Author: Web Rock Radio News Dept

New Zealand groove metallers Alien Weaponry have announced details of their third album, Te Rā. It’s preceded by the release of a video for Mau Moko, a song that celebrates the practice of Māori tattooing.

“Māori have a rich history of marking traditions that were nearly lost during colonization,” says lyricist/bassist Tūranga Porowini Morgan-Edmonds. “These traditions are currently in the process of a much-needed cultural revival, and that inspired me. I wanted the lyrics to remind people that moko is, and always will be, a part of who we are.

“With the song’s video, we wanted to show the darker side of the history of moko and how the head trade [the trading of tattooed Māori skulls, many of which are displayed in European and American museums] played a part in the near extinction of the tradition. We fought through it and continue to fight for its revival still today!”

In addition to his role with Alien Weaponry, Morgan-Edmonds is a popular cultural content creator on social media, with 386,000 followers on TikTok and another 138,000 on Instagram.

Te Rā is the follow-up to 2021’s Tangaroa and will be released on March 28 via Napalm Records in several formats, including limited edition splatter vinyl with a booklet, patch and slipmat, marbled vinyl, black vinyl, and CD. It’s available to pre-order now.

“We really stepped it up this time, as we understood that this album had to go further,” says frontman Lewis Raharuhi de Jong. “We went through a lot of songs and scrapped entire sections of songs. We kept working them and working them until we got them right.

“Then, with the way we were pushing ourselves musically, I knew it was important to challenge myself lyrically as well. This time I delved into difficult emotional places and mental states. There’s a lot of existential dread running through the album, and I tried to find the right words to describe the indescribable.”

Alien Weaponry’s North American tour with Slayer legend Kerry King kicks off today (January 15) in San Francisco, CA, and ends in Austin, TX, on February 14, before the band return home to Aotearoa New Zealand for a run of headline shows. Full dates below.

Alien Weaponry: Te Rā tracklist

1. Crown
2. Mau Moko
3. 1000 Friends
4. Hanging by a Thread
5. Tama-nui-te-rā
6. Myself to Blame
7. Taniwha (feat. Randy Blythe)
8. Blackened Sky
9. Te Riri o Tāwhirimātea
10. Ponaturi
11. Te Kore

Alien Weaponry: 2025 tour dates

Jan 15: San Francisco The Regency Ballroom, CA*
Jan 17: Spokane Spokane Live Casino, WA*
Jan 18: Seattle Showbox SoDo, WA*
Jan 29: Portland Roseland Theater, OR*
Jan 20: Vancouver Commodore Ballroom, BC*
Jan 22: Calgary The Palace Theatre, AB*
Jan 23: Edmonton Midway Music Hall, AB*
Jan 25: Winnipeg Burton Cummings Theatre, MB*
Jan 26: Minneapolis The Fillmore, MN*
Jan 28: Milwaukee The Rave, WI*
Jan 30: Detroit The Majestic Theater, MI*
Jan 31: Cleveland House of Blues, OH*
Feb 01: Toronto Danforth Music Hall, ON*
Feb 02: Montreal L’Olympia, QC*
Feb 04: Boston Royale, MA*
Feb 05: Philadelphia Theatre of the Living Arts, PA*
Feb 07: New York Irving Plaza, NY*
Feb 08: Baltimore Baltimore Soundstage, MD*
Feb 10: Atlanta Buckhead Theatre, GA*
Feb 11: St. Petersburg Jannus Live, FL*
Feb 13: Houston House of Blues, TX*
Feb 14: Austin Emo’s, TX*

Mar 14: Kirikiriroa (Hamilton) Factory, New Zealand
Mar 15: Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington) Jim Beam Homegrown, New Zealand
Mar 20: Ngāmotu (New Plymouth) TSB Showplace, New Zealand
Mar 21: Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland) Powerstation, New Zealand
Mar 22: Ōtautahi (Christchurch) James Hay Theatre, New Zealand
Mar 23: Tāhuna (Queenstown) AJ Hackett Kawarau Bungy Centre, New Zealand

* with Kerry King and Municipal Waste

Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 39 years in music industry, online for 26. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.

Few acts in modern rock and metal do spectacle quite like Ghost. Tobias Forge’s snappily dressed band of (mostly nameless) ghouls have spent almost 15 years subverting expectations, building a legacy as one of the most unique and riotously entertaining forces in rock’n’roll – their merging of extreme metal aesthetics and camp, classic rock-indebted bangers unlike anything else out there.

Over the course of five studio albums and increasingly ambitious live shows, the Swedes have undergone the unlikeliest of evolutions, from underground metal curios to arena-filling party-rock staples. Their most recent album, 2022’s Impera, crystallised their journey so far: a grandiose rock’n’roll opera; Jim Steinman by way of Def Leppard, like ABBA writing songs for Iron Maiden. It showed just how fun the ‘devil’s music’ can be, their cheekily subversive, pseudo-satanic tropes delivered with a nudge, a wink and a tap-dance.

Through it all, Forge has remained the driving force, always looking ahead to plan what shape the next piece of the ever-expanding Ghost puzzle will take. In 2024, that piece took the shape of Ghost’s first ever full-length movie, a full bells-and-whistles concert film called Rite Here Rite Now, released to the world in June. That it took the band this long to try their hand at spooking Hollywood is probably the biggest surprise, but Forge’s infamous perfectionism meant they weren’t going to rush anything out; in fact, the seeds for a Ghost movie were planted “over a decade ago”.

“The idea of making a film has been in my head for years,” Forge told Classic Rock’s sister magazine Metal Hammer earlier this year. “I’ve always been adamant about the web episodes not being too detailed, because you don’t want to paint yourself into a corner, so there’s been a lot of loose threads. But I figured that I could take these loose threads, tie them together in some sort of comprehensible form, and that could be the film.”

Ah yes, the web episodes. In 2018, ahead of their fourth studio album Prequelle, Ghost began sharing a series of tongue-in-cheek mini-movies on YouTube, fleshing out the narrative behind the band’s mysterious, cult-like gimmick. Starring the band’s fictional frontman Cardinal Copia (later to become Papa Emeritus IV, both played by Forge), it helped Ghost’s fanatical followers understand more about the band’s concept and its ongoing evolution. Those videos, titled Chapters, fed directly into the plot that runs in the background of Rite Here Rite Now. Did we mention the film has a plot? Look, there’s a lot going on…

“We wanted it to be that someone who doesn’t know shit about the story gets brought up to speed pretty quickly,” Forge acknowledged. Ghost needed to somehow craft a film that could both appeal to diehard fans already wrapped up in the band’s story and also stand on its own as a kickass concert film.

Teaming up with director and regular Ghost collaborator Alex Ross Perry (Queen Of Earth, Her Smell) and Jim Parsons (concert films and live DVDs for the likes of Metallica, Slash, Def Leppard and U2), Forge settled on a production that would mostly focus on elevating Ghost’s stunning live show, but still sprinkle enough of a narrative around it to move the band’s story forward.

The concert footage was shot at two blockbuster gigs at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California in September last year, both packing a 21-song set-list and some extra theatrical shenanigans that the rest of Ghost’s Impera world tour didn’t get (a piano ballad! Spooky skeleton dancers!). Around all this, extra backstage scenes would be shot that would not only establish the film’s plot, but also connect directly to the live performance.

“It was logistically very complex,” explained Perry, who had previously worked with Ghost on a number of projects. “It was challenging being at the Forum, shooting scenes that we were going to connect with scenes that we would be filming five months later.”

Those filming logistics were far from the only challenge the band and their team faced: while pitching the film to Hollywood backers, Forge had difficulty getting his ideas across. As a result, he and Ghost’s management had to finance the whole thing themselves.

“The film had to go through discussions with finance people,” he explained. “And let’s just say that I sometimes struggled to convey what we were just talking about, and not everyone understood it.”

Ultimately they got the job done. More than a decade after its first strands began to weave their way through Forge’s brain, Rite Here Rite Now landed in cinemas in the summer.

It was worth the wait: the film’s plot, pushing Papa Emeritus towards what threatens to be an untimely demise, is cobweb-thin and little more than bonus versions of the band’s ‘Chapter’ videos stitched together, but it’s still good fun and sneaks in just enough emotional heft to give the concert footage a touch more gravitas. And what footage it is. Jim Parsons has done a marvellous job of giving fans a true front-row (hell, at times front-of-stage) view of Ghost’s bombastic live show in all its sparkly, celebratory glory.

It also highlights the endearing passion that Ghost’s fan base has built over the years: fans decked out in nun habits, Nameless Ghoul costumes and homemade Papa Emeritus masks can be seen all over the venue, gleefully singing, crying and dancing as Ghost hammer through modern classics like Dance Macabre, Rats and Square Hammer. It all makes for one of the most joyously entertaining rock concert films in recent years.

You have to imagine that, as 2025 gets underway, Ghost surely start the year with an even bigger following than 12 months ago. And that’s saying something.

Merlin moved into his role as Executive Editor of Louder in early 2022, following over ten years working at Metal Hammer. While there, he served as Online Editor and Deputy Editor, before being promoted to Editor in 2016. Before joining Metal Hammer, Merlin worked as Associate Editor at Terrorizer Magazine and has previously written for the likes of Classic Rock, Rock Sound, eFestivals and others. Across his career he has interviewed legends including Ozzy Osbourne, Lemmy, Metallica, Iron Maiden (including getting a trip on Ed Force One courtesy of Bruce Dickinson), Guns N’ Roses, KISS, Slipknot, System Of A Down and Meat Loaf. He has also presented and produced the Metal Hammer Podcast, presented the Metal Hammer Radio Show and is probably responsible for 90% of all nu metal-related content making it onto the site. 

“I get that some comic relief is always needed, but Jesus Christ leave it all alone and maybe just stop and see who needs help if you can.”

Entirely reasonable and laudable comments, though at the time of posting, the drummer was presumably unaware that whoever runs the social media accounts for his own band were actually sharing similar self-promotion posts: as observant writers for the Metal Injection website noticed and have pointed out, on January 13, Motley Crue were encouraging fans to buy tickets for their upcoming Las Vegas residency in March on Instagram Reels.

“Godspeed to those in loss.”

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne’s private jet, played Angus Young’s Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.

House Of Mustaine, the wine brand owned by Megadeth man Dave Mustaine, is expanding. The company, which is based in Nashville, TN and owns vineyards in Italy and California, is now offering a range of members-only events in Nashville alongside a series of “global curated luxury excursions.”

“The creation of House of Mustaine was born from a desire to blend our passions for music, culture, and travel with the timeless artistry of winemaking,” says company president Pamela Mustaine. “Just as Dave pioneered a genre with Megadeth, we wanted to pioneer something new in the world of wine.

“This journey was inspired by a love of discovering rare, lesser-known varietals and sharing those experiences with others. Our family has always pushed boundaries, whether in music or in life, and House of Mustaine is a reflection of that spirit: rebellious, innovative, and dedicated to excellence.

“It’s not just about wine; it’s about capturing moments, stories, and history in every bottle. House of Mustaine is the sequel to our family’s legacy.”

Among the company’s new offerings are a wine dinner at Yola – an Italian restaurant in Nashville – and a five-course celebrating “the intersection of art, food, and wine”, organised in conjunction with the city’s Frist Art Museum.

International outings include a six-day trip to Northern Thailand, where wine lovers may engage in zip-lining, elephant safaris and white-water rafting alongside local culinary pursuits, and a programme in Morocco that includes camel trekking and a hot air balloon ride. UK wine freaks may wish to join the company’s London outing, which allegedly includes time on a Murder Mystery Train.

Joining Pamela (Mustaine’s wife) on the House Of Mustaine management team are daughter Electra (VP / Sommelier), and son Justis (company strategist).

“Our adventures are never without a bit of chaos and laughter,” says Electra. “If anyone is versed in navigating the unknown, it’s us! There was the time we got padlocked into our hotel room or when our GPS led us straight into a riverbed of an ancient borgho.

“A recent one that stands out is running out of gas in the Sibillini Mountains while hosting club members during harvest. In Italy, time is fluid, and we were racing to make it to a horseback riding experience. Let’s just say we learned the hard way that gas stations are scarce in most mountain ranges, especially certain types of gas.

“Picture us pleading with locals in broken Italian for fuel while the sun ticked down – somehow, we always manage to find a way. These experiences, potentially catastrophic to most, have given us stories that reflect the adventurous, unpredictable spirit of House of Mustaine.”

Fans of Megadeth and/or wine can purchase House Of Mustaine membership online.

Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 39 years in music industry, online for 26. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.

When the interviewer referenced the deaths of Hendrix, Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, and John Lennon, Bono responded by saying that he always “felt very angry” about the loss of such great musicians, adding, I just wonder about the records they were about to make or could have made… especially Jimi Hendrix.”

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne’s private jet, played Angus Young’s Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.