It’s recently emerged that before they were to play at ‘Storms of Damnation’ on November 11th in Berlin, Germany; black/death metal bands Spearhead (UK) and Kill (Sweden) saw that their appearances had been canceled due to the intervention of the European anti-fascist organisation ANTIFA.
Supposedly imposed on the grounds of past involvement with nationalist socialist parties, the cancellation came soon after the event was moved from Slaughterhouse club to Blackland venue to avoid physical clashes from protesters. It was reported however, that this in itself didn’t prevent a wave from ongoing political and legal pressure from happening; this is said to have ultimately led to the aforementioned bands’ removal from the one-off festival, which followed the extreme metal fest Nuclear War Now! earlier this month in Berlin.
A lengthy rant had soon been published (presumably written by the event organisers Voces De Ultratumba and Apocalyptic Visions of Death) through the onslite blog of underground fanzine Zero Tolerance, which offers this commentary on the incident with ANTIFA:
‘We both VOCES DE ULTRATUMBA and APOCALYPTIC VISIONS OF DEATH, as organizers of STORMS OF DAMNATION have never, nor ever will, choose the bands based on a political basis. The only political content is on the Antifa’s mind, and searching for it, they will always find the evil they are desperately looking for. We are not looking for NS bands, the Antifa has created them, spread the news on their blogs and newsletters, without taking into account nor accepting the statements of band members and organizers. As was the case with this event, we had people coming from all over the world and of the most varied ethnicities; Mexicans, Polish, Russians, Japanese, Italians, Guatemalans, Moroccans or Canadians; yellow, white, black and blue, all united together by the same metal spirit and eager to see and support the bands and the true underground, as our pre-sale list testifies.
We could also hark back to our very successful work together with a leftist organization like Kill-Town Bookings, though we never had nor were forced to align to their political sympathies, through which we presented a band from Israel twice (Sonne Adam), or a band from latinos from Los Angeles (Sadistic Intent), we are very far from being called a Nazi, nor supporters in any way of such ideologies. Lyrical content and artwork in a purely artistic context can’t be held as proof for that, even though there is none of it to be found in any of the 5 bands we wanted to present, same as an actor performing on a movie about the Third Reich is not a nazi for taking a role on it.’
The incident at ‘Storms of Damnation’ was not the first encounter between metal bands and ANTIFA; a notable episode took place in 2008 where the organisation campaigned against Ukranian folk/black metal band Kroda based on an apparent association with the NS scene. In the same year, Finnish heathen-themed band Moonsorrow received news of plans from ANTIFA to keep them from performing a show in Berlin on assumptions of Nazi sympathies and ties. Frontman Ville Sorvali had at the time issued a statement explaining his and his bandmates’ lack of political interest through their music, and eventually moved on to address this issue in a public online video with Týr’s Heri Joensen.
While European folk/pagan metal is often considered plagued by accusations of modern day racism, due in part to the stance of (admittedly few) bands on social topics of immigration over the years, the need to state one’s political views in music (or lack thereof) links well to the (apparent) statement above from Apocalyptic Visions of Death and Voces De Ultratumba. Exercising one’s own discretion is the general rule for enjoying any form of entertainment, if one holds strong, personal values – be they linked to social activism, spirituality or even politics. Yet if one simply hears that the creator behind a form of entertainment has sympathies that contradict said personal values, the following questions come into play
A) is it really fair to impose one’s own values onto others through restricting their words, even in the name of social betterment
B) is it even justified to go along with hearsay, rather than actual research into what one hears about said creators?
In the context of bigotry, it’s not uncommon for people to avoid entertainers or artists associated with extreme hatred towards a group of people; some take active measures to avoid the music of artists like Varg Vikernes or even classical composer Richard Wagner based on their openly stated racist views. At the same time, the talk from these musicians of celebrating European heritage and culture can also be stretched to apply to anyone else who uses similar ideas, even if not from a racial standpoint.
If we are to truly eradicate the problem of bigotry in contemporary society, is it fair to hold more than one person accountable for the supposed actions of one individual? Right wing nationalism and patriotism is a concern in modern day Europe, yet it should be remembered that there is a line between celebrating one’s cultural, ethnic heritage and inciting hatred against other groups of people based on their “foreign” status. While the two may at times become blurred for a number of people, it is hardly the solution to demand outright censorship of a set of entertainers based on what one of them may or may not have done in the past.
More developments in the Spearhead and Kill issue are likely to come.
ETA – Since ZT have taken down their news post, here is a link for now to what is essentially the same text on FaceBook.
Storms of Damnation FaceBook event
The author would like to add that she wishes to hear from people about this entry, and is thus encouraging constructive feedback (rather than blatant attacks and flames) to be posted in the comments section below.
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