“Hu! Hu! Hu!”: the Mongolian band rocks in Sydney

The band showcases traditional Mongolian instruments as well as throat singing to the delight of their legions of fans, most of whom do not even understand Mongolian. The HU flew to Australia as part of their five-month Black Thunder tour which takes in North America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania, with scheduled festival appearances at Coachella, Lollapalooza, and the Download Festival. The Mongolian group performed at sold-out concerts in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Sydney, promoting its new album “Rumble of Thunder”.

They say they have a special connection to Australia, with some of the album’s material coming together during the lockdown in Australia back in 2020 when they were stuck in New South Wales for more than two months. Therefore, The HU expressed their thanks to Sydneysiders during the concert. The Sydney concert was preceded by chants of “Hu! Hu! Hu!” from the audience then the band roared “Australians are you ready?” from the stage. The concert hall was crowded with a diverse range of ages and nationalities.

In the same way, they say this album was a symbolic “passport” to the world for the band to be able to share their music as well as Mongolian history and culture.

The first two music videos, “Yuve Yuve Yu” and “Wolf Totem”, immediately went viral garnering the band over 100 million views. “Yuve Yuve Yu” (What’s going on?), is about Chinggis (Genghis) Khan, the founder of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest empire in human history. The song also mentions how he was fated to bring nations together with the music video featuring dramatic scenes of Mongolian landscapes.

In fact, The HU made a special 5,000 km off-road trip to western Mongolia to shoot the music video in the mountains and sand dunes there. Since their album release, the band has been Number 1 on the Billboard World Albums Chart, Number 1 on the Top New Artist Albums, and Top 5 Globally on the Hard Rock Music Album Charts (US, Canada, UK, and more).

The HU has dubbed its brand of rock “Hunnu” after the Hunnu Empire that existed from 200 BCE until the mid-400s CE. It combines heavy metal rock and Mongolian throat singing and traditional instruments including the morin khuur, a two-string bowed instrument(horsehead fiddle); the tovshuur, a three-stringed guitar; and the tsuur, a type of wind instrument with the pounding bass and drums of rock. (SBS.COM.AU)