Chants of ‘Hu Hu Hu’ filled the air of the London Roundhouse

The Hu – The Roundhouse, London, 09.12.22

Words & Pictures – Neil Jones
Mongolians are used to cold weather so as The Hu’s tour bus pulled up to a freezing Camden, the surroundings may have been a million miles from home, but temperature-wise they probably felt right at home. Inside the venue though was a different matter, with the band fast becoming one of the hottest properties on the modern-day metal scene.

Since playing to packed Dogtooth Stage in 2019’s Download Festival, the band bring their Black Thunder tour for a headline slot at Camden’s 1700-capacity Roundhouse and expectation is high.

Watching the band’s set, a few things are immediately apparent. Firstly, as Rammstein can attest to, music transcends all language barriers. The band’s down tuned world-metal has an instinctive, almost primal feel to it that resonates perfectly to metal-lovers. The second is that, whilst utilising traditional Mongolian instrumentation, the underpinning core of the band’s sound is essentially Western, down-tuned guitars, drums, and bass. However, it is the very addition of the Morin Khuur (horsehead fiddle) and Tovshuu (Mongolian guitar), along with occasional jew harp and the always-dominant throat singing, that transports you to Mongolia and provides that sense of uniqueness.

If there is one criticism to be laid at the band’s sound, and it is a minor one it is that every song sounds like it is played in the same key. That said, with the quality of material across their two albums, this is a minor quibble as despite that, each song has enough of its own identity to counter any feelings of the song remaining the same.

With guttural chants of ‘Hu Hu Hu’ in any non-music moment filling the air, the Roundhouse was a crowd lapping up every song. Hearing bandmember Gala talking in broken English with stock, practised phrases added to the endearment and goodwill from audience to stage. Even more so was leader throat singer, Jaya, passionately communicating in his native tongue at the end of the gig. Absolutely no clue what was said, but the passion of its delivery suggested transcended the lack of translation as crowd and bandmember communicated beyond the spoken word.

With a rousing run through their version of Metallica’s Sad But True, the band finished by introducing the crowd to their manager (and brother of Jaya), Tuga Namgur who must by now have his eye on London’s next big venues. Brixton Academy must surely be next for the 8-piece band and beyond that, well Hu knows?