Cool! I probably ought not try it here at work, but it’s something to do on the drive home.
I wonder if it’s harmful, or possibly good for you in some way.
Makes me cough till I nearly pass out. So maybe not on the drive home
Yeah, I love me some Central Asian cheekbones.
Whelp, I missed this thread the first time around.
Just watched the vids in ExTank’s op (along with some of the stuff posted by others) and while I dunno about crushing and driving my enemies before me, surely the airag is ready by now? I suddenly want to try some.
It’s been something of a source of amusement to me how, in the 1980s, metal bands deliberately mocked traditional “folk” styles - I can remember a couple of songs that started with some old-style record playing, interrupted by a needle scratch, and then the screaming guitars and vocals came in (Example: Fast as a Shark) - and now metal bands are deliberately incorporating folk/traditional elements into the music.
It’s always been the case that skilled musicians, of any genre, will incorporate bits and pieces of other genres that they’re exposed to. It’s just more noticeable now, now that we have the Internet and can more easily share music (both so the artists can be exposed to more variety, and so the good works that result can be more widely spread).
Well, well… says there they happen to be touring the USA right now…
Indeed - I always enjoy finding things like bluegrass renditions of metal songs. One hilarious side effect of that kind of thing, though, is the inevitable fan of the original artist in the comment section, raging about how, “James Hetfield would be so pissed off if he saw this!”, completely failing to understand that most actual musicians don’t just listen to their own genre, and in fact for a lot of them, the genre they’re famous for is simply the genre they “got lucky” with after trying their hand at a variety of other styles. I mean, witness videos on YouTube of Bon Scott singing backup in a bubblegum pop band, and later singing lead and playing the recorder in a prog band, in the years before he got famous with AC/DC.
But I’m talking more about how a lot of metal bands now feature “folk” instruments, played on a regular basis by regular members of the band, as opposed to bringing them in “as needed” as a novelty. There’s a Finnish band called Turisas that includes a violin and an accordion, and though there are guitars in the band, the violinist is the “lead” player, providing most of the solos.
Well, it looks like tonight is going to be a folk metal night! 
Just in case anyone is looking for more bands that combine rock/metal with traditional instruments and styles I’ll recommend Eluveitie, Korpiklaani, and the mighty Tyr, a band that despite being a “normal” four man metal band incorporates traditional Faroese folk songs into their work.
There is a blurred/censored ring on a biker’s hand at 5:12 in The Hu’s “The Wolf Totem” video. Got me curious, so I started searching for more info.
I was disappointed by what I found.
As the OP in the imgur thread points out:
I am aware that the existence of the swastika symbol long predates Nazi Germany. There is a Mongolian version of the swastika that likewise has long history, but near as I can tell, it’s always displayed as if it’s resting on its side, i.e. with one side of it horizontal, like this. The ring on the biker’s finger (see pic at top of imgr link above) is rotated 45 degrees, like the Nazi swastika.
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To me, “The Wolf Totem” and its video now seem a little bit less like like a badass anthem to victory in battle, and a little bit more like a xenophobic warning to outgroups. 
Well, that’s disappointing.
The last I checked, The Nazis were in favor only of Caucasian people, and would not be supporting a band of Mongolians. I do think this is a misinterpretation of the symbol.
Except it’s not a swastika. It is a cross pattée. The swastika has cross members at right angles to the four arms unlike the cross pattée.
The cross pattée does have some mental association with the Third Reich. The Iron Cross had a history as a Prussian later German military award. It also had other historical uses such as by the Knights Templar. Under the Nazis they redesigned the medal to include a swastika at the center of the cross used for the medal. After a break because of the association, and not having a military, a cross pattée became the identification symbol for the Bundeswehr in 1956. You can see it here on the Bundeswehr’s homepage in the top left corner. It took a little longer to see an award based on the cross pattée to be reintroduced. That was not until 1980. The highest military award in the Bundeswehr looks like this. Like the Iron Cross before it the Cross of Honour has multiple orders all using the cross pattée as the base. Germany is not doing a very good job of implementing their laws against overt Nazi symbols if what is on that ring is one.
Then there is the Anti Defamation League take on the iron cross.
I’d suggest we not apply a more stringent test than the ADL uses to identify Nazis. Otherwise we get a lot of false positives. Those false positives would include labeling Angela Merkel a Nazi for being Chancellor of a country actively using the cross pattée.
So for context we have a motorcycle club involved in filming the video. Enlarging the shot of the ring I can read “choppers” written on it in English. That suggests a link to US non-racist uses of the imagery. In the absence of “other accompanying hate symbols,” IMO we shouldn’t jump to any conclusions. Maybe they just asked the band to show off their motorcycle club ring in return for participating in the video. Maybe they wanted to highlight the rebellious, not hate inspired, meaning sometimes attached to the Iron Cross.
I don’t know WTF you’re looking at, but this: Imgur: The magic of the Internet is most definitely a swastika
Exactly. There’s no resemblance to an iron cross.
Well, the Hu do have that “Yuve Yuve” song smashing up the internet and satellite radio right now, so…