The HU hails from Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia and celebrates Mongolian culture through its flavor of rock. The HU has named it hunnu rock, after the Hunnu empire that existed from roughly 200 BCE until the mid-400s CE. It combines hard rock and heavy metal with Mongolian throat singing and traditional Mongolian instruments like the tovshuur, a three-stringed guitar; the morin khuur, a two-string bowed instrument; and the tsuur, a type of wind instrument.

No description can replace hearing The HU, as many did for the first time during its Outside Lands set in October. The HU’s profile in the United States is on the rise thanks to festival appearances such as that one, though the reception at Outside Lands stood out in part because of the other bands playing that day.

Also adding to the band’s U.S. profile since its 2019 debut album, The Gereg, has been collaborations with American artists, notably Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale on “Song of Women,” and an appearance covering “Through the Never” on the tribute album The Metallica Blacklist.

For now, The HU is back in Mongolia, finishing up its second album, which is on track for a release sometime in 2022. But the members aren’t stopping there.