Album Review: Nine Treasures - "Seeking the Absolute"

It’s hard to know exactly what to make of Nine Treasures, and that comes with the additional recognition that the quandary is not of the band’s own making.

Most folks’ first exposure to Nine Treasures came in the 2015 Mongol Metal compilation album, alongside Ego Fall and genre standout (and brief media darling) Tengger Cavalry.  Listening to that record at the time, Nine Treasures was clearly a band not like the other two - softer, with more emphasis on rock sensibilities and less reliance on metal beats and the juxtaposition of traditional throat singing against heavy guitar.

And then along came The Hu, who subsequently drew attention away from all the bands who had come previously, and became the pacecar for all metal from the Far East.  Well, Nine Treasures is a little more in line with The Hu’s sense of rhythm and accessibility, but Nine Treasures isn’t like The Hu, either.

Nor do they have to be.  What they’ve shown in their career, and continue to show with this new full-length album Seeking the Absolute, is that Nine Treasures has a different idiom than the other three bands we’ve mentioned entirely.  Yes, they still have solid rock thump (look no further than “The Ultimate Evolution,”) but the band is also willing to explore the space in a style bordering on prog.  Nine Treasures is, and always has been, more Rush than Motörhead, or heaven forfend, Metallica.

That doesn’t stop the band from blending those lines and writing a few savory rock cuts that are easy to bop along to.  It’s hard to listen to “Just Like You” and not find yourself rolling your shoulders along just a little.  It’s groovy and catchy, neither of which are terms often applied to many of the Mongol metal bands who have come before (with some apologies to The Hu.) Either way, it’s eminently accessible.

“Steel Falcon” does the same thing, albeit it a little heavier.  Oddly enough, these aren’t the compositions where Nine Treasures feel at their best.  Which leaves us in an odd place, because the basic structure of “Lonely Old Horse” is awesome, but begs for a little more overdrive to slam the point home.  So, Seeking the Absolute is an exercise in paradoxes to some degree - it could punch harder in some moments, but the punch it does utilize doesn’t always equal the accomplishment of the more exploratory tracks.

That doesn’t even get into the largest complication of all, which is that Nine Treasures will invariably be judged against stalwarts like The Hu and Tengger Cavalry because of their associated heritage, but that’s hardly a fair comparison, either.  Nine Treasures is their own band with their own goals and skills, and to lump them with their countrymen is lazy at best.  To wit, to associate The Ramones and The Doors together because they’re both American is a fool’s errand.

Seeking the Absolute is an album with many strong points, and as noted, a few weaknesses.  The critical takeaway here is that the album must be judged by the listener on its own merit, and not compared against a preconceived notion of what a rock/metal album from a Mongolian band should be.