From the editor

I don’t often envy other people’s lives, but I did feel a slight tug of something green-eyed when I met Alien Weaponry, the teenagers gracing this week’s cover.

After years slugging it out on the Rockquest circuit, the thrash metal band they formed in primary school is swiftly becoming an international sensation. Their debut album went straight to No 1 in the charts, they’re up for four NZ Music Awards next week and are about to head off on a tour of America. Checking YouTube, I see that this news has been greeted by floods of tears from overwhelmed teenage fans.

One member, 16-year-old Lewis de Jong, also happens to be in his high school’s steelpan band, The Panimals. When Your Weekend visited, he was highly distracted by a song he’d written for this outfit, and showed us a video clip of it being performed live, as he bounded around in a tie-dyed T-shirt and shades. Oh to be young, carefree and talented! As much as I love editing magazines, I find there’s just never enough steelpan drums involved.

There is something very appropriate about Alien Weaponry’s blend of metal and te reo Ma¯ori, and something very funny about seeing hardened fans in Slovenia raising their fists in solidarity and singing in unison, WHAKARONGO [‘‘listen’’].

They make it sound like it’s an ancient, mystical word for something very tough, rather than a word frazzled parents and teachers around New Zealand use to try to get their kids’ attention. See page 8.