THE HU

The HU are a fantastically unique force of nature. A musical sensation formed in 2016 in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar, the quartet are the pioneers of the genre Hunnu Rock, with almost 900 million global streams to their name – and counting. 2019’s debut album The Gereg put them on the map: not just in their home country, where they were the first group ever to be awarded the prestigious Chinggis Khaan Order, but even a galaxy far, far away, contributing an original song to the Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order soundtrack.
Two years later, their name sat alongside the likes of Elton John, St. Vincent and Ghost on the epic tracklist to The Metallica Blacklist record, performing a distinct, formidable cover of ‘Through The Never’ at the personal request of the metal legends. And 2022 follow-up album Rumble Of Thunder took The HU to iconic stages such as England’s Glastonbury Festival, and into North American arenas supporting Iron Maiden. These captivating first two records made good on the band’s promise of sharing their beautiful heritage –
indeed, their lyrics are entirely, and very deliberately, all in Mongolian. “If you learn the language and translate our lyrics, you’ll understand the context even more – the background of why we chose these words,” explains frontman Gala, who is the group’s throat singer and morin khuur (horsehead fiddle) player. “Hopefully we will encourage people to speak more Mongolian and become interested Mongolian culture. It’s a very rich culture and it needs to be represented.” Now, as The HU gear up for the release of their highly-anticipated third album in 2026, they’re taking things even further. Knuckling down to work at their second home of Nature Sound Studio in Ulaanbaatar – a place so familiar and comfortable that “sometimes we take off our shoes, it’s that level of freedom”, grins Gala – the band have been pushing their limits, describing this latest work as an “enriched” take on Hunnu Rock. “We took our time to do this right, and I’m so glad that we’re almost ready to release what we have worked on these past few years,” Gala says. “As well as always staying true to ourselves, the most important thing for us is longevity. That has been the case since the beginning of the band. We don’t just want a song that will be in the charts for a week and then drop off. We want to create something that will last for decades.”
In the more immediate future, though, The HU have plotted a busy summer in Europe on their Incarnation tour, with slots at festivals such as France’s Hellfest, Germany’s Graspop Metal Meeting and Denmark’s Roskilde. Beyond that, they hope to return to the States, and “tour around the world” to celebrate a whole new era of the band. “We are focusing on the performances and working out a brand-new setlist,” teases Gala. “We want to play bigger venues so we can do extensive production, and bring in some amazing elements of our culture, and play these ideas to our fans. And, as well as our third album, we have some amazing ideas for another album already!”