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ALIEN WEAPONRY
Te Rā
Napalm Records

History!
Battle lore!
Mysticism!
And learning a new indigenous language while headbanging?

Since releasing their acclaimed debut Tuin 2018, New Zealand modern groove trio ALIEN WEAPONRY have been putting their Māori where their moshpits are while bringing a refreshing flavor of traditional Kiwi aura to the metal scene. Comprised of guitarist/vocalist Lewis Raharuhi de Jong, Henry Te Reiwhati de Jong on drums and bassist Turanga Porowini Morgan-Edmonds, ALIEN WEAPONRY are certainly not alien to their growing global success thanks in part to their pulsating modern heavy grooves, their strong kinetic presence and sound and their unique vital blend of culturally profound lyricism in both English and Māori, the indigenous language of New Zealand. And their own arsenal of publicity includes two Aotearoa Music Awards and sharing the stages with the likes of GUNS 'N ROSES, SLAYER, GOJIRA and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Most recently, the band capped off 2024 with the release of a documentary film, Kua Tupu Te Ara, which premiered at the renowned Tribeca Film Festival.

"Yeah, but what have they done lately?", you may ask?

Well, they've mostly been hunkering down in relative isolation in the studio and crafting out their third studio album titled Te Rā with the guided help of veteran producer/mixer Josh Wilbur (LAMB OF GOD, GOJIRA, MEGADETH). And, particularly, if you're LAMB OF GOD frontman/longtime ALIEN WEAPONRY champion Randy Blythe reading this review, I would certainly assume that you've been on top of the band's recording/songwriting progress to date as you are, after all, the only outside guest musician on this album, delivering both a double-downing blisteringly high-energy vocal performance and hauntingly prophetic spoken monologue on "Taniwha".

That said, for an album whose title translates to the Māori word for sunshine, Te Rā and its topical subject matter sound anything but a happy-go-lucky type of listening experience. Messages of societal cultural appropriation, social anxiety and the threat of global warfare are prevalent throughout ALIEN WEAPONRY's mantra on this album. Turanga's 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, while frontman Lewis' English-language lyrics illustrate the impact when culture collides with disenfranchisement day to day on songs such as "Crown" and "Hanging By A Thread" which take us into the headspace where struggle pushes people to the brink of desperation, and "Blackened Sky" and "1000 Friends", in which Lewis addresses universal woes like the looming threat of World War III and the damaging effects of social media. Even the slow-paced yet darkly morose number "Myself To Blame" is the mature sound of the protagonist looking inward towards themselves and searching deep down for the true change from within that they need to fix. On album closer "Te Kore", Turanga dives into primordial nothingness at the root of the Māori origin story, while on "Mau Moko", he finds the middle ground between these perspectives. As the lyrics honor the traditional Māori practice of face tattooing, they also delve into the social costs of maintaining customs that are at-odds with dominant cultural norms.

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. And for all of the harnessed aggression and high-level energy which ALIEN WEAPONRY have put on full display on this album, it's perhaps their storytelling based on own life experiences which appear to be the heaviest matter in the universe.

4.5 Out Of 5.0

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