One Liner: Mongolian metal? I have no clue.
Wikipedia Genre: Mongolian folk, heavy metalHome: Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Poster Position:12
Both Weekends.
Saturday at 6:30 on the Tito's Stage.
Thoughts: WTF man. The top track sounds like a country song in the background, but the vocals are the chants of a group of angry monks. I can't discern whether we are working in English or not. Then the second one also has kind of a cowboy feel, like they should be singing about the tumblin' tumbleweeds, except it is a group of dudes singing in Mongolian and kind of grunting a lot. Wikipedia claims they are heavy metal, but maybe I have a different definition of heavy metal?
Thoughts: WTF man. The top track sounds like a country song in the background, but the vocals are the chants of a group of angry monks. I can't discern whether we are working in English or not. Then the second one also has kind of a cowboy feel, like they should be singing about the tumblin' tumbleweeds, except it is a group of dudes singing in Mongolian and kind of grunting a lot. Wikipedia claims they are heavy metal, but maybe I have a different definition of heavy metal?
The top single, with 23.6 million streams, is "Wolf Totem." Dig into this thing, I'm loving that wide open throat moaning thing.
Hell yeah. I'm ready to mount up and go fight for the Mongolian people! I love seeing people try to make a violin look metal. That is super rad. But literally, if the lyrics to this were sung by Toby Keith and about supporting the troops or whatever, you wouldn't bat an eye. The lyrics are metal AF though, all about becoming garuda birds to eat you if you come to me like a snake. I hope the Mongolian Army plays this every morning to wake up instead of like, Reveille.
There is a supremely shitty re-mix of that featuring the singer from Papa Roach adding crappy English lyrics to it. I suggest staying with the O.G. one there.
The second-most popular song is "Yuve Yuve Yu."
Super wide-screen video! This is the one I said sounds like some tumbling tumbleweeds action. I guess you could bang your head to this, it just seems silly, man. "valuable ethics of ancestors!" "hey traitor, kneel down!"
They also do a cover of "Sad But True" that is pretty rad. And actually sounds like metal. Only 3 million streams.
Lightning eyeballs! Gold nuggets! And a LOT of over-emotive singing!
Another new single, which was featured on some sort of Star Wars show or something, it pretty metal. "Sugaan Essena" Kinda groovy and riffage-y. "Shoog Shoog" also has a good groove to it - if my ears squint, I can believe that they're actually singing Shame Shame and there is a meaning to the song.
Here are the members of the band:
- Galbadrakh "Gala" Tsendbaatar – morin khuur, throat singing
- Nyamjantsan "Jaya" Galsanjamts – tumur hhuur, tsuur, throat singing
- Enkhsaikhan "Enkush" Batjargal – morin khuur, throat singing
- Temuulen "Temka" Naranbaatar – tovshuur, backing vocals
I wonder why only one of those dudes can't throat sing. What a LOSER. Just has to be the "backing vocals" guy. For educational purposes, the morin khuur is the horsehead fiddle thing they keep playing in those videos. The tumur hhurr is one of those mouth harp things that makes the twangy sound in old westerns. Which is hilarious, that this guy listed that as one of his instruments. The tsuur is "an end-blown flute" with three holes. The tovshuur is a two or three stringed lute. On the Wikipedia page for that last instrument, they show the bro from HU holding his rad axe.
I have no clue what to do with this stuff. I mean, it's definitely different from anything else I'm ever going to see live. Which is kind of fun, or maybe just funny? But it's also, like, mediocre country-rock growled in a language that I can't comprehend? Not sounding too appealing to me? I think I'm okay, unless curiosity gets the better of me.
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