Weapons of Mass Destruction

HOW ALIEN WEAPONRY CAME UP WITH THE CONCEPT OF MIXING THEIR MĀORI BACKGROUND WITH HARD-HITTING RIFFS

- Amit Sharma

OVER THE LAST decade, New Zealand trio Alien Weaponry have positioned themselves as one of the most exciting new forces in metal, opening for giants like Guns N' Roses and Gojira. After inking a deal with Napalm Records, they released their Tū debut in 2018, peaking at Number 5 in their native charts. What made it an even more impressive feat was singer/guitarist Lewis de Jong being only 16 at the time.

Their second album, Tangaroa, arrived in 2021, not long after landing a worldwide-management deal with the same team who look after Slayer, Mastodon and Ghost, and this year sees them building on that momentum with their third full-length, Te Rã. The 11 new tracks could very well be the most explosive they're written to date, splicing elements of groove and thrash metal into a hypnotic storm of noise, with veteran producer Josh Wilbur (Lamb of God, Megadeth) ensuring the three members sound as big as groups with double the personnel. The Lamb of God connection doesn't end there, either. Lamb of God's Randy Blythe lends his voice to the track "Taniwha," which was a dream come true for the young bucks hoping to tread similar musical ground.

"[Lamb of God's] Mark Morton and Willie Adler are huge inspirations for me," says de Jong, not long after flying back from some American dates supporting Kerry King. "They have this certain something about their tones and riffs — you can always tell when you're listening to Lamb of God. Randy guesting on our album is one of the craziest moments of our career so far. When me and my brother, Henry [drums] found out, we couldn't believe it. We were both speechless.”

Who were the first guitar heroes that inspired you to get into music?