Northland thrash metal band Alien Weaponry score European record deal

Northland teen thrash metal band Alien Weaponry have signed a record deal with Napalm Records in Europe.

Northland teen thrash metal band Alien Weaponry will have its debut album sold and marketed around the world after signing a deal with a big European record label.

The band, from Waipu, has signed an international deal with Napalm Records just weeks after being singed up by a German-based management agency and slotting in gigs at major European rock festivals.

And it is the group's unique sound - they sing some of their songs in te reo Maori - that helped score them the deal.

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

Sebastian Muench, A&R for Napalm Records said the three Northland teenagers are "the youngest musicians we have ever added to the Napalm band roster, [and] also one of the most exciting and unique bands in recent years.

''Their combination of old-school thrash metal and Māori culture elements and language creates intense and energetic songs that should be highly attractive to all true genre fans, especially those who stopped listening to Sepultura after the Roots album," Mr Muench said.

The young musicians are just as thrilled to be working with Austrian-based Napalm – one of Europe's two big independent metal labels.

"Napalm is a great label for us to work with because their whakapapa includes a lot of thrash metal, which is where our roots are," Henry said.

"So we fit within their whanau, but we're also doing something different, introducing our own language and style … we think we will both grow and benefit from this relationship."

Ethan said being based in Waipu the band was pretty much as far away as you could get from the heavy metal centre of the world - which to most metal fans is Wacken, Germany - so this was a massive step for us towards establishing the band's career internationally.
Lewis said the Napalm deal would make a huge difference to how their debut album was released.

"We were planning to release the album ourselves, on Waitangi Day, and although we have had to put it back a few months, it will allow us to take our music to the world. Napalm are also going to do a vinyl release, which lots of our fans have been asking for, so in the end it will be worth the wait," he said.

The deal comes in the wake of the band signing with German-based management agency das Maschine last September, and announcing a European Festival tour which includes coveted slots at MetalDays in Slovenia and Wacken Open Air in Germany.

The album was recorded at Roundhead studios in Auckland over a period of two years, and will be released in the second quarter 2018, in advance of the band's European Festival tour, which kicks off with MetalDays in Slovenia at the end of July.