A song entitled ‘Wolf Totem’ by a Mongolian heavy metal band has been leading the Top 40 US Rock Songs in iTunes. The Hu call their style “hunnu rock” — from the Mongolian root word for human being: “hu.”  The band blends the screaming guitars of heavy metal with traditional Mongolian guttural singing has picked up 8 million views with its two videos.

The band spent seven years putting together its first album, which it expects to release this spring. They plan to call it Gereg, the name for a diplomatic passport used during the time of Genghis Khan. For the album, the idea was to find study and incorporate as much of Mongolia’s musical culture as they could into a rock style, says the band’s 52-year-old producer and songwriter, B. Dashdondog, who goes by the name “Dashka.”

The four members of The Hu all learned to play traditional Mongolian instruments at the State Conservatory in Ulaanbaatar. The oldest in the group, G. Nyamjantsan, who goes by “Jaya,” 35, still teaches at the conservatory. N. Temuulen aka “Temka,” 28, who plays the Mongolian guitar, says their international popularity was something they expected — but not in the millions. The fourth band member is B. Enkhsaikhan, known as “Enkush,” is a throat singer and a horsehead fiddle player.