. Control seems to be Jack Bauer’s (I’m not making that name up) main problem. He has the voice and range similar to Kai Hansen, he even has Hansen’s penchant for cheese (see the song ‘Hammer of the Gods’), but has a hard time staying in pitch. That’s another thing that will only come with practice.

Another problem I see is that they are trying too hard in some places. This is most evident in their over use of harmonics. Like breakdowns, harmonics are fun and make for a great accent in a riff, but too much can be a bad thing. In the song ‘Lesser of Two Evils’ one of the riffs is all harmonics. And there are harmonics in all the other riffs as well. A little too much for this reviewer's ears.

Overall these guys have a good thing going, and once they get some more experience under their belt, they’ll be able to put out some great records.

Oh… and one last thing. In their bio sheet they say that their band name comes from a Tolkien language. This is FALSE. Tengwar is the name for a written alphabet used in Middle Earth. The two major languages that are written in Tengwar are Sindarin and Quenya, which are the two languages of the elves. You can’t speak Tengwar, just like you can’t speak Cyrillic.

Sorry… I couldn’t help myself. I’m a giant nerd.


Official Tengwar Website