Gig review: The HU

The HU are a Mongolian metal band that fuses heavy rhythms with traditional instruments and vocal styles to forge something quite special. Having discovered them this year, I was thrilled to have the chance to see them live when they visited Bristol last week.

I hadn't been to the gig venue, The Prospect Building, before. Fortunately my friend Dave from Bristol was able to help me with some local knowledge about parking. He also came with me to the gig and was excellent company for a very loud evening. (He took a lot of the photos in this post!)

Pre-gig selfie

The venue was great, with catering and bar area outside, well-organised inside with helpful stewards, and a suitably post-industrial aesthetic for the main warehouse room. A nice high stage gave good visibility of the band, although the amount of dry ice and vapour off the crowd combined with some of the lights rendered them invisible at times.

The support act were a Nordic-inspired pagan metal act called SKĀLD. The band had three percussionists and included a variety of unusual instruments including what I think was an elk skull, and also using horns. One of the percussionists had a shamanic vibe as he leapt between different drums. I enjoyed their set and found the rhythmic set very soothing.

The HU came on to loud cheers, bearing a militaristic looking standard. They lean heavily into the Mongol warrior mythos in both their look and their lyrics. Being Mongolian, banter with the crowd was limited but we were told they loved Bristol and we were thanked for our enthusiasm. 

The crowd was nicely age-diverse. Several oldies like me, but a real mix of ages appreciating the music. It was very gender-diverse as well and around where I stood it felt like the women in the crowd were enjoying it most. One woman next to me passionately sang the Mongolian lyrics to Echoes of My Father, which was impressive. 

The setlist was mainly from their recent album, HUN, and their breakthrough album Rumble of Thunder (which I reviewed in February). I was disappointed they didn't play Triangle, as I love that song. At the end they stayed on-stage to soak up the applause and seemed genuinely affected by the affection being shown to them.

A rapturous finale 

I bought a t-shirt. I saw people wearing t-shirts with 'Mongolia' written in the style of 'Metallica' but those must have been sourced elsewhere as they weren't on the merch stand in the venue. I chose the shirt with the tour dates on the back as a memento of a memorable night of Mongolian metal.