Northland brothers Henry and Lewis de Jong formed the metal band Alien Weaponry as kids. Now they perform in te reo Māori at music festivals around the world. Photo: Supplied
Northland brothers Henry and Lewis de Jong (Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Raukawa) were just kids when they formed the metal band Alien Weaponry with their childhood friend Tūranga Edmonds. An intimate new documentary, Alien Weaponry: Kua Tupu Te Ara, gets inside their world.
In Alien Weaponry, Lewis sings and plays guitar and Henry drums.
As children, their musician dad Niel introduced the brothers to many different genres but the "balls to the wall" freedom of metal won out, Lewis says.
"[With metal] you don't have to restrain anything. I feel like it's the path of least resistance if something's about to blow."
There's a lot of emotion in metal music and it's also quite diverse and open-ended as a genre, says Henry, the band's drummer.
He and Lewis were also drawn to the scene's supportive community.
"You get that same kind of whakawhanaungatanga [belonging] in the metal community as you do growing up Māori."
Metalheads are basically a "bunch of geeks", Henry says.
"We're all kind of nerdy and geeky. It's people that are there because they love the music and they want to watch these bands and they're there to meet other people who also love the same bands that they do."
At metal shows, head-banging is de rigeur. Before going on tour Henry strengthens his neck with workouts so he can keep it up.
Since cutting off his long hair, though, achieving the same visual effect demands more vigour.
"I have to headbang twice as hard to look half as energetic as Lewis with his lovely dreads that carry all this cool energy."
At metal shows, there is always moshing - audience members roughly slamming into each other as they dance - but Lewis says that due to the mosh pit "code of conduct" actual fights are rare.
"There's this kind of unwritten rule of if you're getting into a mosh pit, you know what to expect.
"You're not intentionally trying to hurt anyone and if you see someone fall on the ground and is about to get hurt or trampled, everyone stops, and they pick him back up. People aren't there to fight or be the top dog. People are just there to listen to metal."
Alien Weaponry Photo: Lisa Crandall
Because of Alien Weaponry's kaupapa and use of te reo Māori, people who've never been to a metal show are often in the mix, Henry says, and need some reassurance about this "energetic expression".
"Lewis will often be like, 'They're gonna look like they're fighting you but they're not so do not actually start fights.'"
Henry and Lewis were just 16 and 14 when they started writing songs in te reo Māori for the school band competition Smokefree Pacifica Beats.
At the time they didn't have any grand plan to even be musicians, Lewis says, but taking te reo Māori around the world is now a big part of Alien Weaponry's mission.
Māori heavy metal band Alien Weaponry (left to right Henry Te Reiwhati de Jong, Tūranga Morgan-Edmonds and Lewis Raharuhi de Jong) in the 2025 documentary Alien Weaponry: Kua Tupu Te Ara Photo: Supplied
Due to the current cultural climate in Aotearoa, many Māori don't feel proud of their whakapapa, he says. And the international success of Alien Weaponry's te reo Māori songs helps to "bring value back" to a culture which isn't always celebrated at home.
"You can open up a Facebook comments section and read, 'Nobody cares about this dead culture, this dead language outside of this country, blah, blah, blah.' And then [we] go play Spain and have 15,000 people who don't speak English singing in Māori and you can be like, 'Well, that's not true at all.'"
Hearing people rave about Alien Weaponry doing great things for te ao Māori can sometimes lead to "a little bit of imposter syndrome" though, Lewis says.
"Sometimes we feel like we get possibly too much credit for what we do because at the end of the day we're just making music."
That said, he loves seeing how Alien Weaponry can bring together not just different cultures but differnet generations.
"I've heard it so often - 'My moko [grandchild] showed me you guys'."
Alien Weaponry: Kua Tupu Te Ara opens in cinemas on Waitangi Day (6 February 2025).
Alien Weaponry's third album Te Rā will be released on 28 March 2025.
Watch Alien Weaponry Shake Europe (a 2020 RNZ doco series) here.
