First off, Nine Treasures are a band from China, a country that does have a pretty huge region called "Inner Mongolia", which the members are from even if the band is based in Beijing. Though there are some very obvious characteristics to Mongolian folk, especially in that specific throat singing, I'm a guy from Romania that's pretty far removed from East Asia and its folk musical traditions, so I won't be able to tell as precisely how much of the folk sound that bands like Nine Treasures comes from the Chinese tradition or from the Mongolian tradition or from a completely different place. Even if Nine Treasures does sound distinct from something like Zuriaake, even down to the folk elements, I would still feel confident grouping them together and recommending one to fans of the other.
The reason why I prefaced my review as such is that Nine Treasures is in a pretty unique position both in terms of being a metal band from China and a band of the "Mongol metal" style. They released their first album in 2012, which was a time when metal bands from China (whether in the same style or not) were starting to get some popularity abroad, like the aforementioned Zuriaake, Black Kirin, VooDoo KungFu, é¢ è¦†M, Deep Mountains, and especially fellow "Mongol metal" band Tengger Cavalry. The latter is especially relevant, not only because I found out about most of these bands through them being named as better examples in one of their reviews, but also because Nine Treasures struck a sweet timing by releasing material right after Tengger Cavalry showed clear signs of decline, and right before Mongol metal received a lot more attention due to the viral marketing success of The Hu.
In 2025, a lot of the bands I mentioned in the previous paragraph have been silent for five years or more, leaving Nine Treasures to be one of the only pre-The Hu and pre-Vengeful Spectre to still have a presence. Seeking The Absolute doesn't even come that late after the previous album, 2021's Awakening From Dukkha, enough for it to feel anything like a comeback. The band was just consistent, both in terms of release schedule (one that avoided oversaturation, unlike Tengger Cavalry) and in terms of never releasing a bad album. At worst, Awakening From Dukkha felt like more of the same, but not in a way that felt too redundant.
Seeking The Absolute isn't an album that's a change of direction for Nine Treasures, but it's rather the sound of a band that knew to avoid pitfalls like repetitive songwriting or switching to English, and one whose songs do still have an infectious excitement about them. One thing I instantly noticed is that Seeking The Absolute sounds good, in a pristine way in which the mix lets the rock and the folk bits in the texture not feel like they're at odds with one another. It's like the production itself sculptures the sound in a similar way to how the songwriting itself does.
Speaking of the songwriting, even though I mentioned the lack of new directions, there's still evident care put into crafting these songs, with little if any moments that feel hastily put together. By this point Nine Treasures honed their own sound enough to feel distinct enough from the "Mongolian Korpiklaani" that this style can often sound like, even if there's still obvious overlap. The non-folk side straddles between rock and metal, being more clearly leaning towards the latter compared to bands like The Hu, but with a sound that feels light and accessible enough to mirror some cues from alternative metal as well.
Seeking The Absolute does make me hopeful that some floodgates would open that would allow some of the aforementioned Chinese bands to return with new material, as well as giving me hope that there might be more to be done with this specific folk metal style. But most of all it makes me happy that Nine Treasures are still around.
