Rebecca Quilliam of Stuff.co.nz has issued the following report:

Police are looking into the employment of a police constable who is frontman of a thrash metal band, which calls for the eradication of the "weak and inferior". [Watch video report at this location.]

By day the heavily tattooed Rigel Walshe (Photo#1, Photo#2) works as a court escort in the Counties Manukau police district [in New Zealand].

But in his spare time he is lead singer and bass guitarist of the band DAWN OF AZAZEL in his spare time.

On the band's website, Walshe is quoted as saying the motivation for forming the band was to create a "dark extreme hateful metal".

It was reported on Sunday that Walshe had been warned by his superiors not to discuss his job with the media.

The district's professional standards manager, Inspector Keith Brady, said police knew of Walshe's band membership, but refused to comment on whether it was appropriate.

"It involves a police member's personal life, and I'm not prepared to discuss that in the media. There has been no specific investigation in respect of his involvement in that band."

But a spokesman for the Office of the Police Commissioner, Jon Neilson, told NZPA that Walshe's bosses were investigating his employment internally.

"The distinction is around his employment, not what he does in his private time."

Mr Neilson refused to comment on a quote on Walshe's website where he talked about strict gun control laws in New Zealand in relation to owning semi-automatic military style assault rifles.

"Thankfully as a member of the armed forces I do not have to endure the red tape to use weapons of the type mentioned," Walshe is quoted as saying.

Walshe also says on the website: "I'm most f––d off at people that are afraid to confront their fears, will waste their potential, and just follow like sheep, basically the weak and f–-ing mediocre that infest our world."

He is quoted as telling Depth Charge magazine the band's militant stage presence, including uniforms, banners and gasmasks "represent a conviction that is a fight to the death against the inferior elements of humanity".

"There is nothing to be gained from a subtle approach to eradication of the weak," he says.

For a full DAWN OF AZAZEL biography and discography, visit Rockdetector.com.

Download the DAWN OF AZAZEL tracks "Swathed in Impurity" (mp3) and "Master of the Strumpets" (mp3).