The Sunday Series: Alien Weaponry

“Alien Weaponry is a heavy metal musical trio from Waipu, New Zealand, formed in Auckland in 2010 by brothers Henry and Lewis de Jong. The trio consists of drummer Henry de Jong, guitarist Lewis de Jong and bass player Ethan Trembath. All three members have Māori ancestry and several of their songs are written in te reo Māori, the Māori language “says Wikipedia.

“Alien Weaponry was formed in Auckland in 2010 by drummer/singer Henry de Jong and guitarist/singer Lewis de Jong who were only 10 and 8 years old respectively.^[1] The brothers named the band Alien Weaponry after watching the film District 9. After moving to the small town of Waipu they were joined by electric bass player and vocalist Ethan Trembath in April 2013.^[2] All three have Māori ancestry.^[3] Trembath replaced Wyatt Channings who had briefly played electric bass guitar for the band the previous year. The band are managed by the de Jong boys’ father Niel, himself an experienced rock musician and audio engineer. Their mother Jette is also involved with the band, assisting with tours and publicity.^[4]

In 2016, the band won both the national finals of Smokefreerockquest and Smokefree Pacifica Beats—the only band to have ever won both events.^[5] They had previously come second in the 2015 Smokefree Rockquest, and been regional finalists for four years running. The band also toured with New Zealand chart topping band Devilskin on their “We Rise” tour in 2014 and performed at The Powerstation in support of Shihad in May 2015.^[6]^[7] Alien Weaponry are believed to be youngest recipients to have ever received New Zealand on Air funding with their song “Rū Ana Te Whenua” in October 2015. They received a $10,000 grant to complete recording of their song and produce a video in 2015^[8] and then another two $10,000 NZ On Air grants in 2016 to record their singles “Urutaa” and “Raupatu” and produce music videos. In 2016, the band was named by UK Metal Hammer Magazine as one of New Zealand’s top 10 hard rock and metal acts.

The band toured Europe and North America for the first time in the latter half of 2018, performing as a supporting act for Ministry in their American tour.^[9] During their European tour, they performed at several large music festivals, including Metaldays, and Wacken Open Air, the largest heavy metal music festival in the world. The band had stated that they had a goal of performing at Wacken before Henry, the drummer, was 20. They succeeded in that goal, as Henry was only 18 at the time of their performance.^[10

I love this Wikipedia narrative for Alien Weaponry. The author could have been talking about Beethoven the language is so formal and factual. It’s the videos which introduce you to the intensity of the music and performance – probably the same for Beethoven.

On 17 February 2019, the band (alongside Radio New-Zealand) released a ten part documentary series entitled: ‘Alien Weaponry Shake Europe’, that documented their European tour the year prior.^[11] In December 2018, Holding My Breath was made the official theme song for NXT TakeOver: Phoenix (series of specials produced by WWE featuring NXT brand).^[12]

Make sure you watch all ten episodes. It’s fascinating to see where they went as well as the music they played. And here’s the link to the Alien Weaponry YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0NV5iRVirkMhR9XJbZoePQ

Alien Weaponry: the journey.

This article has been compiled from information images and video available online.

Rosemary Balu. Rosemary Balu is the founding and current Managing Editor of ARTbop. Rosemary has arts and law degrees from the University of Auckland. She has been a working lawyer and has participated in a wide variety of community activities where information gathering, submission writing, community advocacy and education have been involved. Interested in all forms of the arts since childhood Rosemary is focused on further developing and expanding multi-media ARTbop as the magazine for all the creative arts in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand