Alien Weaponry, Auckland NZ, 2020

Alien Weaponry

29th February 2020
The Town Hall, Auckland, New Zealand.

Review by Ali Nicholls. Photography by Matt Henry Mendonca.

After eight months away from the whenua, Waipu’s own Alien Weaponry have returned to Aotearoa to perform at this year’s Auckland Fringe Festival.

There is a trend with music that breaks new ground in Aotearoa; a few tracks are released into the wilderness of our listening population, and usually picked up by one niche or another to quietly brew in the sonic underground. But we’re a hard country to crack and so, with greater ambitions in mind than our public funding will support, some of our finest bands travel to greener pastures to make their mark. And only upon generating an international family of fans do bands start to get some headway in our music scene.

Since the debut of their freshman release Tū in 2018, Alien Weaponry have been on metal radars the world over. At home their rise to power was initially met with some confused celebration. A metal band using Te Reo Māori? Hell yeah! But a trio of white-passing Northland teens using te reo and metal in tandem to empower resistance to the ongoing colonization of Aotearoa through retellings of significant historical acts of resistance and rebellion by Māori? For a country that’s spent the last two hundred years years justifying imperialism in the name of social development, it’s a tricky pill to digest. We weren’t just dealing with the rise of a new band. We were dealing with the rise in a new era of rebellion, protest, and activism in kiwi music. And until Alien Weaponry began to make tidal waves in metal scenes across Europe, we still stepped carefully around them.

The announcement of Alien Weaponry’s success in Scandinavia with the awarding of number one album of the decade by Tuonela Magazine should not have come as a surprise. Aside from being a great band with catchy songs and a lively stage presence, Alien Weaponry’s storytelling, use of indigenous language, and focus on war history fits seamlessly into Scandi thrash metal scenes. And it seemed that this more than anything would be the key to their acceptance back home.

But after their show at the Town Hall last night, I don’t think acceptance into our norms is really what they’re going for. And that is even more exciting.

The show opens with possibly the world’s first Polynesian metal band, Shepherds Reign. Filivaa James (vocals, keys), Oliver Leupolu (guitar, production), Shaymen Rameka (drums) and Gideon Voon (guitars) make up the line-up with members hailing from Aotearoa, Samoa, Asia, and Europe. Bringing the hall to a hallowed silence with the ringing of the pātē, it takes only a moment to understand why this band is garnering such attention in the age of Alien Weaponry. Singing predominantly in English, their sound brings together heavy metal and hardcore with Polynesian drums and rhythms to form a hearty sound. Vocally, the songs are melody-driven, but there’s plenty of opportunity to wrestle in the grit of their sound with the shredding guitar riffs and lightning snare. Pulling tracks from their debut self-titled album, we’re also treated to their latest single ‘Le Manu’ as a finisher.

The audience mills around in anticipation following their set. From the back of the hall the doors are flung wide and the main act is walked into the centre by Te Manu Huia, where a haka silences the room and brings the band to the stage. As much as there is an element of performance about this, the men in the band are making a statement to the crowd: we are on Māori land, and as such a Māori kaupapa will be honoured here. It’s an iconic way to begin a show and sets the audience up to be schooled as well as wowed. In this space understanding is paramount, and if you want to respect the music then you must first respect tangata whenua.

The set opens with a series of tracks deeply embedded in criticising Aotearoa’s colonial cultural legacies. The ripping track ‘PC Bro’ demands the audience rip off the veil of prejudice woven by media. Moving into ‘Holding My Breath’, they speak to young men’s isolation and our prevailing mental health crisis especially amongst young tane Māori. From here, the band works through Tū, with each new track finding the rage and desperation at the heart of urgent conversations that lie beneath the smooth surface of our society. ‘Urutaa’, ‘Ahi Kā’, and ‘Kai Tangata’ stand out as audience highlights, generating a swirling mosh of metalheads who know all the lyrics in te reo.

There’s a liberation in the air here. The crowd is still predominantly Pākehā and male, but it’s certainly one of the most diverse crowds I’ve seen at a metal gig in Tāmaki Makaurau. Looking up from the sweat, black denim and whirling curtains of hair on the ground floor, I can see a row of young wahine Māori gripping the banisters of the circle, thrashing around and screaming lyrics that are by and for tangata whenua. Lewis de Jong throws up the gesture of devil horns, and it’s tossed right back by the crowd along with pūkana: this crowd has caught fire in the adrenaline of the performance, and tikanga Māori is providing the power behind the praise. Closing the show with encores ‘Tangaroa’ and ‘Rū ana Te Whenua’, the air retains the vibrations of empowerment that are radiating between the band and the crowd.

As far as their live performance goes, Alien Weaponry put on a spectacular show. The Town Hall served as a fantastic venue to welcome them back to the whenua, with a stage large enough for de Jong and Trembath to tear around; the audience and lights elevating their aesthetics from a rising local band to an internationally renowned act at the top of their field. Eight months of touring and performing have given them an astonishing edge, and aside from some minor technical difficulties their performance was faultless. A kicking and screaming retaliation against insidious violence, a formidable showcase of the determination of young people to enact ambitious change, and a celebration of Te Reo Māori rolled into one.

The momentum that Alien Weaponry have received for their music overseas is wholeheartedly deserved. But for people in Aotearoa, this band will change the landscape of our engagement with anti-colonial resistance, shape our cultural identity, and has opened an essential kōrero about what a tiriti-informed arts cultural identity can look like.

One of our most important bands in Aotearoa performing at the top of their game, and with such a promising future ahead. For those who want to be knee deep in the sweeping change that Alien Weaponry are on the cusp of unleashing, take the opportunity to tautoko this band live whenever you can. Tihei mauri ora!

Were you there at The Auckland Town Hall for this magnificent Heavy Metal gig? Or have you seen Alien Weaponry perform live somewhere else before? Tell us about it in the comments below!

Alien Weaponry Setlist:

1. PC Bro
2. Holding My Breath
3. Rage
4. Te Ara
5. Hypocrite
6. Urutaa
7. Nobody Here
8. The Things That You Know
9. Blinded
10. Ahi Kā
11. Kai Tangata
12. Whispers
13. Raupatu
14. Tangaroa
15. Rū Ana Te Whenua

Shepherds Reign Setlist:

1. Reign
2. End Of The Trial
3. Concrete Walls
4. Awaken The Ancestors
5. Why Can’t You Die
6. Legend
7. Le Manu

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