After the global success of The Gereg, The Hu faced a tricky equation: how to extend the formula without repeating itself? Rumble of Thunder answers through accumulation rather than rupture. We find the same fuel here, throat singing, morin khuur, saturated guitars and stadium-ready drums, but the execution is more assured, sometimes more theatrical. The album opens with martial figures that immediately remind us this band thinks of their songs as cavalry charges, with progressive build-up and a clear intent to hit hard from the very first seconds.
Black Thunder, calling card
The single that announced the album sets the tone: heavy riff, chanted chorus, a section where the morin khuur dialogues with electric guitar without ever being relegated to mere exotic ornament. This has been one of The Hu’s constant strengths since the beginning: the traditional instrument isn’t a folkloric gadget slapped onto generic metal, it carries the melody, it structures the song. Here, production by Dashka emphasizes bass frequencies and percussion, seeking a massive, almost cinematic sound that works wonders at festivals but can wear thin in a living room setting due to its relentless density.
Ambition that smooths out rough edges
The downside of this step up is a certain uniformity of tempo and dynamics across the album. The songs flow with comparable energy, martial, grandiose, and we sometimes miss more intimate breaths, passages where throat singing would stand alone against silence. The Gereg had the ability to alternate between epic charges and more suspended moments; Rumble of Thunder favors a more uniform line, more calibrated for immediate impact, risking that certain tracks blend into one another on repeat listens.
Folklore as engine, not costume
What saves it all is the sincerity of the approach. Throat singing remains the band’s true lead instrument, modulated with impressive technical mastery, and the orchestral arrangements thickening certain choruses give the album a scope rarely found elsewhere in the genre. The band isn’t trying to imitate Western metal by grafting Mongolian sounds onto it: they start from their own musical tradition and inject electric rage into it. This inverted logic is what continues to set The Hu apart from most projects flirting with folk metal without the cultural legitimacy. Rumble of Thunder confirms more than it surprises. The band has found their formula and sticks with it, with a production care that aims broad and stage energy palpable even through the speakers. We would have liked a bit more risk-taking in the structures, some detours to break the linearity of the whole, but their sonic identity remains unique and continues to hold high a tradition few bands know how to turn into a rock weapon without distorting it. A solid album that delivers on its promise without exceeding it.
