The power trio Alien Weaponry, an award-winning act from New Zealand, took its name from Neil Blomkamp's 2009 science-fiction horror film District 9. Their sound fuses high-velocity thrash with tribal, melody-rich groove metal while drawing deeply from the members' Māori roots. The group's debut full-length album, Tū, appeared in 2018, with the follow-up Tangaroa arriving three years later.
Brothers Lewis de Jong on guitar and vocals and Henry de Jong on drums formed the band in 2010 while still teenagers. Their path echoes that of Brazilian thrash and groove legends Sepultura, another family-led ensemble that merged sonic force with ancestral identity. As descendants of the Ngāti Pikiao and Ngāti Raukawa tribes, Alien Weaponry regularly weave the traditional Māori instruments known as taonga pūoro and the haka war dance into their performances. The de Jong siblings launched the project in Auckland when they were eight and ten; after relocating to Waipu, they completed the lineup in 2013 by recruiting bassist Ethan Trembath. The independent EP The Zego Sessions surfaced in 2014, after which the band toured New Zealand alongside alt-metal outfit Devilskin. Further national recognition came in 2016 when Alien Weaponry claimed victory in both Smokefreerockquest and Smokefree Pacifica Beats.
Two singles preceded the arrival of their first full-length release in 2017. Issued on Napalm Records the following year, Tū entered the New Zealand albums chart at number five. Trembath departed in 2020, making way for longtime high-school acquaintance Tūranga Morgan-Edmonds, also of Māori descent, whose first recorded appearance with the group occurred on the 2021 sophomore album Tangaroa.
