I woke up this morning and chose the beauty of combat.

Well, that would be the beauty and majesty of traditional Mongolian throat-singing and instrumentation combined with the modern styling of metal and you get The Hu.

The Hu is the popular, at least with metal and folk music fans, Mongolian folk metal band created in 2016 by members Gala, Jaya, Enkush and Temka. In addition to the requisite electric guitars and drums we find with rock and metal bands, The HU also incorporates traditional Mongolion instruments such as the Morin khuur (a two-stringed, horsehead fiddle with strings made from horsehair), Tovshuur (a three-stringed Mongolian guitar), Tsuur (Mongolian flute) and the Tumur khuur (a jaw harp) just to name a few.

Throat-singing is at the forefront of most of The HU’s songs. While The Hu is not the first Mongolian band to find success with music fans (I was first introdcued to Mongolian rock scene with the Mongolian folk rock band Altan Urag), they have been the most successful in crossing over to a somewhat mainstream success in the West.

There are other songs that are probably better musically structured, but I always go back to the song that introduced me to the band: Wolf Totem.