ALIEN WEAPONRY

This past week we finally get a good look at Auckland New Zealand metal band Alien Weaponry who are supporting Municipal Waste and headliner Kerry King in Vancouver at the Commodore Ballroom on January 20 2025.  This wasn’t their first visit to Vancouver as they did make an appearance back in 2019 at the Biltmore Cabaret.

In a supporting role, we only got 5 songs that being “Raupatu”, “Holding My Breath”, “Mau Moko”, “Rū Ana Te Whenua” and “Kai Tangata”.   With exception of “Mau Moko”, all of these were from the Tū album which was released in 2018 by Napalm Records.

This is a 3 piece band that consists of 2 brothers that being Lewis Raharuhi de Jong (lead vocals, guitar), Henry Te Reiwhati de Jong (drums) and Tūranga Morgan-Edmonds (bass).  All three have Māori heritage and a good number of the songs are performed in the Māori language.

They are set to release a new album on March 28 2025 called Te Rā.  We heard one song from this album called “Mau Moko” and it was pretty impressive.

Here is some further information courtesy of Napalm Records:

Since releasing their acclaimed debut Tū (2018), the band have been lauded for their kinetic presence and sound, as well as their vital blend of culturally profound lyricism in both English and te reo Māori, the indigenous language of New Zealand. With their third full-length album, ALIEN WEAPONRY expand on their hallmark messages of cultural, societal and environmental resilience while delivering their most massive-sounding, focused musical output ever. In the hands of veteran producer/mixer Josh Wilbur (Lamb Of God, Gojira, Megadeth) and featuring a guest vocal appearance from longtime ALIEN WEAPONRY champion Randy Blythe of Lamb Of God, Te Rā’s gnashing blend of groove, nu, math and thrash metal shines with anthemic choruses and refreshed technical skill.

“Mau Moko” lyricist/bassist Tūranga Porowini Morgan-Edmonds says:
“Māori have a rich history of marking traditions that were nearly lost during colonization. These traditions are currently in the process of a much needed cultural revival, and I was inspired by that. I wanted the lyrics to remind people that moko is, and always will be, a part of who we are. With the song’s video, we wanted to show the darker side of the history of moko and how the head trade played a part in the near extinction of the tradition. We fought through it and continue to fight for its revival still today!”

n Te Rā, listeners can hear the band doubling-down on the aggression in the verses before applying temperance, especially in the case of “Taniwha”, a death metal-leaning banger featuring the particularly raw aforementioned guest vocal from Randy Blythe. Lyrically, there’s a noticeable tilt towards despondency, hopelessness, and frustration on Te Rā. While bassist Tūranga Porowini Morgan-Edmonds’ lyrics in Māori on songs like “Tama-nui-te-rā” and “Ponaturi” draw from the themes of history, battle lore and mysticism that made the first two albums so rich, frontman/guitarist Lewis Raharuhi de Jong’s English-language lyrics illustrate the impact when culture collides with disenfranchisement day to day. “Crown” and “Hanging by a Thread” take us into the headspace where struggle pushes people to the brink of desperation, while on “Blackened Sky” and “1000 Friends”, Lewis addresses universal woes like the looming threat of World War III and the damaging effects of social media. On album closer “Te Kore”, Tūranga dives into primordial nothingness at the root of the Māori origin story, while on “Mau Moko”, he finds the middle ground between these perspectives. Taken as a whole, Te Rā grapples with what it’s like to be caught in the pull of divergent cultures – not just for the descendants of colonized people, but for all of us.

ALIEN WEAPONRY frontman/guitarist Lewis Raharuhi de Jong adds:
“We really stepped it up this time, as we understood that this album had to go further. We went through a lot of songs and scrapped entire sections of songs. We kept working them and working them until we got them right. Then, with the way we were pushing ourselves musically, I knew it was important to challenge myself lyrically as well. This time I delved into difficult emotional places and mental states. There’s a lot of existential dread running through the album, and I tried to find the right words to describe the indescribable.” 

This is definitely a band that we will be watching for in the near future as they release this new album.  Definitely going to add it to the collection in March!