After taking the world by storm last year with their new album ÜL, Mawiza are beating the drum for indigenous metal even louder in 2026. The modern day Mapuche warriors paid a visit to Gojira frontman Joe Duplantier’s Silver Chord Studio and performed to a packed house in Santiago before taking the stage alongside Mr. Bungle and Avenged Sevenfold.
“[…]they use heavy music as a megaphone to scream about their pride in their customs and their hatred of colonialism”, Metal Hammer wrote in naming Mawiza the most important new metal band of 2025.
Today, Mawiza are releasing a new video for the most fierce and combative song off ÜL. While at one with the forces of groove metal, “Ngulutu” (The Western Storm) declares war on encroaching urban decay.
“In Mapuzugun, ‘Ngulutu’ comes from Ngulu, which means West”, Mawiza’s vocalist and guitarist Awka says. “The song refers to an abysmal storm born in the turbulent Pacific Ocean that reaches the land in the form of bursting, shattered clouds. It’s a declaration of war on the so-called progress of large cities, merging ourselves as a single entity with nature”.
Watch the video for “Ngulutu” on the Season of Mist YouTube channel.
https://youtu.be/4YKRpCSpH5k?si=YoPyKabBhxH4J0fH
ÜL is available now on Season of Mist.
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Mawiza wrote “Ngulutu” six years ago in response to a social uprising in Chile, but the source material that inspired the latest single from ÜL dates as far back as the 16th century. “Both historical records and our oral tradition remember the ancient Mapuche war toki Michimolongko, who, together with his kona and weychafe, managed to destroy Santiago in 1541”, Awka recalls. “This song is a tribute to those ancient warriors and to the power of the natural territory that lies beneath the city”.
While the torrential groove of “Ngulutu” is bound to churn the pit when Mawiza storm the stage at Midgardsblot this summer, the band draws its strength from their ancestral land. The song’s chorus calls on the spirits of the Mapocho and Maipo Rivers with surging, shark-like riffs and drums that beat with the unrelenting force of a tidal wave. “Müley taiñ amuleal / Fewla, fey llemay (We must keep moving forward / Now it shall be done!)”, Awka chants, summoning a breakdown that brings the most towering cities crumbling into ruin.
“The two rivers named in the chorus of ‘Ngulutu’ are both vital for life in the territory and even for the lives of city dwellers”, Awka explains. “Yet when it rains enough, the rivers overflow, causing the collapse of the urban order. It reminds us that nature is an active entity that cannot be tamed, one that sets the path we must follow as Mapuche people”.
The video for “Ngulutu” was directed by Andrés Hetzler.
Additional video credits
Producers – Awka Mondaka, Andrés Hetzler
Cinematography – Soledad Gatica
Lighting – Pedro Salgado
Gaffer – Simón Jorquera
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