Mongolia has developed one of Asia’s most distinctive heavy metal cultures, with the scene centred overwhelmingly on Ulaanbaatar. Its roots reach back to the final years of the communist period. Ayasiin Salkhi was formed in 1984 after vocalist Andy Teesh and other Mongolian musicians encountered bands such as Iron Maiden while studying and travelling in the Soviet Union. Their first concert in Ulaanbaatar in 1985 is regarded as an important starting point for Mongolian heavy metal. Western rock culture was heavily restricted at the time, and Ayasiin Salkhi subsequently faced a media blackout because metal was associated with Western ideology.

Another major pioneer was Hurd, whose history began as Skorost in Ulaanbaatar in 1987 before the established Hurd line-up emerged during the early 1990s. Combining traditional heavy metal and hard rock, the band became one of Mongolia’s most popular and enduring rock acts. Following the democratic revolution of 1990, access to Western music increased considerably and a broader underground gradually developed, encompassing traditional heavy metal, death metal, black metal and other extreme styles.

The scene became increasingly organised during the 2000s and 2010s. Noise Metal Festival, first held at UB Palace in Ulaanbaatar in 2014, provided an important dedicated event for the community, bringing together Mongolian bands and visiting groups from countries including Russia, Japan, Canada and Singapore. Bands such as Aravt, formed in 2014, have also explored the connection between metal and Mongolian culture, combining melodic death and folk metal with themes drawn from the country’s mythology and traditions.

Mongolian metal gained unprecedented international attention with The Hu, formed in Ulaanbaatar in 2016. The band developed what it calls Hunnu Rock, combining heavy rock and metal with throat singing and traditional instruments including the morin khuur and tsuur. In 2019, “Wolf Totem” became the first song by a Mongolian act to reach number one on Billboard’s Hard Rock Digital Song Sales chart, and in 2022 The Hu were named UNESCO Artists for Peace. Their success has made Mongolian heavy music internationally recognisable while highlighting a characteristic already present elsewhere in the country’s scene: the combination of metal with Mongolian musical traditions, history and identity.

FAMOUS METAL BANDS FROM MONGOLIA

Aravt | Ayasiin Salkhi | The Hu | Hurd

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