Discussion Of Anti-Fascist Black Metal and NSBM.
I love black metal. Out of all of the sub-genres of heavy metal, black metal is the one that speaks to me the most. Although I love it almost unconditionally, there is a part of black metal that has always bothered me a lot, to the extent that I feel deeply embarrassed of it. I’m talking about NSBM. For the uninitiated thats National Socialist Black Metal, Black Metal that is ideologically and lyrically obsessed with Hitler's National Socialist Party, yes that's Nazi Black Metal (I’ll be using the term ‘Nazi’ in this discussion, I’m not playing Richard Spencer’s dirty little game of re-branding Nazism as ‘Alt-Right’. I’m also not going to name any of the NSBM Bands, it’s easy to find them and I’m not giving them the oxygen of publicity).
About 18 month ago I was talking to a metalhead friend about black metal. I suggested that she have a listen to a particular type of Black Metal (atmospheric) as I felt it was emotionally close to some of the music that she listened to, and I thought she would get a lot out of it. I found her response a little worrying, “I don’t listen to Black Metal, I’m not a satanist or a fascist so I don’t think It’s for me.” She was someone who I know has been a fan of Heavy Metal since she was a teenager, and she thought Black Metal was only about satan or fascism? Was this really how Black Metal was perceived from outside? Do people automatically think I’m a Nazi simply because I’m wearing an Immortal shirt?
My friend and I carried on talking, I explained to her how much of Black Metal was actually Nazi (not very much), and I think I managed to convince her that her impression of Black Metal wasn’t accurate, in fact, I’m pretty certain she does now listen to Black Metal. I managed to clear up my friends misapprehension, but how many other metalheads have avoided Black Metal due to this perceived connection to Nazism? It’s not just how Black Metal and it’s fans are seen from people outside of the scene that bothers me. I have always been baffled by the use of Nazi and Fascist ideologies in Black Metal, anyone who knows anything about Heavy Metal or Black Metal should be bemused by the connection, it simply does not fit. Let me explain.
Fascism is a political ideology that emerged in the first half of the twentieth century. The term was first used by Benito Mussolini, when he named his political party Combat Fascism, shortly after the end of the first world war. Fascism is an ultra right wing ideology that is based on having a political and financial elite, who rule over the masses. Fascist parties and leaders tend to use nationalistic rhetoric, racism and prejudice against immigrants as a way to gain popular support. Fascism is usually anti-democratic, fascist parties use democracy to come to power, before dismantling all democratic structures from the administration of their society. Fascism is about power, maintaining power and not allowing dissent by crushing freedoms and individuality. Fascism usually goes hand in hand with extreme versions of capitalism, both ideologies are based on exploitation of the weak or poor (the racist / anti-immigration rhetoric is usually used to distract people from the damage to society caused by capitalism).
Nazism is an ideology that grew out of fascism. Created by Hitler, Nazism is an extreme version of Fascism. Fascism states that subjugation of certain parts of society is acceptable, that people of different races, sexes, classes, sexual preference etc. have different values, so treating people in dissimilar ways based on these differences is acceptable. Nazism takes this further. Nazism states that not all races have a right to life, and that the extermination of those races is acceptable as it allows races that do have a right to life to have more space and resources. As Hannah Arendt put it in The Origins Of Totalitarianism “The principle difference between Fascism and Nazism is violence, mass murder”. If you display the swastika, if you do the Nazi salute, if you wear a T-shirt with the slogan ‘Hitler Was Right’ on it, then you are calling for racist mass murder. Not just condoning it, calling for it, you are screaming for thousands of people to be killed due to being slightly different from the norm.
So, how does an authoritarian, deeply controlling, capitalist loving doctrine fit in with Black Metal? Black Metal is a musical style that has always championed individuality. One of the main reasons Black Metal has so many sub-genres and sub-sub-genres and sub-sub-sub-subbity-sub-genres is due to this love of individualism. Bands are criticised for sounding like other bands. Experimenting and combining different musical styles is SO Black Metal, no other genre of metal would have produced Enslaved, Sigh, Thy Catafalque, Solefald, Ulver or A Forest Of Stars. A political ideology that hates individualism and has as one of it’s aims a population that thinks, acts and feels the same way is the antithesis of this. If Black Metal was naturally a right wing thing, then the level of creativity and individuality that it contains would not exist.
Nazism is about authority and control of a population. To put it bluntly, you do as you are told or you are killed. So, Nazism is about being good, it’s about conforming. Conforming? How is that a trait of Black Metal? If Black Metal is anything, it’s Rebellious. NSBM bands are telling you obey, to observe the rules, to be good little children that do as their leaders tell them. At the moment America has a very right wing President who is supporting White Suprematists (Basically American Nazis who promote inbreeding), so at the moment American Nazism involves saluting the flag and supporting the president. How is this rebellious? The world we live in is very right wing, how is supporting an ideology that is a slightly more extreme form of the status quo an act of rebellion? It isn’t, not in any way. Most NSBM bands would happily agree with anything that is published in The Daily Mail, included in a UKIP pamphlet or broadcast on Fox News. All the views put forward by NSBM bands are the hight of conformity, masquerading as some form of revolutionary act. Stop telling me to be good and conform, I didn’t behave when my parents told me to, I’m buggered if I’m conforming because a corpse-painted Nigel Farage say so.
Anti-individualism and pro-conformity aren’t traits I’d associate with Black Metal. Maybe rampant capitalism and commercially, are essential qualities of Black Metal? No, not even close. How many times have you heard of Black Metal bands only releasing 500 copies of an album, and then only 250 on tape and 250 on vinyl? How many times have you heard of Black Metal bands having no band pictures, or not allowing journalists to know who they are? Joseph Goebbels pioneered many techniques that are still used in the PR industries, the rampant saturation of advertising and marketing we have in our society grew out of Nazi experiments with propaganda.
Nazi Germany was probably the most effectively branded society in history. Strong Brand Identity? Again, the opposite of what we see if we look at Black Metal. Fascist and Nazi societies tend to have very commercialised media and culture. The Nazi’s were massively supported by large corporations.The Holocaust was sponsored by major brand names that would be recognisable to anyone reading this today. A scene as underground and anti-commercial as Black Metal does not fit into this at all. Also the home made, do it yourself ethos of Black Metal is far closer to a punk, and therefore Anarchist (non-authoritarian Left wing) outlook than an ultra-commercial Nazi one.
Right, well capitalism is out then, maybe this is about Satan, maybe the connection with Satanism is how you get Nazism into Black Metal? I am an atheist, I take as much notice of Satanists as I do of Christians; none. I was, however, raised in a very, very christian household. I am aware of the Fall of Lucifer myth that is common to the abrahamic religions. As I understand it, Lucifer and the other angels that rebelled against god, rebelled because god would not give them free will. Angels were gods slaves, and lucifer led a rebellion against god to free himself and his fellow angels. Lucifer free’d slaves, Lucifer was an anarchist rebelling against an oppressive, authoritarian leader. Germany was a devoutly Christian country in the first half of the twentieth century, Hitler used this, he compared Nazi leaders to saints and himself to Jesus Christ. No matter what the plot lines of Indiana Jones or Hellboy films might suggest, Hitler was not a satanist, Nazism isn’t getting into Black Metal that way.
O.K. Satanism’s out then. Odin, maybe Odinism is a way to crowbar Nazism into Black Metal, could it be those pesky vikings? No, that doesn’t work either. Although viking raiding parties are very well known, the vikings weren’t all about violence and conquest. They also used their seafaring skills to trade and settle areas. In viking society, authority was from a Ground Up model, not a Top Down model (authority is given from the masses to leaders that are accountable to their people, rather than authority being forced on them from an unaccountable authoritarian leader). Viking society was much more like an anarchist society, people were governed by consent, involved in their own government, not by a threat from above. The same can be said about pre-roman Anglo Saxon society, much closer to an anarchist model, rather than Fascist. Although, with the last 2 points, I should say that comparing ancient societies with modern political ideologies, is always going to be problematic.
Fascism and Nazism are both openly racist ideologies. Heavy Metal grew out of the Blues, a type of music intimately associated with Black culture, that was an important source of strength in the civil rights movement. If The Nazi’s had won the second world war, or if Britain had gone fascist in the 1930’s, the British Blues explosion of the 1960’s would never have happened. No Hendrix coming to this country in 1967 and influencing just about everyone who had ever picked up a guitar. No Cream, no Blue Cheer, no Earth Blues Band, no Black Sabbath, so no Heavy Metal, and by extension, no Black Metal.
Nazism and Fascism tend to be homophobic as well. Apart from Black Sabbath, probably the most important band involved in the formation of Heavy Metal was Judas Priest. Lead singer of Judas Priest and all round Metal God Rob Halford is gay. If fitting in with your NSBM orthodoxy means hating Rob Halford, well, that's just about the least metal thing I can think of. Also, Rob Halford is responsible for the ‘look’ that we associate with Heavy Metal, maybe the NSBM bands and fans should think about where the leather and studs came from.
There are also bands who use Nazi semiology whist claiming that “We are not a political band, so it can’t have been a political act”. Well once you Nazi salute or use the swastika you have made your band into a political band, that's how it works. Do a political act, you’re a political band.
As you have probably picked up already, If I was going to ascribe a political ideology to Black Metal (I’m not sure if we should be making music fit in with political ideologies, but i didn’t start this, the NSBM bands did), then it would be Anarchism and not Fascism or Nazism. Black Metal simply isn’t authoritarian, commercial, conforming or narrow in it’s outlook. Black Metal feels like anarchism.
For quite a few years I’ve been bothered by NSBM, but i’ve also been bothered by the attitude of a lot of Black metal fans to NSBM. The occasional bit of condemnation of the metal media, along the lines of “this publication does not agree with, or condone the views etc.” just doesn’t cut it. It felt like metalheads are a little embarrassed of speaking out, terrified to say what they think in case someone accuses them of not being ‘Cvlt’ or ‘True’. I agree with Dietrich Bonnhoeffer when he said: “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”
(Bonnhoeffer was a member of the German Resistance to Hitler, he was murdered by the Nazi’s 2 weeks before the end of the Second World War) So, in the last couple of years I’ve been pleased to see that Black Metal has started to kick back at these viscous, deeply un-metal idiots. The first band I was aware of were Dawn Ray’d. Although Dawn Ray’d have an anarchist stance rather than strictly anti-fascist, as anarchism is the political opposite of fascism, they have a clear anti-nazi sentiments. Dawn Ray’d have been joined by a whole host of other bands that are taking a clear anti-nazi attitude to Black Metal, but also an obvious anti-NSBM stance.
Calling out NSBM bands for what they are: conforming racists who are so part of the status quo it would be laughable if some people didn’t take them seriously. Bands like Libtrigger, Allfather, Underdark, Gaylord and Neckbeard Deathcamp (I’ll be reviewing Gaylord and Neckbeard Deathcamp after this discussion), have stepped up to push in the opposite direction. Gaylord’s record company, Blackened Death Records have also put out a compilation called WOMAN (Worldwide Organisation of Metalheads Against Nazis), and WOMAN 2 is on it’s way. It’s almost as if there was a massive number of metalheads who felt the same way about NSBM, and were just waiting for an anti-fascist heavy metal movement to start!
A lot of the bands are very wary of letting people know who they are, as the reaction from the NSBM world has been very angry and violent (it’s amazing how easily triggered these Nazi snowflakes are). The people who are behind these bands are taking a real risk by attacking NSBM. Now THAT is radical, that is rebellion. The natural place to find Anti-fascist Black Metal is on Bandcamp, have a look at a few bands, they’ll help you find more (this is a proper musical movement after all), and have a listen to some truly radical bands.
I’m sure that there are NSBM fans reading this and composing threats and insults about me, they’re probably using words like Loser, Faggot or Poser. I’m probably making them incredibly angry as they don’t have the intellect or knowledge of politics or history to counter any of my arguments. They are probably clutching at their tiny penises for comfort. To these people I’d like to take this opportunity to say: Stop telling me to conform, don’t tell me to be good, how dare you tell me what music I can and cannot listen to, and I don’t want to sound intolerant, but: Bugger off out of my sub-culture and stop embarrassing the rest of us who aren’t braindead racist arseholes.
And, one last point about NSBM; Hitler hated music that was not traditional and German, he was a particular fan of Bavarian Oompah bands. So maybe NSBM bands should start learning the Trombone or the Tuba.
Neckbeard Deathcamp: White Nationalism Is For Basement Dwelling Losers (Prosthetic Records)
As you’ve probably picked up from the piece above this, Neckbeard Deathcamp aren’t a fan of NSBM. I can’t tell you anything about the members of the band as no information is available due to the level of risk Anti-Fascist bands take criticising Nazism. As America is a country where White Supremacy and guns are legal, speaking out is risky.
Neckbeard Deathcamp play War Metal. That's the most extreme form of Black Metal that exists. It’s deliberately difficult and impenetrable, war metal bands go out of their way it alienate their listeners. The music is low-fi and as brutal, fast, and nasty as it’s possible to get. To my ears the style is quite similar to Black Witchery. A lot of metalheads will not like this album, it’s just too extreme. I’ve always quite liked War Metal, it is niche, but if you want staggering brutality, there really isn’t anything that will touch it. This album has horrific, de-tuned, dense riffs, echoey guttural vocals and blast-beats that, well, sound like a war.
Lyrically, this is going to annoy all those oh so serious NSBM fans. The album mercilessly rips the piss out of the NSBM scene, the music, the culture, the ideology, nothing is safe. Humour has always been an effective tool against extreme political ideologies. Thats why satirists are the first people to be arrested when a despot comes to power. Nothing destroys the veneer of power more than being laughed at. Neckbeard Deathcamp are in the same business as Charlie Chaplin was in, when he made The Great Dictator. Song titles like XXXL Obersturmfuhrer Leather Duster, don’t really need to be explained. They also rip into the behaviour of Neckbeards online with the wonderfully titled Please Respond (I Showed You My Penis). The album is brought to an end by an outro called The Fetishization Ov Asian Women Despite A Demand For A Pure White Race, which is an industrial noisescape, with a pretty intelligent voiceover that deals with how people are conned into these beliefs.
This is a really extreme album. It won’t be to everyone's taste. I really like it, and I love the band simply for existing. Anyone who can annoy this many Nazi’s, is alright with me. 7/10
Gaylord: The Black Metal Scene Needs To Be Destroyed (Blackened Death Records)
Gaylord is an anti-fascist, anti-NSBM band from the mind that brought you Blackened Death Records, Suicide Wraith, Olivia Neutered John and a whole heap of other projects; @PopeRichard (I’ll use the twitter handle rather than his name for obvious reasons). Musical this is less abrasive than the Neckbeard Deathcamp album. The style of Black Metal is closer to a fuzzy second wave sound, it’s quite a simple low-fi production job, but that helps the songs come through more. There is some variation, the track Summoning Kreig Facebook Legions has a hypnotic, repetitive feel that reminds me of Von. the final track All hail The New Wave has a slower more traditional metal feel to it.
Lyrically, Gaylord does not mess about, song titles like Neo-Nazi Metalheads Will Be Hanged And Their Broken Corpses Openly Mocked, doesn’t leave much to the imagination. Nor does Coward Authoritarian Apologist Bootlicking Kvlt, but why should Gaylord pull their punches when they are dealing with bands promoting mass murder and intolerance. What is going on here is Gaylord are talking about NSBM bands in the same way NSBM talk about anyone who disagrees with them. He’s just playing them at their own game, and man it makes them mad (which is just beautiful to watch). The song Odin Doesn't Listen To NSBM You Inbred Alt-Right Shitheels, is a long list of bands being told to Fuck Off. This might sound a little basic, but I’ve been waiting years to hear someone tell Burzum or Graveland to Fuck Off, so I loved it. The last track All Hail To The New Wave, is a list of new Anti-fascist bands to check out, which I’ve found very helpful!
The Black Metal Scene Needs To Be Destroyed, is a great album. Not just for it’s lyrical content, it’s a great Black Metal album without the lyrics, song and album title. The Anti-Fascist, Anti-NSBM stance take it from being a great album, to being an important one. 8/10
I love black metal. Out of all of the sub-genres of heavy metal, black metal is the one that speaks to me the most. Although I love it almost unconditionally, there is a part of black metal that has always bothered me a lot, to the extent that I feel deeply embarrassed of it. I’m talking about NSBM. For the uninitiated thats National Socialist Black Metal, Black Metal that is ideologically and lyrically obsessed with Hitler's National Socialist Party, yes that's Nazi Black Metal (I’ll be using the term ‘Nazi’ in this discussion, I’m not playing Richard Spencer’s dirty little game of re-branding Nazism as ‘Alt-Right’. I’m also not going to name any of the NSBM Bands, it’s easy to find them and I’m not giving them the oxygen of publicity).
About 18 month ago I was talking to a metalhead friend about black metal. I suggested that she have a listen to a particular type of Black Metal (atmospheric) as I felt it was emotionally close to some of the music that she listened to, and I thought she would get a lot out of it. I found her response a little worrying, “I don’t listen to Black Metal, I’m not a satanist or a fascist so I don’t think It’s for me.” She was someone who I know has been a fan of Heavy Metal since she was a teenager, and she thought Black Metal was only about satan or fascism? Was this really how Black Metal was perceived from outside? Do people automatically think I’m a Nazi simply because I’m wearing an Immortal shirt?
My friend and I carried on talking, I explained to her how much of Black Metal was actually Nazi (not very much), and I think I managed to convince her that her impression of Black Metal wasn’t accurate, in fact, I’m pretty certain she does now listen to Black Metal. I managed to clear up my friends misapprehension, but how many other metalheads have avoided Black Metal due to this perceived connection to Nazism? It’s not just how Black Metal and it’s fans are seen from people outside of the scene that bothers me. I have always been baffled by the use of Nazi and Fascist ideologies in Black Metal, anyone who knows anything about Heavy Metal or Black Metal should be bemused by the connection, it simply does not fit. Let me explain.
Fascism is a political ideology that emerged in the first half of the twentieth century. The term was first used by Benito Mussolini, when he named his political party Combat Fascism, shortly after the end of the first world war. Fascism is an ultra right wing ideology that is based on having a political and financial elite, who rule over the masses. Fascist parties and leaders tend to use nationalistic rhetoric, racism and prejudice against immigrants as a way to gain popular support. Fascism is usually anti-democratic, fascist parties use democracy to come to power, before dismantling all democratic structures from the administration of their society. Fascism is about power, maintaining power and not allowing dissent by crushing freedoms and individuality. Fascism usually goes hand in hand with extreme versions of capitalism, both ideologies are based on exploitation of the weak or poor (the racist / anti-immigration rhetoric is usually used to distract people from the damage to society caused by capitalism).
Nazism is an ideology that grew out of fascism. Created by Hitler, Nazism is an extreme version of Fascism. Fascism states that subjugation of certain parts of society is acceptable, that people of different races, sexes, classes, sexual preference etc. have different values, so treating people in dissimilar ways based on these differences is acceptable. Nazism takes this further. Nazism states that not all races have a right to life, and that the extermination of those races is acceptable as it allows races that do have a right to life to have more space and resources. As Hannah Arendt put it in The Origins Of Totalitarianism “The principle difference between Fascism and Nazism is violence, mass murder”. If you display the swastika, if you do the Nazi salute, if you wear a T-shirt with the slogan ‘Hitler Was Right’ on it, then you are calling for racist mass murder. Not just condoning it, calling for it, you are screaming for thousands of people to be killed due to being slightly different from the norm.
So, how does an authoritarian, deeply controlling, capitalist loving doctrine fit in with Black Metal? Black Metal is a musical style that has always championed individuality. One of the main reasons Black Metal has so many sub-genres and sub-sub-genres and sub-sub-sub-subbity-sub-genres is due to this love of individualism. Bands are criticised for sounding like other bands. Experimenting and combining different musical styles is SO Black Metal, no other genre of metal would have produced Enslaved, Sigh, Thy Catafalque, Solefald, Ulver or A Forest Of Stars. A political ideology that hates individualism and has as one of it’s aims a population that thinks, acts and feels the same way is the antithesis of this. If Black Metal was naturally a right wing thing, then the level of creativity and individuality that it contains would not exist.
Nazism is about authority and control of a population. To put it bluntly, you do as you are told or you are killed. So, Nazism is about being good, it’s about conforming. Conforming? How is that a trait of Black Metal? If Black Metal is anything, it’s Rebellious. NSBM bands are telling you obey, to observe the rules, to be good little children that do as their leaders tell them. At the moment America has a very right wing President who is supporting White Suprematists (Basically American Nazis who promote inbreeding), so at the moment American Nazism involves saluting the flag and supporting the president. How is this rebellious? The world we live in is very right wing, how is supporting an ideology that is a slightly more extreme form of the status quo an act of rebellion? It isn’t, not in any way. Most NSBM bands would happily agree with anything that is published in The Daily Mail, included in a UKIP pamphlet or broadcast on Fox News. All the views put forward by NSBM bands are the hight of conformity, masquerading as some form of revolutionary act. Stop telling me to be good and conform, I didn’t behave when my parents told me to, I’m buggered if I’m conforming because a corpse-painted Nigel Farage say so.
Anti-individualism and pro-conformity aren’t traits I’d associate with Black Metal. Maybe rampant capitalism and commercially, are essential qualities of Black Metal? No, not even close. How many times have you heard of Black Metal bands only releasing 500 copies of an album, and then only 250 on tape and 250 on vinyl? How many times have you heard of Black Metal bands having no band pictures, or not allowing journalists to know who they are? Joseph Goebbels pioneered many techniques that are still used in the PR industries, the rampant saturation of advertising and marketing we have in our society grew out of Nazi experiments with propaganda.
Nazi Germany was probably the most effectively branded society in history. Strong Brand Identity? Again, the opposite of what we see if we look at Black Metal. Fascist and Nazi societies tend to have very commercialised media and culture. The Nazi’s were massively supported by large corporations.The Holocaust was sponsored by major brand names that would be recognisable to anyone reading this today. A scene as underground and anti-commercial as Black Metal does not fit into this at all. Also the home made, do it yourself ethos of Black Metal is far closer to a punk, and therefore Anarchist (non-authoritarian Left wing) outlook than an ultra-commercial Nazi one.
Right, well capitalism is out then, maybe this is about Satan, maybe the connection with Satanism is how you get Nazism into Black Metal? I am an atheist, I take as much notice of Satanists as I do of Christians; none. I was, however, raised in a very, very christian household. I am aware of the Fall of Lucifer myth that is common to the abrahamic religions. As I understand it, Lucifer and the other angels that rebelled against god, rebelled because god would not give them free will. Angels were gods slaves, and lucifer led a rebellion against god to free himself and his fellow angels. Lucifer free’d slaves, Lucifer was an anarchist rebelling against an oppressive, authoritarian leader. Germany was a devoutly Christian country in the first half of the twentieth century, Hitler used this, he compared Nazi leaders to saints and himself to Jesus Christ. No matter what the plot lines of Indiana Jones or Hellboy films might suggest, Hitler was not a satanist, Nazism isn’t getting into Black Metal that way.
O.K. Satanism’s out then. Odin, maybe Odinism is a way to crowbar Nazism into Black Metal, could it be those pesky vikings? No, that doesn’t work either. Although viking raiding parties are very well known, the vikings weren’t all about violence and conquest. They also used their seafaring skills to trade and settle areas. In viking society, authority was from a Ground Up model, not a Top Down model (authority is given from the masses to leaders that are accountable to their people, rather than authority being forced on them from an unaccountable authoritarian leader). Viking society was much more like an anarchist society, people were governed by consent, involved in their own government, not by a threat from above. The same can be said about pre-roman Anglo Saxon society, much closer to an anarchist model, rather than Fascist. Although, with the last 2 points, I should say that comparing ancient societies with modern political ideologies, is always going to be problematic.
Fascism and Nazism are both openly racist ideologies. Heavy Metal grew out of the Blues, a type of music intimately associated with Black culture, that was an important source of strength in the civil rights movement. If The Nazi’s had won the second world war, or if Britain had gone fascist in the 1930’s, the British Blues explosion of the 1960’s would never have happened. No Hendrix coming to this country in 1967 and influencing just about everyone who had ever picked up a guitar. No Cream, no Blue Cheer, no Earth Blues Band, no Black Sabbath, so no Heavy Metal, and by extension, no Black Metal.
Nazism and Fascism tend to be homophobic as well. Apart from Black Sabbath, probably the most important band involved in the formation of Heavy Metal was Judas Priest. Lead singer of Judas Priest and all round Metal God Rob Halford is gay. If fitting in with your NSBM orthodoxy means hating Rob Halford, well, that's just about the least metal thing I can think of. Also, Rob Halford is responsible for the ‘look’ that we associate with Heavy Metal, maybe the NSBM bands and fans should think about where the leather and studs came from.
There are also bands who use Nazi semiology whist claiming that “We are not a political band, so it can’t have been a political act”. Well once you Nazi salute or use the swastika you have made your band into a political band, that's how it works. Do a political act, you’re a political band.
As you have probably picked up already, If I was going to ascribe a political ideology to Black Metal (I’m not sure if we should be making music fit in with political ideologies, but i didn’t start this, the NSBM bands did), then it would be Anarchism and not Fascism or Nazism. Black Metal simply isn’t authoritarian, commercial, conforming or narrow in it’s outlook. Black Metal feels like anarchism.
For quite a few years I’ve been bothered by NSBM, but i’ve also been bothered by the attitude of a lot of Black metal fans to NSBM. The occasional bit of condemnation of the metal media, along the lines of “this publication does not agree with, or condone the views etc.” just doesn’t cut it. It felt like metalheads are a little embarrassed of speaking out, terrified to say what they think in case someone accuses them of not being ‘Cvlt’ or ‘True’. I agree with Dietrich Bonnhoeffer when he said: “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”
(Bonnhoeffer was a member of the German Resistance to Hitler, he was murdered by the Nazi’s 2 weeks before the end of the Second World War) So, in the last couple of years I’ve been pleased to see that Black Metal has started to kick back at these viscous, deeply un-metal idiots. The first band I was aware of were Dawn Ray’d. Although Dawn Ray’d have an anarchist stance rather than strictly anti-fascist, as anarchism is the political opposite of fascism, they have a clear anti-nazi sentiments. Dawn Ray’d have been joined by a whole host of other bands that are taking a clear anti-nazi attitude to Black Metal, but also an obvious anti-NSBM stance.
Calling out NSBM bands for what they are: conforming racists who are so part of the status quo it would be laughable if some people didn’t take them seriously. Bands like Libtrigger, Allfather, Underdark, Gaylord and Neckbeard Deathcamp (I’ll be reviewing Gaylord and Neckbeard Deathcamp after this discussion), have stepped up to push in the opposite direction. Gaylord’s record company, Blackened Death Records have also put out a compilation called WOMAN (Worldwide Organisation of Metalheads Against Nazis), and WOMAN 2 is on it’s way. It’s almost as if there was a massive number of metalheads who felt the same way about NSBM, and were just waiting for an anti-fascist heavy metal movement to start!
A lot of the bands are very wary of letting people know who they are, as the reaction from the NSBM world has been very angry and violent (it’s amazing how easily triggered these Nazi snowflakes are). The people who are behind these bands are taking a real risk by attacking NSBM. Now THAT is radical, that is rebellion. The natural place to find Anti-fascist Black Metal is on Bandcamp, have a look at a few bands, they’ll help you find more (this is a proper musical movement after all), and have a listen to some truly radical bands.
I’m sure that there are NSBM fans reading this and composing threats and insults about me, they’re probably using words like Loser, Faggot or Poser. I’m probably making them incredibly angry as they don’t have the intellect or knowledge of politics or history to counter any of my arguments. They are probably clutching at their tiny penises for comfort. To these people I’d like to take this opportunity to say: Stop telling me to conform, don’t tell me to be good, how dare you tell me what music I can and cannot listen to, and I don’t want to sound intolerant, but: Bugger off out of my sub-culture and stop embarrassing the rest of us who aren’t braindead racist arseholes.
And, one last point about NSBM; Hitler hated music that was not traditional and German, he was a particular fan of Bavarian Oompah bands. So maybe NSBM bands should start learning the Trombone or the Tuba.
Neckbeard Deathcamp: White Nationalism Is For Basement Dwelling Losers (Prosthetic Records)
As you’ve probably picked up from the piece above this, Neckbeard Deathcamp aren’t a fan of NSBM. I can’t tell you anything about the members of the band as no information is available due to the level of risk Anti-Fascist bands take criticising Nazism. As America is a country where White Supremacy and guns are legal, speaking out is risky.
Neckbeard Deathcamp play War Metal. That's the most extreme form of Black Metal that exists. It’s deliberately difficult and impenetrable, war metal bands go out of their way it alienate their listeners. The music is low-fi and as brutal, fast, and nasty as it’s possible to get. To my ears the style is quite similar to Black Witchery. A lot of metalheads will not like this album, it’s just too extreme. I’ve always quite liked War Metal, it is niche, but if you want staggering brutality, there really isn’t anything that will touch it. This album has horrific, de-tuned, dense riffs, echoey guttural vocals and blast-beats that, well, sound like a war.
Lyrically, this is going to annoy all those oh so serious NSBM fans. The album mercilessly rips the piss out of the NSBM scene, the music, the culture, the ideology, nothing is safe. Humour has always been an effective tool against extreme political ideologies. Thats why satirists are the first people to be arrested when a despot comes to power. Nothing destroys the veneer of power more than being laughed at. Neckbeard Deathcamp are in the same business as Charlie Chaplin was in, when he made The Great Dictator. Song titles like XXXL Obersturmfuhrer Leather Duster, don’t really need to be explained. They also rip into the behaviour of Neckbeards online with the wonderfully titled Please Respond (I Showed You My Penis). The album is brought to an end by an outro called The Fetishization Ov Asian Women Despite A Demand For A Pure White Race, which is an industrial noisescape, with a pretty intelligent voiceover that deals with how people are conned into these beliefs.
This is a really extreme album. It won’t be to everyone's taste. I really like it, and I love the band simply for existing. Anyone who can annoy this many Nazi’s, is alright with me. 7/10
Gaylord: The Black Metal Scene Needs To Be Destroyed (Blackened Death Records)
Gaylord is an anti-fascist, anti-NSBM band from the mind that brought you Blackened Death Records, Suicide Wraith, Olivia Neutered John and a whole heap of other projects; @PopeRichard (I’ll use the twitter handle rather than his name for obvious reasons). Musical this is less abrasive than the Neckbeard Deathcamp album. The style of Black Metal is closer to a fuzzy second wave sound, it’s quite a simple low-fi production job, but that helps the songs come through more. There is some variation, the track Summoning Kreig Facebook Legions has a hypnotic, repetitive feel that reminds me of Von. the final track All hail The New Wave has a slower more traditional metal feel to it.
Lyrically, Gaylord does not mess about, song titles like Neo-Nazi Metalheads Will Be Hanged And Their Broken Corpses Openly Mocked, doesn’t leave much to the imagination. Nor does Coward Authoritarian Apologist Bootlicking Kvlt, but why should Gaylord pull their punches when they are dealing with bands promoting mass murder and intolerance. What is going on here is Gaylord are talking about NSBM bands in the same way NSBM talk about anyone who disagrees with them. He’s just playing them at their own game, and man it makes them mad (which is just beautiful to watch). The song Odin Doesn't Listen To NSBM You Inbred Alt-Right Shitheels, is a long list of bands being told to Fuck Off. This might sound a little basic, but I’ve been waiting years to hear someone tell Burzum or Graveland to Fuck Off, so I loved it. The last track All Hail To The New Wave, is a list of new Anti-fascist bands to check out, which I’ve found very helpful!
The Black Metal Scene Needs To Be Destroyed, is a great album. Not just for it’s lyrical content, it’s a great Black Metal album without the lyrics, song and album title. The Anti-Fascist, Anti-NSBM stance take it from being a great album, to being an important one. 8/10