Album review: Alien Weaponry – Te Rā

Rightly or wrongly, our limitless online world enables us to access sounds as varied and unpredictable as Donald Trump soundbites, making true uniqueness hard to find. Indian metallers Bloodywood sensationally achieved this by mating metal with their native culture, and so it is with Alien Weaponry.

The best of this third album again feeds from the outfit’s Māori ancestry, the diminishing use of native tongue and traditional music cleverly revived and reformed into metal. In other hands, such disparate elements would produce only jarring disconnection, but Alien Weaponry’s fusion of rage, culture and melody meshes so effectively you could catch sharks in its net.

Mau Moko is an understandably warlike assault, riffing on the gruesome historical story of two Māori heads being taken and traded as trophies, and the centuries-old battle for their return. Even better is the extraordinary Tama-nui-te-rā – traditional percussion instruments ride high amid its billowing heaviness, possibly sticks or clappers, rendering this clattering rollercoaster quite distinct from anything you've heard in recent memory. It's not all history lesson, with the sharply hooked 1000 Friends bemoaning the evils of social media. 'Dissolution of real life / Only satisfied by seeing likes' is among frontman Lewis Raharuhi de Jong’s more memorable lines.

There are times when the trio don’t dig so hard for gold, with ponderous songs like Hanging By A Thread and Myself To Blame not venturing far from Metallica’s canon. While not venturing far from Metallica’s canon didn't do Metallica much harm, Alien Weaponry’s lure lies in the native fire that clearly underpins what they do. The gleefully stomping Te Riri o Tāwhirimātea, for example, is about the rage of a weather god prone to fiery clouds and hurricanes. Ponaturi, meaning 'loyalty', is all righteous fury, chest-busting chants and brutal, ascendent guitar work.

These probably aren't songs to hum along to at work, unless your work happens to involve exploding mountains and molten lava, but it will – for the most part – shake your foundations.

Verdict: 3/5

For fans of: Gojira, Jinjer, Anthrax

Te Rā is released on March 28 via Napalm