The HU — HUN (Better Noise Music)
Hu are you?
It’s an increasingly redundant question as the Mongolian masters of Hunnu Rock continue to broaden their reach and bolster a reputation for bold creativity.
Anyone who witnessed the band’s sheer power and precision at this month’s Eddfest will be all over The HU by now.
Many fans’ top picks from the sun-baked Knebworth shindig, the throat-singing quadruple threat continues to break down barriers and breathe new life into modern metal.
But can latest album HUN match The Hu’s incendiary live shows and replicate the band’s energy and ambition on wax?
Hu are you kidding?
Of course they fucking can. HUN’s pin sharp production and pulsating pace guarantees the perfect representation of 2026’s band of the year.
Close your eyes and you could be front and centre of a Mongolian-style mosh pit as Galaa, Jaya, Enkush and Temka take hold of the folk metal flame.
Remember when Turisas threatened to take Viking Metal to the next level?
This is the most exciting, genre-defining record we’ve heard since 2007’s The Varangian Way.
But where Turisas stalled, The HU look and sound like a next-level band capable of taking throat-singing mainstream and making the biggest move by a non-English language act since Rammstein dropped 1997’s Sehnsucht.
There’s something incredibly addictive and remarkably catchy about listening to four husky dudes fusing electric guitars with traditional instruments to conjure a sound that’s fabulously unique.
The HU? They’re coming for you. And you’ve got to be ready.
HU’s laughing now?
Imagine if Fleetwood Mac recorded a folk-tinged, throat-singing single?
Skip to the emblematic Echoes Of My Father and you don’t have to stretch that unlikely scenario too far.
The HU might have made their name on the back of up-tempo, high-octane bangers but stripped back and vulnerable they sound like Mongolia’s answer to Joni Mitchell.
It’s delightful stuff.
Then again, the quartet’s noisier material is manna from heaven for metronomic headbangers the world over.
HUN is an album tailor made to test the neck muscles and hone that full hair back-to-front sweep: Warrior Chant is a blunt-force example of a heavy band at their melodic best.
The adrenaline-fuelled opener could launch a 10,000-strong army into battle believing nothing could stand in their way.
But even in your bedroom the blazing anthem induces a Genghis Khan-like desire to lay waste to the double duvet.
And there’s plenty more where that came from.
Lost Soul (featuring Nothing More) is where The HU hone their chops to create a radio-friendly hard rock classic.
The Men, meanwhile, leans on a soft strings-led intro before launching into something seriously aggressive and foreboding.
But the five-minute Greed best sums up a band that breaks down metal’s barriers for fun.
It’s not about The HU but the ‘how’.
And HUN is the realisation of a visionary project fuelled by talent, ambition and heavy music’s limitless opportunities.
