metal

The HU

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Mongolian group welding throat singing and horsehead fiddle to heavy riffs, a sound they call hunnu rock — steppe tradition at stadium volume.

Before forming as a band, the four core members studied throat singing and traditional Mongolian music together at the Mongolian State Music and Dance Conservatory in Ulaanbaatar. Producer Dashka recruited them from the school in 2016 and took on production and songwriting duties. They named themselves The Hu, Mongolian for "human beings," meant as an inclusive term rather than a nationalist one.

The sound combines throat singing with the morin khuur, the tovshuur lute and the jaw harp, set against distorted guitars and heavy drums, in a style the band calls hunnu rock, after the ancient Hunnu empire. Lyrics draw on Mongolian history, warrior imagery and folk poetry, sung in Mongolian.

Videos for early singles "Yuve Yuve Yu" and "Wolf Totem" spread widely online in 2018, bringing the band an audience well outside the usual metal circuit. In April 2019 "Wolf Totem" reached number one on Billboard's Hard Rock Digital Song Sales chart, making The Hu the first Mongolian act to top any Billboard chart, while "Yuve Yuve Yu" reached number seven on the same list.

That year the band toured Europe, playing 23 concerts across twelve countries, and met Mongolian president Khaltmaagiin Battulga, who praised their role in promoting the country abroad. They were later awarded the Order of Genghis Khan, Mongolia's highest state honor, for the same reason.

Their debut album, The Gereg, released in September 2019, takes its name from the diplomatic passports issued under Genghis Khan. It was followed by Rumble of Thunder in 2022 and Hun in 2026, extending the hunnu rock sound across a full recorded catalogue.

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