Shihad have released a new single, the first from a politically charged new album entitled Old Gods.
The new music's announcement emphasises how angry it is, with references to Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, the COVID-19 pandemic, Black Lives Matter and frontman Jon Toogod's "new understanding of his place in the world as a privileged white male".
"My whole consciousness changed. I haven't been able to see the world like I used to," he said in a statement.
"I'm going to talk about the fact that I don't want a future where white supremacy reigns supreme, especially with my bi-racial children.
"I don't want to see leaders like Trump hold sway over a big portion of the population on the planet. Cos it's not gonna end well."
Old Gods is Shihad's 10th studio album. Since forming in 1988, the band - which was renamed Pacifier between 2002 and 2004 - have won several awards and share a record with Hayley Westenra for having the most number one records of any New Zealand artist ever.
In 2010, Shihad was inducted into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame at the Vodafone NZ Music Awards.
The opening track of Old Gods is 'Tear Down Those Names', which was released this week. In it, Toogood sings that we're "witnessing history" and "banishing bigotry".
In subsequent tracks, lyrics are said to deal with topics such as conservative talk radio, the legitimisation of racism and the radicalisation of people through misinformation.
"All of this was feeding into, oh right, we've written the soundtrack, and this is what I'm going to talk about," said Toogood.
"I know it's just rock'n'roll at the end of the day, but it's my artform, and I've got a really f**king powerful band to play with, making powerful music, so I'm going to write about that shit."
Old Gods will be released on August 27 with streaming and download options, along with CD and vinyl.
