October 15, 2021

Alien Weaponry – Tangaroa: Album Review

Alien Weaponry – Tangaroa (Napalm Records) – Maori Haka and Metal makes for a thrilling warrior trio band from Northland New Zealand. Two brothers who combine their Northern European Dutch ancestry with a passionate and heart-felt activist expression of their Maori heritage.

The blend is a powerful battering force and these guys are young and idealistic enough to believe that bed-rock fury can change the world. So, they are following a tradition of Little Richard, the Pentecostal and Southern Baptist churches and the Civil Rights movements.

Lewis Raharuhi de Jong, guitar and lead vocals and Henry Te Reiwhata de Jong, drums and vocals. Their tribal lineage is Ngati Pikiao and Ngati Raukawa. The bass guitar for the majority of this album is Ethan Trembath. He has since made way for Turanga Morgan-Edwards, who played on their live shows throughout 2020.

The brothers were living in Waipu when they first ventured forth around 2010, being no more than ten years old. Dad Niel de Jong is a Rock musician himself as well as a sound engineer and producer.

The production sound has a clean, naked quality to it immediately reminding me of Rick Rubin and his work with the early Beastie Boys and Slayer.

Titokowaru starts with the sound of a waka moving across the sea. The guitars lay down a metal storm of automatic gun-fire. A revved-up Immigrant Song intro to start the hostilities. A bass bridge leads to a haka chant in warrior mode. A beep bass voice intones a challenge. Titokowaru a Chief of legend who greeted Pakeha with a threat to devour them.

Hatupatu. The legend of the Bird-Woman. Tribal chants with the artillery guitar guns and bass meshed. The production leaves plenty of space in the music and accentuates the momentum of an invading force. A haka breaks and resolves the tension in the third part of the song.

Ahi Ka has a quieter, ominous intro with a traditional koauau flute playing. Built around the story of Queen Elizabeths first visit to New Zealand. Excerpts from a Ngati Whatua chiefs’ speech. Guitar modified through an effects pedal. The song bursts out with a haka and builds in fury. The Queen is heard. I find myself, most happy, at home in New Zealand.

Title track Tangaroa starts with military drums and reinterprets the same guitar and bass attack. It’s a sound of protest. Stuck inside a vicious cycle sings Lewis.

The brothers grew up with Dad relating the history of Maori and the tortuous path of European colonisation.

In the Far North you are surrounded by this when you travel through the Bay of islands and New Zealand’s first capital city Kororareka (Russell), to Waitangi, to the incredible coast line across Cape Reinga and down to the mystical Hokianga. A vast area of land devastated everywhere by bare denuded landscapes and vanished kauri forests.

Unforgiving is a complex song which starts off with a slower Folk intro. The world keeps crashing down around me/ Time and time again/ Unforgiving/ Undoing everything I worked for.

The lead singer has a strong and expressive tenor when the music is turned down. A plaintive lament with the guitar going from Folk to jarring Metal and finally taking off into some whirlwind Progressive. Pastoral to Prog and I’m sure the guys have been given fathers early Sabbath albums to feed on.

Crooked Monsters also takes a nuanced approach for a Metal band. The drums lead with dominant cymbals.

Buried Underground. A dark drone mantra. A monolithic rhythm riff in the style of Metallica. The drums are all over this.

Dad speeds all this up. Kai Whatu and the te reo chants are surrounded by melodic Sabbath style chord progressions. On these songs they build up the energy and momentum. The brothers can belt out powerful chest tone vocals.

Ihenga is the name of the explorer who discovered Lake Rotoiti in the Tasman. Melody which has the atmosphere of another North. The Nordic sounds of ice-cold ice, intense white and the aurora borealis. A waiata of female voices closes out the song.

The band has been embraced by the Metalheads of Europe and have toured to sell-out shows. They are met with fans who chant the te reo lyrics and even greet them with a haka of their own at times. The Viking Haka.

Tribes unite and celebrate in Valhalla with the closer, Down the Rabbit Hole.

An epic work for their second album. Passion, activism and fury. Imagine the All Black haka at its most intense, set to monumental attack Metal and you can see why this band is conquering all before them.

Ka Mate Metal!