My son sent me a reference to these guys, and i admit that i figured it was just more odd stuff from my son, but i gave it a listen a while back. Catchy, but whatever, is what i thought. Then i thought “hmm, that was unusual, gonna listen to that again...”, and from there the brain worm sunk in deep. I might go so far as to say that once Wolf Totem in its pure Hu version (they do the song with an American metal band to help sell it, which is fine, but loses some of its best qualities in that version, imho) could end up in that category of rock songs that survive the onslaught of time and fashion thanks to the simple rock beat/percussion/catchiness.
that primal percussion, the (mongolian) folksy strings and throat singing, mixed with the underlying American metal backbone and its something new in a class by itself. If you need some yin for your yan, this might be the desired ingredient.
A commenter on one of their videos said “Makes me so proud to be Mongolian. Which is weird, because I’m Latino.”
they just released a cover of Metallica’s “Sad but True”, which to me seems like too much (more) of a move to the heavily produced and commercial side, but hey, its still catchy, and is another example of a song that as I’m complaining about it i also realize that i can’t turn it off. Its also interesting to see how the random people i meet who somehow let on that they are fans are so diverse, from young to old, hip to “outdated”. Oh, and i found out they host a cooking show on YouTube, highlighting the cooking they do when on tour..... another weird, cool twist.