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Heavy Metal Thunder Hunnu Rock

Genres Heavy Metal Folk Metal Hunnu Rock

Hunnu Rock

Mongolian throat singing and horsehead fiddle over a metal rhythm section. Very new, very small, and unexpectedly enormous online.

Active years
2016 – present
Origin
Mongolia
Family
Folk / Viking / Pagan
Bands here
9

Start here

Three records in order of how easy they are to get into — which is not the same as best first.

  1. The Gereg The Hu, 2019 The landmark

    The record that took Mongolian folk metal worldwide on the back of two videos. Morin khuur, tovshuur and throat singing over rock arrangements, and it works because the folk instruments carry the riffs rather than decorate them.

    Listen to The Gereg

  2. Wisdom Eyes Nine Treasures, 2017

    Heavier and less polished than The Hu, and closer to a metal band that happens to use a morin khuur. The band later re-recorded much of their catalogue because they disliked the original production.

    Listen to Wisdom Eyes

  3. Rumble of Thunder The Hu, 2022

    The follow-up, with the songwriting caught up to the concept. If the first record sounded like a very good idea, this one sounds like a band.

    Listen to Rumble of Thunder

What it sounds like

Throat singing over a metal rhythm section, and the throat singing wins. Mongolian khoomei produces two pitches at once from one voice, and set against the morin khuur — a two-string horsehead fiddle — and the tovshuur lute, it gives the genre a texture nothing else in metal has. The riffs themselves are simple and mid-paced; the interest is entirely in the timbre. Compared with folk metal, where the folk instruments decorate a metal song, here the metal accompanies the folk performance. Very new and very small — barely a decade old, fewer than a dozen bands — though The Hu have taken it further than the scene that produced it.

  • Heaviness 3 out of 5
  • Speed 2 out of 5
  • Aggression 3 out of 5
  • Technicality 3 out of 5
  • Darkness 2 out of 5
  • Melody 4 out of 5

Where the name came from

Named by The Hu for the Hunnu — the Xiongnu empire of the Mongolian steppe, from whom Mongolians claim descent. The band coined the term for their own sound in 2016; Yuve Yuve Yu and Wolf Totem took it worldwide in 2018.

The bands

Hear these first

  • The Hu Mongolia
  • Nine Treasures Mongolia
  • Tengger Cavalry Mongolia
  • Altan Urag Mongolia

And 5 more

  • Ego Fall Mongolia
  • Haranga Mongolia
  • Uuhai Mongolia
  • Hanggai China
  • Domog Mongolia

Where it happened

Counting this genre and everything descended from it.

  • Mongolia Mongolian Folk Metal & Hunnu Rock 5 bands

If you liked this

Closest in sound outside this family, leaning towards the similar or the gentler rather than straight into the deep end.