Band: Shuriken
From: Wellington, New Zealand
Their formation story:
(Isaac, guitar): "I spent the first 16 or so years of my existence lurking in the backwaters of the Manawatu. I've been living (mostly) in Pōneke for the past decade. I love playing and writing metal music! However, I wanted to do something a bit more visceral, raw, and also do a whole bunch of breakdowns.
"The lineup of Shuriken is Chrissy on bass, Séan on vocals, Ben on drums, and myself. In the beginning, we struggled to find a suitable name and we chopped and changed quite a bit. We like that it's one word, it has the modern metalcore anime thing, and hopefully inspires some martial arts in the pit [laughs].
Their sound in their own words:
"From a riff perspective, I draw heaps of inspiration from bands like Shattered Realm, Skinless, Malevolence, Sunami, and System of a Down, to name a few. I also listen to a lot of brutal death metal, slam, '70s dub reggae, lofi, and emo."
Latest release info:
"We just released out 2-track demo earlier this month."
What other bands from their region should we check out?
"The Wellington hardcore scene is very tight-knit. I'm stoked on how much of a community there is and how proactive people are with running events, starting new bands, and sharing music and art with others. No rivalry, no tall poppy syndrome, super supportive, wholesome.
"Everyone from Shuriken are in a bunch of bands, shout out your other bands and shout out some other local releases. Shoutout to Spiral, Visions of Hell, Cherry Punch, Dave and the Dirty Humans, Crying Club, Windswept, Imperial Slave, Bulletbelt, and Guttural Obliteration. Shoutout Start Today, Existence, Mak, Ben/Valhalla crew, all the community venues/art spaces around Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Nel, Datu, James, Aishani, and 04HC.
Check these releases out:
Brainwave, Another Foe & The Truth
Lucre, Hyperreal
Shuv-it, Exist
Distance, everything in exchange for nothing
Fvkvshima, Kuato
Young Gho$t, Way That I Roll
Deathtrippa, DEATHTRIPPA SEASON IS OVER.
Khailana, Diamond Boy
Vortekke, Weedwhacker Colonoscopy
Mudgoose, Biltong and a Pepsi
Celtic Death, Celtic Death
Demo 2025 is available on cassette via Existence NZ.
Shuriken on social media: Instagram
Tagged: shuriken
