UUHAI- Human Herds
UUHAI – Human Herds
Napalm Records
09/01/2026
Review by Jon Deaux
8/10
The email that appeared in my inbox claims that UUHAI “Human Herds” is ‘Ancient Mongolian traditions meet modern metal,’ which I usually automatically delete. ‘Ancient traditions meet metal music’ always comes with an image from the press that involves a man searching for one of these musicians from the old days, so now he’s a man who incorporates both realms. The genre ‘Dub Music Meets Metal’ is the grave site for kindness and bad music. That’s where good intentions always go to die. Right there with my last three relationships.
But UUHAI is not doing that, and this genuinely pisses me off because my inherent defences will not work. It’s like showing up to a knife fight with a gun, only to discover everyone’s fighting with throat singing and horsehead fiddles.
UUHAI is made up of seven individuals who not only use traditional instruments but also utilise horse-headed violins because they reverberate the notes that form wounded animals on the journey of enlightenment. Along with a form of ancient throat chanting can be seen as very common within the composition of throat chanting performed by metal groups from Mongolia (The Hu) because it aims at shocking earthworms from within the body.
Khoomei performed within the context of Mongolia’s culture has an edge that takes the form of how earth movements reacted during the formation of Pangea during some sort of geographical transformation. It has this thing that pulls all your notes back into some form of low-end that magnetizes your body area into some form of chamber. Bring on the defibrillator.
It starts with ‘Beginning’ since clearly one cannot resist christening an intro exactly that. It’s like naming your kid “Baby.” Lazy, but you know what you’re getting.
‘Human Herds’ explodes onto the scenes with the ferocity that exudes what happens when the Four Horsemen meet heavy rock music. Not only massive and epic, but it also has a ridiculous, oh-so-obvious Jehovah-like impassive kind of performance by two guys whose family trees no doubt colonized most of Asia before the guys even had breakfast, much less coffee. I seriously am telling you that they are giving it to you right as they sing about the world where mankind goes about annihilating planet Earth, as well as the tortured Mother Earth that goes with it. Finally, someone who understands the issue and doesn’t beat around the bush by disposing of the Starbucks carryout containers with the rest of the environmentally conscious crowd by riding the Porsche as if the Earth owed them an apology over global warming concerns.
However, singing voices per se, as far as the Mongolian perspective is concerned, are the same, except they have larger singing voices in terms of the motion, of course, which will necessarily have to be Pangean in terms of the movement of their tectonic plates; and throat singing, in essence, is a vacuum cleaner fold because you’re essentially sucking all the sound in so that you can hum along with yourself inside your rib cage. Well, bring on the defibrillator! Or, natural selection will simply obscure all of this in either case.
‘Uuhai’ is the anthem of the way the world is being swept up in the Mongolia phenomenon and lending their two cents through the power of earth connections, dispelling the demons and the lands of the foreigners. It’s not hippie dippy nonsense; it’s the building of an empire. And during the moment when they’re yelling their name, they’re incantating a true war chant for good fortune. And they’re packing the European crowd full of enough energy that the Europeans start yelling in sync, and that puts the entire world on the precipice of yelling war chants over a culture they could have discovered in three tries and a map. Lester Bangs would have had head over handle over the top of the coffin in his grave if he’d been there; he would have labelled that show as the end of context or the only piece that remains that has the scent of the truth. It is, of course, as my parents’ marriage.
However, they go further than that, bringing songs that start leaning heavily towards sing-alongs, although how that translation occurs remains a mystery to me due to the language gap, and, failing hard at correctly pronouncing even the most mundane word, much less the most incredible ones, like how to say “quinoa.” They hold within themselves the steppes and memories of their brethren so vividly that before you know it, you’re Google-ing flights for Ulaanbaatar, but then remember how much you dislike flights that have layovers.
UUHAI effortlessly move from a place where it seems like they’re singing along to their clan’s secret song ceremonies—at least, the ones that aren’t yours to eavesdrop on, like when your college roommate is going through his or her ritual weekend adventure—but actually rock music. Which, naturally, they’re just pitching musical ideas that rock like them, and not, maybe, some smart research on different musical habits that’re just weird to fit the NPR audience’s cringeworthy need to feel guilt over globalization.
‘Dracula’ is a track that is quite a kick on its own merit. And nothing says “cultural authenticity” quite like a heavy metal band in Mongolia more than Dracula by Bram Stoker needing its heavy metal on. And “Paradise” being precisely that, before you know that it is not necessary to find meaning at all, that world enough is enough with its Mongolian throat singers in front of Metal bands, or the NT version of the New Wave—what is left of it if the hack writers have to start copying Sea Shanties of TikTok?
It ends with ‘Secret History of the Mongols’ obviously, as there definitely was a secret history of some kind. Whatever from the 13th century, and that was obviously the burning obvious reason we just needed the last song of every other band’s album to finish in order to fulfil it, since, one could probably get the job done well enough on a napkin from Chipotle during a panic attack. Then there’s the soulful guitar riffs, of course, as obviously we hadn’t suffered enough from the throat singing we’d been treated to by the band, and obviously we were ready to have the talent of the Earth on standby to get us an angry COVID-19 virus to quake in fear.
UUHAI has managed to achieve all the above. To be frank, it has managed to achieve all these tricks which are much more superior than amuse-bouche. Throat singing, of course, does not require cheating at all. The metal music sound quality, no way means the sound quality of the anthropological apology which the whites are privileged to dine at supper meetings across the globe.
They, of course, can maintain the quality of knowledge themselves, in fact, very knowledge-centric encompassing the fields of study in history,
It would have scored a nine from me, but they just failed to invade anything in it, which is a stupid missed factor, inasmuch as the whole point of the Mongol Empire is the invading. The other two points were deducted just for the experience. Since this album has made me experience something, which is quite unacceptable. I do not like the fact that I just have to be the guy who loves the Khoomei record.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Beginning
02. Human Herds
03. Ancient Land
04. Uuhai
05. Dracula
06. Khurai
07. Khar Khulz
08. Paradise
09. Uvdis
10. Secret History of the Mongols
LINKS:
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