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Throughout history, music has often been composed with the performance space in mind. Gregorian chants resonated in stone cathedrals, jazz swelled in smoke-filled clubs. The latest from Inner Mongolia’s Nine Treasures feels destined to be unleashed from mountaintops. Its nine tracks brim with a sense of scale and sweep, fusing Mongolian folk instruments and throat singing with a muscular alt metal backbone.
Tengger Cavalry and The Hu have taken flight with similar hybrids, but Seeking The Absolute isn’t chasing revolution, it’s an act of refinement. What sets Nine Treasures apart is how confidently they skew toward the metal side of the equation, allowing the balalaika, morin khuur, and tovshuur to serve as coloration rather than crutches.
The result is an album that’s both exotic and familiar, immediately hook-laden yet rich with detail. Until Now makes its case from the off: a pogo-ready beat, sleazy fretwork, and snarling vocals cut with folk instrumentation. Steel Falcon is moody and driving, pure pedigree metal, but unafraid to let an acoustic interlude expand into a spiralling climax.
Real Dream crackles with nu metal swagger, all punchy tempos and massive riffs. By contrast, The Ultimate Evolution has a cinematic scale, like a thousand horses thundering across the steppes, before cresting into triumph. Elsewhere, Indecision, Yellow-Black Storm and Lonely Old Horse lean further into Mongolian folk roots, but never abandon the weight of modern production.
That balance is Nine Treasures’ secret weapon: songs that seep into your bones, equally suited to an all-night party or a cross-country drive. What makes Seeking The Absolute exciting isn’t its novelty, but its craftsmanship. These songs remind us why we first fell in love with metal – because it can feel boundless, poignant, and alive.
Nine Treasures have built an antidote for headbangers stuck in genre ruts: a record that proves fusion doesn’t have to mean compromise.
Seeking The Absolute is out October 24 via Metal Blade.
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