Photo Credit: Piotr Kwasnik

New Zealand’s indigenous metal trio, Alien Weaponry, has dropped their new album, Tangaroa via Napalm Records. From it comes “Hatupatu,” the third single from the album following “Tangaroa” and “Buried Underground.” The band performs the track entirely in their native language of te reo Māori. Alien Weaponry was formed in by brothers Henry and Lewis de Jong along with Tūranga Morgan-Edmonds.

The video for the song follows the journey of Hatupatu as he escapes the dangerous clutches of the fabled witch of the forest, the evil bird-woman Kurangaituku.

Drummer Henry de Jong says:

“The story of ‘Hatupatu’ is one Lewis and I grew up with – our father was the first person to tell us as children. Having a family connection with it only made creating a song more intriguing for us. Traditionally, Māori legends were passed down through families by re-telling them, not by having them written down in books. It only makes sense for us to be re-telling this story as our tūpuna (ancestors) did for generations. We cannot wait to share with the rest of the world.”

Watch the video below.