Slipknot-endorsed Mapuche metal champions Mawiza have recorded a live session in Gojira’s studio – and you really need to watch it

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By ( Metal Hammer, Louder ) published

Hailing from Santiago, Chile, the four-piece are flying the flag for South America’s Indigenous Mapuche people

Mawiza in 2025
(Image credit: Andie Borie)

Rising groove metal four-piece Mawiza have recorded a new live session at Gojira’s recording studio, Silver Cord.

On Friday (December 4), the Santiago, Chile-based band released footage of them tearing through six songs, including a cover of Gojira’s Amazonia, in the Brooklyn space owned and operated by Gojira singer/guitarist Joe Duplantier. Watch the footage below.

Mawiza formed out of the ashes of extreme metal band Nunca Seremos Dichosos (‘We Will Never Be Happy’ in Spanish). After the release of Nunca Seremos Dichosos’ single Mawiza Ñi Piwke in 2019, the band decided to restart. The song was sung in Mapudungun, the language of South America’s Indigenous Mapuche people, leading the members to explore their Mapuche heritage and reject their Spanish-language name.

Mawiza supported Slipknot at Knotfest Santiago in 2023, and they supported Gojira in the same city that same year. They released their debut album, Ül (Mapudungun for ‘chant’), this July. The final song, Ti Inan Paw-Pawkan, features Joe Duplantier on guest vocals.

Talking to Metal Hammer in the summer, singer/guitarist Awka Mondaka said that the collaboration with Duplantier came about through Mawiza’s manager. “He has a relationship with Gojira, because they played a lot in Spain, in the Basque Country [not far from Gojira’s hometown of Ondres in southwestern France], and our manager is Spanish,” he explained.

Awka also outlined Mawiza’s mission to preserve the Mapuche culture and language, which is being threatened by the Chilean government. “We are searching for our own identity within our music,” he said. “Here in Chile, for the Mapuche Nation, it’s difficult to find your identity, because in the Chilean state it’s like, ‘You are all Chilean. There is no Mapuche, there is no Indigenous, there is no identity – just Chile.’”

Maiiza will play at Pumapu Rock Fest in Chile on January 10, before jetting over to Europe to play at Midsgardsblot festival in Norway in August.

Meanwhile, Gojira are currently touring their native France. Their recent shows have attracted attention by having elaborate, drone-powered, inflatable whales that fly above the crowd.

Matt Mills
Matt Mills
Contributing Editor, Metal Hammer

Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Metal Hammer and Prog, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, NME and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.

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