Previously on… The Hu
The Mongolian heavy hitters have been busy. The Hu – the band single-handedly responsible for making the world realise that a horse head fiddle could absolutely destroy you emotionally and physically – have just dropped not one but two new tracks via Better Noise Music. “The Men” comes with a full music video, and “Warrior Chant” is exactly what it sounds like. Both are out now. Both are worth your time.
Listen to “The Men” | Watch the video | Listen to “Warrior Chant”
“The Men”
“The Men” opens with traditional Mongolian strings doing their thing – that slow, organic swell that sounds ancient in the best way possible – before it gives way to a groove-heavy riff that hits like it has something to prove. The vocals sit on top of it all hypnotically, and the whole thing lands in that specific The Hu zone where indigenous instrumentation and genuinely heavy guitars shouldn’t work together as well as they do, and yet here we are. It’s tailor-made for an epic montage sequence, a final boss fight, or just getting yourself pumped before something difficult. It’s also clearly rooted in something real.
Galaa put it plainly:
“The Men’ is written based on Mongolian philosophy of ‘Man’s Inner Spirit’ or ‘Хийморь’ and the importance of inner strength and kindness of a man to the world. Energy of men should always be reinforced with positiveness, strength and generosity, so this song try to encapsulate that ancient wisdom and share to the rest of humanity. Lyrics are chants that guides young and old men alike to be headstrong and to have dream that cultivate goodness. We only wanted to focus on the positives that can make a man ponder about who he is in this world and wonder about how he can have positive inner spirit when listening to it. Hope our fans will be able to capture every fiber of Mongolian Man’s way of living through this song.”
“Warrior Chant”
Then there’s “Warrior Chant,” and look – the title is not misleading. Hard-charging chorus, tight metallic soundscape, and Galaa and Enkush leaning into horse head fiddle solos that apparently imitate the actual gait of a horse throughout the rhythm. Whether you clock that or not the first time through, you’ll feel it. It’s the kind of track that longtime fans are going to recognise immediately as theirs – the band’s signature rhythm doing exactly what it does best. According to Galaa, it’s part of a third album that covers a lot of ground rhythmically, which they’re framing as an expansion of the Hunnu Rock genre they basically invented.
And if you’ve somehow missed the broader The Hu story – these are also the people behind “Sugaan Essena” in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and more recently they appeared on “Pray to the Sun” featuring Declan de Barra for the Netflix One Piece adaptation. The band has a habit of landing in exactly the fandoms that will appreciate them most.
More music is apparently incoming. Which, given that both of these tracks are excellent, is exactly what you want to hear.
