Waipū teen thrash metal band Alien Weaponry go number one with debut album Tū

Northern Advocate

13 Jun, 2018 12:00 AM3 mins to read

Te reo metal band Alien Weaponry new music video Kai Tangata.

The career path of Waipū teen thrash metal band Alien Weaponry continues to soar with the trio's debut album Tū entering the NZ album charts at No 1.

It's not a bad effort for the band, with much of the album sung in te reo Māori.

The band members - drummer Henry de Jong, 17, brother and singer/guitarist Lewis de Jong, 15, and bassist Ethan Trembath - recorded their debut album after a successful 2017 saw them win the Maioha Award at the Silver Scrolls for Raupatu, sung in te reo Māori.

Alien Weaponry will have their debut album sold and marketed around the world after signing a deal with a European record label and will play at some of the largest music festivals in Europe this northern summer.

"Te Reo Metal" became the official language of New Zealand music on Friday, when Tū entered the NZ album chart at No 1 and the success took the band a little by surprise, despite their great 2017.

Alien Weaponry's debut album Tū has gone to No 1 in the NZ album charts.

"We really hoped the album would get on the charts in New Zealand," Lewis said.

"But we never thought it would hit No 1 – especially when we heard that Katchafire (No 3) and Tami Nielson (No 2) were releasing albums on the same day. We are so grateful to everyone who has bought, downloaded and streamed our music, especially everyone who pre-ordered it through our crowd funding campaign and record stores, which would have helped get it to the No 1 spot."

New Zealand isn't the only place where Tū is taking off. The album has had more than a million streams on Spotify since its release on June 1 and tracks from it have been added to more than 7000 playlists worldwide, including Spotify's own metal genre playlists New Blood, New Metal Tracks, Kickass Metal and Thrash Metal Big 4 & Friends.

It has also been getting rave reviews from critics and fans all over the globe.

"[We] played Alien Weaponry's Tū in full today at 6pm and ... the notifications exploded. This is one badass album and their slot at Bloodstock Festival is gonna be one not to be missed!" said UK based Primordial Radio.

Overdrive magazine in Australia wrote, "By fusing their Māori culture within their music, Alien Weaponry offer the world of metal something completely new and special."