Recent Metal/Rock Bands to Keep an Eye Out For

Haya Band (哈雅乐团)

Haya Band is a Mongolian-Chinese band that combines Mongolian folk music with rock elements, led by vocalist DaiQing Tana alongside Quan Sheng playing the morin khuur, Chen Xibo in the guitar, Baoyin in the drums and throat singing, and Eric Lattanzio -who later joined the band.

The band’s last album, Crazy Horse (疯马), was released back in 2014… but the band had been busy with TV presentations, touring… and well, LIFE! since DaiQing Tana and Quan Sheng had a baby.

You can follow some of the band’s activities on their Facebook fanpage, and I’ve seen their stuff around iTunes. And CDBaby currently holds physical copies of Migration [1] and Crazy Horse [1]. Just saying.

ChthoniC (閃靈樂團)

ChthoniC is a Taiwanese heavy metal band that, like some of the other bands on this list, use traditional instruments like the erhu and the koto. Formed in 1995, the members of the band have changed to the current line-up composed of Doris Yeh, Jesse Liu, Dani Wang, CJ Kao, and Freddy Lim, who has been heavily involved in politics representing the New Power Party.

Their most recent album was just released in October, titled Battlefields of Asura (閃靈), is a prequel to their album series that began with Seediq Bale in 2005, Mirror of Retribution (十殿) in 2009, Takasago Army (高砂軍) in 2011, and Bú-Tik (武德) in 2013.

The band can also get pretty mellow when they want, like in this acoustic version of Millennia’s Faith Undone (烏牛欄大護法-望天版) [MV] or Defenders of Bú-Tik Palace (閃靈、元千歲-暮沉武德殿) [MV].

You can follow ChthoniC activities through their Facebook page.

The Hu Band

This is really the music video that prompted this brief list; we just wanted an excuse to post it. Formed by Galaa Namgur, Enkhsaikhan Batjargal, Temuulen Naranbaatar and Nyamjantsan Galsanjamts; who play badass variations of the horse head fiddle or morin khuur, the ikh khuur, and tovshuur. The Hu Band have just released their second single to Mongolian metal, which they call Hunnu Rock.

Note: The instruments list, you gotta take with a grain of salt— our Mongolian instrument knowledge is weak.

You can follow Hu Band activities on Facebook and Instagram. You can listen to the band’s music on Bandcamp.

What are the metal/rock bands you’ve been listening to?