Seriously? Rockers from Mongolia?? When was the last time that ever entered your mind?? “Another retarded Stucky post!”, some might say. And I say,”C’mon man, Have an open mind. Give them a chance. ”
Their singing is a very cool something called “throat singing”, or “overtones”. It is a guttural style of singing or chanting, and it is one of the world’s oldest forms of music. It is most identified with parts of Central Asia, but it is also practiced in northern Canada (check out the RiNS Throat Gobbler Band!) and South Africa . Bottom line: in throat-singing, a singer can produce two or more notes simultaneously! Really??!! You can read more about this amazing technique here. As I said, give ’em a chance.
In the above video, I love the the aggressive macho-man militaristic lyrics (in addition to the beat and nice graphics).
If lions come we’ll fight to the end / If tigers come we’ll fight and battle / If elephants come we’ll fight in rage / If humans come we’ll fight and obliterate / If you come as snakes we’ll become Garuda* birds and fly over you / If you come as tigers, we’ll face you as lions with blue mane / If you come with evil intentions we’ll give you a fight!
Ten of us will strike you as thunder / Hundred of us will shatter your hearts / Thousands of us will obliterate and destroy / Ten thousand will hand you the wrath of Heaven!
If you come as a flood we’ll fight until the death / If you come swarming we’ll scatter you all around / If you come flying we’ll shoot you down with our archery / If you come charging we’ll slice you with our swords.
Let’s cut through them as speed of flying falcons / Let’s burn within as the hearts of wolves / Let’s stampede them with our horses / Let’s defeat them with the wisdom of our Great Kahn!
Can’t you just imagine Genghis Khan and his yellow horde of tens of thousands chanting this, as they strike fear and terror in the hearts of those about to be obliterated?
Wouldn’t this be a great song for real American Patriots to chant as we cut down evil libtards left and right? Hey …it’s just a suggestion.
[*Note: Garuda is a bird creature from Buddhist mythology that has a mix of eagle and human features. Garuda represents birth and heaven, and is the enemy of all snakes.]
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The Hu Band does Metallica!! Are they up to it? Well, this reviewer sure as hell is excited about it. There are several vids reviewing the above vid, and they all think it’s awesome.
I don’t speak Mongolian, so I have no idea if they are singing the same words as Metallica. There are various interpretations as to the meaning of the lyrics. The one I like best is that it’s about life itself and how life controls you. It is how your past and the decisions made build you and determine your future. So, it is “Sad but true” that you can’t escape your past … the future has already been written by your past decisions.
Another more popular interpretation is that the song is about blind faith in religion and the lengths people will go to to practice their faiths.
James Hetfield got the idea for this song from the 1978 Anthony Hopkins film Magic, which is about a ventriloquist who is controlled by his evil puppet.
THE END
Love it
Amen, brother!! I loved it also … I honestly did. Those macho lyrics in the first vid gave me a woody. (I know … TMI!).
My son, 25, introduced me to The Hu several years ago. Says their concerts are a blast. I mean, who wouldn’t like Mongolian throat singing hard rocking bikers?
I wasn’t sure if you were asking me or Nova Scotia to come give you a pity comment… I see there are two here already!
If RiNS doesn’t comment I am going to de-friend him.
Oh, good grief! Hasn’t there been enough of that shit around here already? Can’t we all just get along?
By the way? Who killed Rodney King?
I just love the vibe… and the video is awesome. In some ways, the song is better than the original. The guys in the band are channeling their inner Khan and have made it their own. Pretty cool stuff..
On the weekend while I was traversing my Saturday, I was playing out the office politics that I was involved in during the week. I have, so I have been told, a prickly and volatile personally that makes it difficult for me to suffer fools. When something is wrong I am not going to wait weeks or months or years to tell someone. And this week past was one of those weeks. A first-world problem for sure, but like you say, my past and the decisions I have made, then built something that won’t back down today.
Sad but True…
I was at this concert with 100 thousand others. Sad but True is good but of late it is Harvester of Sorrow that is the song that plays.
I too have noticed the drop-off in comments and do wonder sometimes why that is the case. Could it be that folks are getting like me and running outta things to say!
Thank you for that nice post. I am so RELIEVED that you are still my friend.
I have never in my life listened to a Metallica song until last week when I found The Hu, and then listened to the original song. And now I just listened for the second time (Harvester of Sorrow). I must say in all honesty … I liked it. Lot of energy and emotion in their music.
I also feel like I’ve run out of things to say — in terms of politics — several months ago, which is why I post stuff like this.
Pretty sure there are plenty of us in your court ,Stuck…
I feel your pain Stucky and do wonder why the comments have dried up around here. Of course I am partly to blame seeing as I have variously gone on hiatus with extended stays away. I always come back though. This virtual Cheers Bar has an attraction when everyone knows your name.. no matter how long the stay away.
Hope you are well Stuck! I got a feeling that 2021 is going to be a change year. Good things are going to happen. Yeah the swamp promises to be a shitshow then again when hasn’t it been.
Joe won’t know and Heels Harris will blow.
This year should be good for a laugh..
with the Promise is that once again
The Song Remains The Same.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uosvswmf5Yk
Let’s hope the COVID craziness will soon end. Borders now closed will open. Time will be found and acted upon with maybe a trip to a farm New England.
Well one can hope eh!.
Did you see you were going to be unfriended by Stuckenheimer if you didn’t comment? It is like you have no right to NOT speak…
Enjoyed this version of sad but true. Got me up and going this morning!
Thanks for that Stucky – it’s an interesting “East meets West” form of metal, and “Wolf Totem” is undoubtedly a fierce reveille.
I can’t help but post another prog-metal/rock offering, closer to home, that I feel fully encapsulates the current stages of the Fourth Turning. August 2019 saw the release of Tool’s “Fear Inoculum” well before Covid (with band and album title graphics that, when folded in half onto themselves, transform into syringes). Looking past the eerie prognostications of the title track whose first lyrics are ” Immunity, long overdue – contagion, I exhale you” the song “Descending” IMHO captures the situation and mood of our civilization withering its last days, and is also a reveille in its own right….a call for us “to arms and order” to keep whatever fragments of our dying society that we can (long song but worth the listen on good headphones):
Lyrics:
Free fall through our midnight
This epilogue of our own fable
Heedless in our slumber
Floating nescient we
Free fall through this boundlessness
This madness
Of our own making
Falling isn’t flying
Floating isn’t infinite
Come, our end, suddenly
All hail our lethargy
Concede suddenly
To the quickened dissolution
Pray we mitigate the ruin
Calling all to arms and order
Drifting through this boundlessness
This madness of our own making
Sound our dire reveille
Rouse all from our apathy
Lest we
Cease to be
Stir us from our
Wanton slumber
Mitigate our ruin
Call us all to arms and order
Sound the dread alarm
Through our primal body
Sound the reveille
To be or not to be
Rise
Stay the grand finale
Stay the reading of our swan song and epilogue
One drive to stay alive
It’s elementary
Muster every fiber
Mobilize
Stay Alive
Stir us from our
Wanton slumber
Mitigate our ruin
Call us all to arms and order
“Descending” ….. fabuloso!! I’m looping through it for the second time. Won’t be the last time today either. When I like some new found music I go overboard. I listened to The Wu stuff — their other vids also — for just about an entire day last week.
Thank you for posting that.
Glad you liked that. Tool, like their fanbase, has evolved and matured since the early 90’s post-grunge days, but with all the complexity, polymeric rhythms and sonic overlayings, much of their music is an acquired taste for most rock and metal fans. But they are unique in who they are and what they do. After many years resisting mainstream distribution (they are highly protective of their artistic content) they have now put their entire discography up on Spotify. I’d recommend you check more out if you can….. especially the title track to their 1998 Album, AEnima. Would you like to hear a song about Los Angeles disappearing into the ocean?
I finally got to see them last year in Atlanta right before the world stopped. It was a very moving experience for several reasons (milestone birthday, bucketlist achievement, recalling my youth, etc). Even now when I hear the 1st tones of Fear Inoculum, the song they opened with, it can bring tears to my eyes as I recall how much the world has changed in a very short time.
Dirtpersonsteve
A few of years back (6?), I worked with some guys from Mongolia and all they wanted to listen to was Ozzy Osborn and AC/DC. All freaking day…Every…DAY. 10 and 12 hours of it. I gave up working on spacecraft because I was sick of it(Oh well). I can not stand them in the least now.
In the Wolf Totem video I was curious about the meaning of this line; —- “If you come as tigers, we’ll face you as lions with blue mane”
This is what I found out.
In Buddhism a mythological, turquoise or blue-maned, white lion is known as a snow lion. Lions are associated with royalty. Buddha himself is often referred to as Lion of the Shakyas.
In Buddhist art, snow lions are usually (but not always) depicted in white with a turquoise mane floating in the wind and very wrathful, with big eyes and open mouth. They roam freely in the high snow mountains symbolizing wisdom, fearlessness and divine pride. They are of pure mind and can not be contaminated by delusions. They have the power to subdue all beings.
Been a fan of The Hu for over a year now – many (if not most) of their songs express a strong sense of pride in their culture and their history as a people – they might even be described as Mongolian nationalists. Imagine if a band expressed the same pride in America and Americana in the current environment. They would probably be made to change the name of the band (as The Dixie Chicks) and be pillioried and deplatformed in a heart beat (or at least have a warning label attached to all of their videos.)