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Female fronted anti-islamic Black Metal Band based in Iraq

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An underground scene of bands in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East are finding new use for heavy music's blasphemous potential.

This post has been updated.

"Burn the Quran! Burn the fucking Quran!" a woman screams hoarsely, over and over again. Tinny guitars course beneath her howls, sawing away at any semblance of melody. Sampled snippets of fundamentalist Islamic rhetoric filter through, and muffled voices exhort their unseen audience to praise Allah and to destroy the infidel.

To fans of heavy music, the hallmarks are immediately recognizable. This is raw, mid-tempo black metal, a lo-fi example of heavy metal's most evil subgenre. Black metal feeds upon hatred, nihilism, and anti-human behavior. Extremity is everything. It drinks the blood of Christ, turns upon its own, and takes almost carnal pleasure in the theory and imagery of war. The music from the early days of this scene conjured images of the ashes of burned churches and the dried blood of murder, and yet the genre, in its middle age, often doesn't shock the way it once did. The hellish noise of this particular song, though, does. There's something different about it. This is real.

The overall effect is chilling, which is, of course, exactly its creator's intent. She says her name is Anahita, the 28-years-old voice and vitriol behind Janaza, which is believed to be Iraq's very first female-fronted, black-metal band. Allow that notion-Iraq's very first female-fronted, black-metal band-to sink in for a moment. Her first recording, Burn the Pages of Quran, boasts five distorted, primitive tracks that altogether run just shy of an unlucky 13 minutes. She, along with a handful of other acts who say they hail from the Middle East, are repurposing black metal's historically anti-Christian ferocity to rail against Islam. In doing so, these bands are serving up another example of how art and dissent can intersect in a region where dissent can sometimes have deadly consequences.

For rather obvious reasons, Anahita keeps her full identity secret. In every photograph, she's smeared with layers of black and white corpse paint, rendering her anonymous and demonic-looking. It's difficult for a Westerner to find much information on Anahita, but she is becoming recognized within the international metal scene as one of Iraq's most blasphemous entities. She rarely grants interviews; the only other published Janaza interview to date comes courtesy of long-running dark music blog Heathen Harvest. It took well over a year for me to track her down, and even then, she refused to speak on the phone, instead insisting on communicating via Facebook. She answered questions about her life, her views, and her music, including the one that weighed heaviest on both of our minds: What would happen to her and her compatriots if religious authorities discovered their actions?

"A simple answer. They would kill me, and kill all of my friends, by cutting off our heads."

Death informs every part of Anahita's world. She says she was raised in a Muslim home in Baghdad by parents who were "open minded" and "not strict." A suicide bomb-"by a Muslim guy of course," Anahita wrote-killed her parents and her younger brother during the Iraq War, and she says she has since seen religiously motivated violence hurt some of her college friends too. "What keeps the fire burning is that I live every day in the memories of my parents and friends, and every day the people try to threaten me," she said. "That's why I am full of hate." Fittingly, in Arabic, "Janaza," the name of her band, is a funeral prayer for the dead.

She says she lost her faith, as so many do, between the pages of a book. "I was reading some scientific facts and how Islam doesn't make sense at all with the current science, and they use the method of 'brainwashing' to convince people about Islam," she wrote. Her lyrics for Janaza and its sister project, Seeds of Iblis, make clear where she stands now: "Islamic Lies," "Burn the Pages of Quran," and "When Islam Brainwashed Mankind" are a few of her more memorable tunes. However, unlike many of her contemporaries within the global black metal scene, she leaves Jesus out of it. "I am fully anti-religion in general, but I didn't live in a Christian atmosphere and the Christian people didn't kill anyone who means something to me," she says.

Before her parents' death, Anahita says, she taught herself to play music and had played in a thrash band called Desertor. "I've been a musician since about nine years now, but didn't have any chance to write and record my own materials in the past due to the fucked-up situation in the city," she said. "I used to have a small thrash-metal band in the early 2000s before the war, and we used to record and rehearse a lot, so we were used to recording."

To hear her tell it, a diverse metal scene thrives underground in Iraq. "Metal is metal, black metal is black metal, it doesn't matter if girls or guys are handling the music, the most important thing to me is the passion behind the music itself," she said. "There are many bands here, they just need time and money and some help to record their materials."

She's not alone in her fight. Seeds of Iblis ("Iblis" is an Arabic word for the Devil) features five men and one other woman besides Anahita herself (Epona, who has also spent time in the now-defunct black metal band False Allah) who handles the vocals and lyrics, and released their first EP, Jihad Against Islam, in 2011 via French label Legion of Death. This band is even more unrelenting, crafting songs like "Sex With Muhammad's Corpse" and "Inverted Hilal." One of the band's guitarists, Yousef, pulls double duty in Tadnees, another virulently anti-Muslim outfit who, together with the aforementioned projects, style themselves as part of an "Anti-Islamic League."

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Outside this immediate black circle, there's a scattering of other Middle Eastern or Muslim-raised blasphemers who have been making their screams heard. On the more obscure end, there's Damaar, a now-defunct Beirut collective whose howling, sacrilegious approach to black metal spawned tunes like "Preaching for Mass Suicide" and "Ode to Blasphemy (Onward to the Gates of Mekka)" on their Triumph Through Spears of Sacrilege demo (released by American label Nuclear War Now! Productions). More famously, Lebanon group Ayat have released albums through the prolific North-American label Moribund Records. When their most recent record, Six Years of Dormant Hatred, was released and first burst into the greater consciousness, writers and music critics made much of their brutal, sacrilegious, seemingly anti-Muslim lyrics. Since then, perhaps shying away from the heat generated by their album, the band issued this statement: "We never described ourselves as Anti-Islamic Black Metal. We are against the religious establishment in all its forms and Islam is just one form of it."

Venturing beyond the Middle East yet ever deeper into Islamic territory, we find Weapon. Currently based in Canada and freshly signed to Relapse Records, this particular black/death horde is led by frontman Vetis Monarch, who was born and raised in a Muslim household in Bangladesh. Though the soul of the band is purely Satanic, they make their sentiments in regards to Islam known in songs like "Remnants of a Burnt Mosque" and "Violated Hijab."

In a scene revered and reviled for its commitment to darkness and blasphemy, it's nevertheless rare to encounter musicians who are, quite literally, willing to die for their art. Anahita's message is controversial, but it also comes with sobering, almost-jarring humanity. As her one-woman war against Islam rages on, her deepest desire seems to be for peace-or at least, for understanding.

"The goals of Janaza and Seeds Of Iblis are to show the world that Islam is dangerous," she said, "and even the people who live in the Middle East get hurt by this religion and seek for freedom of speech, just like the other people from all over the world."
This post originally featured images that were purportedly of Anahita but appear to have been repurposed from photos elsewhere on the Internet.

We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.

Kim Kelly is a New York-based writer and music journalist. She has written about heavy metal and the culture surrounding it for The Guardian, Pitchfork, and NPR. She blogs at Necrolust.

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When Black Metal's Anti-Religious Message Gets Turned on Islam

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An underground scene of bands in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East are finding new use for heavy music's blasphemous potential. This post has been updated. "Burn the Quran! Burn the fucking Quran!" a woman screams hoarsely, over and over again. Tinny guitars course beneath her howls, sawing away at any semblance of melody.

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What's so hard to understand about a black woman who loves heavy metal?

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What's so hard to understand about a black woman who loves heavy metal?

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Laina Dawes never satisfyingly explains the origins of her musical tastes in What Are You Doing Here?: A Black Woman's Life and Liberation in Heavy Metal, but then again, who ever can?

Demography isn't cultural destiny. I may be a Jew, but that doesn't mean that I have to listen to klezmer. And in fact, my musical tastes encompass country, folk, gospel, soul, electronica, metal ... everything and anything. It's almost as if I'm an omnivorous white hipster-just like all those other Jews, from Alan Lomax to Paul Simon to Robert Zimmerman.

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The point being that while ethnicity, race, and religion don't determine what you do, they are part of the narrative of your life. There is no algorithm by which people's history, class, or race turns them into who they are-but still, who you are is in part a result of your history, class and race. Untangling the self from its community and history can, therefore, be a maddening, impossible, fascinating, exhilarating task.

This kind of untangling is certainly the impetus for Laina Dawes in her recent book, What Are You Doing Here?: A Black Woman's Life and Liberation in Heavy Metal. As the title suggests, Dawes has a compellingly idiosyncratic tale to tell about cultural identity and personal passion. A black Canadian woman, Dawes is obsessed with heavy metal-a genre, particularly in its more extreme manifestations, that is not known for its appeal to either women or blacks, much less both at the same time. Exploring why she finds this music compelling, then, seems like it might be a way to illuminate race, gender, and metal, as well as a way to help explain how we are and are not more than the sum of our cultural signifiers.

But Dawes can't quite sort it out. On the one hand, she insists that black women should be able to embrace metal as a way to "express their individuality." (19) But on the other, she claims that metal is appealing because it includes "universal emotions that everyone feels." (65) She argues that metal provides a "voice for the voiceless." (19) But she never attempts to explain why that's different from, say, hip-hop, or jazz, or any number of other musics attached to subcultures that, arguably, have been more voiceless than the white guys like me who listen to metal. Finally, Dawes insists adamantly that her love of metal is not about rejecting blackness, and particularly denies that her upbringing as the adopted child of a white family is linked to her passion for the music. (67) But she also suggests that metal is a way for her to reject "hyper-sexualized images of black women in hip-hop culture." (100) She even approvingly quotes Keidra Chaney, another black female metalhead, who says that the appeal of metal for her was that it "didn't reflect my life experiences or cultural identity in any tangible way." (70)

Part of Dawes's understandable difficulty is precisely what makes her struggle interesting: the fact that there are few cultural resources for talking about minority appreciation of majority culture. If Wim Wenders wants to laud Cuban singers in Buena Vista Social Club, or Eric Clapton wants to demonstrate his love of the blues, there's a language to make sense of it: They can frame their passions in terms of authenticity, or cool, or appreciating and promoting groups that lack access to the mainstream. In contrast, as Dawes says, "When I discuss black women in the metal, hardcore, and punk scenes, the most common response from people who don't know me is a three-second pause, and then 'Huh?'"

It's a funny quip, not least because it points out just how arbitrary our assumptions are, not just about Dawes, but about folks like Wim Wenders and Eric Clapton too. Must every white man go to the same crossroads to watch the same marginalized someone sacrifice his soul on the same altar of real, real, realness? Couldn't we maybe, please, occasionally, do something else?

We could, of course-but it's more difficult than it looks. Certainly, Dawes finds it so. She namechecks a slew of bands, from Judas Priest (who she likes) to Burzum (who she doesn't) to Napalm Death, Pantera, and Testament and on and on. She talks about going to shows, about performance styles, and about what singers are wearing. She says that she likes the music because it's angry and aggressive. She wonders whether it's okay to like bands that have racist or sexist politics. But she never discusses the actual experience of listening to the music that her book is ostensibly about. What is it in Judas Priest's songs that speaks to her? For that matter, which Judas Priest songs speak to her? Does she dislike Burzum only because he's a racist asshole, or does atmospheric crusty black metal just not send her anywhere? And what connection is there between those two things, if any? We never find out.

If demographics aren't destiny, it's because there's something in us that isn't reducible to where we are born and how we are treated. That wavering ineffable bit, perhaps only imagined, is what art speaks to-and why we often feel that the music, or books, or art we love are the most real part of us. The fact that that most real part of us may be packaged for mass consumption, and the fact that it exists in its own cultural space shot through with class, race, gender, commerce and politics, deepens the mystery.

Dawes argues that freedom is "a mechanism to find what we need in music, emotionally and physically." Surely that's an impoverished definition. And yet, there is in fact some link between art and freedom. At times it's straightforward, as in the Civil Rights movements' use of the spirituals. At times it's surprising and unlikely, as when Richard Wright, locked in the Jim Crow south, discovered, of all things, the writing of H.L. Mencken.

That night in my rented room, while letting the hot water run over my can of pork and beans in the sink, I opened A Book of Prefaces and began to read. I was jarred and shocked by the style, the clear, clean, sweeping sentences. Why did he write like that? And how did one write like that? I pictured the man as a raging demon, slashing with his pen, consumed with hate, denouncing everything American, extolling everything European or German, laughing at the weaknesses of people, mocking God, authority. What was this? I stood up, trying to realize what reality lay behind the meaning of the words ... Yes, this man was fighting, fighting with words. He was using words as a weapon, using them as one would use a club. Could words be weapons? Well, yes, for here they were. Then, maybe, perhaps, I could use them as a weapon? No. It frightened me. I read on and what amazed me was not what he said, but how on earth anybody had the courage to say it.

It's surely unfair to wish that Dawes could write about her unlikely cross-cultural passion with the grace and fire of Richard Wright. But I had hoped for at least some explanation of the power of her relationship with metal; some effort to understand how or why metal makes her who she is. Instead, at the heart of this book about loud music, there's an echoing silence. That silence is certainly more surprising, and more thoughtful, than, say, R. Crumb's umpteenth fetishization of the blues, or Ken Burns rattling on about the quintessential Americanness of whatever. But its reticence is also disappointing-and not very metal.

We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.

Noah Berlatsky edits the online comics-and-culture website The Hooded Utilitarian and is the author of the book Wonder Woman: Bondage and Feminism in the Marston/Peter Comics, 1941-48.

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What's So Hard to Understand About a Black Woman Who Loves Heavy Metal?

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Laina Dawes never satisfyingly explains the origins of her musical tastes in What Are You Doing Here?: A Black Woman's Life and Liberation in Heavy Metal, but then again, who ever can? Demography isn't cultural destiny. I may be a Jew, but that doesn't mean that I have to listen to klezmer.

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Svenskt nätverk mot rasism inom metalcommunityt.

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"För att vi alla är lika inför död och kaos. Enas i hårdrock, inte i ursprung", står det på affischerna som Hårdrock mot rasism tryckt upp. Förhoppningen är att hårdrocken ska kunna bli en mer tillåtande subkultur.

- Jag har kompisar med invandrarbakgrund som gått på hårdrockskonserter och mötts av attityden att "du ska ju inte vara här, du ska ju lyssna på hiphop". Det är bara stört. Alla kan och bör uppskatta hårdrock, säger Emelie från Hässleholm som grundat Hårdrock mot rasism.

Hon menar att rasismen finns överallt inom genren.

- Jag känner nog till tre förintelseförnekare som accepteras, kanske för att de har så stor skivsamling, säger Emelie.

Hårdrockens svanmärkning

Hårdrocken är en genre med en stark gemenskap, som grundar sig i en känsla av att stå utanför samhället. Att intressera sig för politik anses ofta lite suspekt. Resultatet har blivit att det inte alltid är så lätt att prata om de problem som ändå kan finnas.

Tanken är att Hårdrock mot rasism ska bli som "hårdrockens svanmärkning", säger Emelie. Festivaler, skivbutiker och konsertarrangörer kan använda Hårdrockare mot rasism-loggan för att visa att deras verksamhet är, eller åtminstone vill vara, fri från rasism, sexism och homofobi.

"Låt bli hårdrocken"

Initiativet har fått en del protester. På Facebooksidan kan man läsa kommentarer som: "Låt bli hårdrocken. Kan ingenting få vara ifred från sånt här? Skall vi nu ha bråk på hårdrocksfestivaler också?"

Emelie tar lätt på kritiken.

- Det är en ganska typisk reaktion. De skulle aldrig säga så om någon som uttrycker sig rasistiskt.

Istället framhåller hon hur mycket den positiva responsen överväger. Hittills har drygt ett dussin organisationer hört av sig och vill vara med. Och fler ansluter sig. Framför allt är Emelie, som driver sidan själv, förvånad över den positiva responsen från enskilda hårdrockare.

- Ska det fortsatta så här tar jag nog in flera. Många rasifierade skriver och tycker det är skönt att någon tar ställning, så de känner sig uppbackade.

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"För att vi alla är lika inför död och kaos. Enas i hårdrock, inte i ursprung", står det på affischerna som Hårdrock mot rasism tryckt upp. Förhoppningen är att hårdrocken ska kunna bli en mer tillåtande subkultur.

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Nominerade till Spellemannpriset (Norska motsvarigheten till Grammis) trots raden "Åt helvete med Muhammed och Muhammedanerna"

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When the NYC show of Taake's now-canceled North American tour was called off - the first of what would end up being an avalanche of cancelations brought on by pressure from antifa - the band's frontman, Hoest, released a statement. In that statement he attempted to explain away the incident for which the band was receiving the most critism - his decision to take the stage with a swastika painted on his chest in 2007 - as a naive act of provocation without any ill intent, and he added that neither he nor the band harbored any racist views.

That would be a perfectly acceptable explanation... except for the fact that he's completely full of shit.

In a new statement issued following the cancelation of the band's entire North American tour yesterday, Taake attempt to play the victim, painting themselves as innocent targets unfairly singled out, and casting blame on "the dissemination of lies, misinformation and unfounded accusations" and "the lies spread by Antifa."

Here's the thing: none of it is lies. Taake's racism and bigotry are all out in the open to see for anyone who's willing to look. "Taake is not now, has never been, and never will be a Nazi band," the statement reads. OK, maybe they're not actual Nazis, but they're still at least very Islamophobic and at worst overt racists.

While the swastika incident from 2007 has been getting the most attention, Hoest and Taake have a long, troubling history of racism and bigotry. The statement Hoest issued to explain that incident at the time did more harm than it did good: it included the phrases "go suck a Muslim" and "untermensch," the latter a term the Nazis used to describe the "inferior races" they were "exterminating."

Taake's 2011 album Noregs Vaapen ("Norway's Weapon") is rife with nationalistic themes. There's nothing wrong with feeling pride for one's home country, of course, but we all know the slippery slope between pride and extreme nationalism, especially in the Norwegian black metal scene, and lyrics like this one from the track "Orkan" really drive the point home: "To Hell with Muhammad and Muhammadans." (source: DarkLyrics.com, with help from Google Translate)

Still not convinced? "Perhaps their lyrics recount a story," you say, "like Marduk or Slayer's." Nope. Check out this photo of Hoest from a 2013 show in Glasgow, Scotland, sporting a shirt with a crossed out star and crescent, a symbol of Islam, and wearing around his neck an iron cross, an insignia of Nazi Germany (via FestivalPhoto.net):

Lest we think Taake are fine gentlemen when it comes to standing up for women, you can throw that belief right out the window, too. Earlier this week when allegations of sexual assault were leveled against Young and in the Way, one of the victims contacted Taake when news of their 2015 tour with Young and in the Way surfaced to ask them to reconsider their choice of support act. Taake's response, according to the victim: "We don't care, keep this drama off the internet."

All of that is why, contrary to Hoest's claim earlier today, none of the what's been published about Taake in the wake of this tour cancelation has been either "libelous" or "slanderous;" the assertions would need to be false for that to be the case.

Taake's statement then turned to that tried and true tactic long utilized by the extreme right: blaming the media. That portion reads:

"We should also mention those members of the press who failed to fact check and did not bother to contact us, or anyone else for that matter, for our side of the story. They simply went right ahead and printed libellous statements. This is irresponsible journalism at its worst, and we can't just single out inexperienced editors of webzines. Complicit in this are long-established and (once) respected publications. Their actions show the utter contempt they have for facts and the disrespect they have for their readers."

Um, excuse me? Your "side of the story" is plainly visible in your band's continued use of hateful imagery, lyrics and public statements. Contacting you for comment isn't necessary; we already have all the information we need. We can only guess that the band is including MetalSucks in their list of "long-established and (once) respected publications" - we sponsored not one but TWO of Taake's previous North American tours - but we're fine with being lumped into that group if it means standing against hatred and bigotry, and we certainly wouldn't have agreed to sponsor those tours if we'd known about the band's past.

What's more confusing here than anything is why Taake are going to such lengths to prove their "innocence." Why not just say they're anti-Islam? Why go through this charade? Is the symbolism on Hoest's body in the above photo also an act of provocation, having not learned his lesson after the swastika incident? We hardly think that's the case, but that would make him quite stupid and incredibly insensitive if so. Hoest has gone on record as saying he's against all organized religion - he has singled out Christianity as well - but his wardrobe choice is a bizarre and overly specific way of expressing that viewpoint.

In short: don't let anyone cast doubt that Taake have been unfairly maligned by antifa, the press or any metal fans quick to pass judgment without knowing all the facts. We know the facts. We know who Taake are as people and what they represent.

Here's Taake official tour cancelation statement in full, if you're so inclined:

"It is with great regret that we have to inform you that Taake's US Tour has been cancelled. Despite all those incredible people who stepped up and tried to help us save the tour, and to whom we are more grateful than we can express, time and logistics are just not on our side. It was not our wish to cancel, but the decision was forced on us by the illegal activities of Antifa and its supporters who applied pressure on venues and promoters to cancel shows. Pressure, it has to be said, that has frequently been accompanied with threats of violence both towards those involved in the organisation and towards any fans attending (not to mention the bands who would be playing). Why these threats are not reported to the police, we don't know.

"We have explained on many, many occasions, the history behind what caused the problems, and there are plenty of articles in the unbiased press and on social media where you can read the truth of it, but just for the sake of clarity Taake is not now, has never been, and never will be a Nazi band. What we want to address here is the cancellation of the tour itself.

"This cancellation is unfortunate in many ways, not just for the bands who were going to take part. Not just for the ordinary working Americans with families to support and bills to pay who have lost much needed income because of it. Not just for the fans who wanted to see the bands. Not just for music fans in general. But, also, and more importantly, for America as a whole.

"Why? Because it is the ultimate demonstration of how, through the dissemination of lies, misinformation and unfounded accusations, along with credible threats of violence, a small minority of left wing agitators are able to force their agenda on the majority, and deprive music fans of their freedom to attend concerts and go about their day to day activities without the fear of reprisals and retaliation.

"And these agitators won't stop once they have destroyed the soft targets from Europe and other parts of the world. Their next targets will be American music, American art, American literature, American theatre, American cinema. Anything, in fact, that does not adhere strictly to their views. And if this reminds you of the McCarthy witch hunts, it is because that is EXACTLY what it is like.

"Whilst none of us blame venues for cancelling because they are afraid of violence, we do deplore the excuses presented by some of them. The desire to 'protect' their audience and staff, to create 'safe spaces' is not a need brought about by the bands involved, nor their fans. It is the masked thugs hiding behind the banner of Antifa and other organisations like them, who are doing all the threatening. And maybe we should also remind these venues that so many of the musical genres today exist due to those other small venues back in the day who dared stand up to threats and gave a voice to those musicians who brought us Blues and Jazz - the basis of so much of today's music.

"We would also like to speak out about celebrities like Talib Kweli, who was unfortunate enough to have allowed himself to be played by the lies spread by Antifa and who, as a result, issued statements that are libellous and slanderous. His heart may have misguidedly been in the right place, but his brain, and his legal advisors, were not. Had he bothered to check the facts he would have realised that he had put himself in a position of looking like someone who doesn't know, or understand, or even care about, all the facts, and who is easily manipulated by others to dance to their tune.

"We should also mention those members of the press who failed to fact check and did not bother to contact us, or anyone else for that matter, for our side of the story. They simply went right ahead and printed libellous statements. This is irresponsible journalism at its worst, and we can't just single out inexperienced editors of webzines. Complicit in this are long-established and (once) respected publications. Their actions show the utter contempt they have for facts and the disrespect they have for their readers.

"Ending on a positive note, we really do need thank those who stood by us, and especially the venues who refused to be cowed, and those that stepped in offering us alternatives for cancelled shows. We have had messages from all over the world, and from people of all political and religious persuasions, offering not just their support, but also offering their help. And these are not just our fans. We have been contacted by people who admit that they had never heard of us, or that they hate black metal, or that they hate Taake, but have nevertheless felt compelled to let us know of the disgust they feel at the way Antifa, and their like, demand slavish adherence to their agenda, and punish anyone who defies them, riding roughshod over the freedoms of the American people to decide for themselves.

"You, my friends, do not need to apologise for the lies and actions of a fringe group. You are the majority, you are the ones who refuse to bow your heads to those who would dictate how you live your lives, and who attempt to restrict your freedoms - you are the ones who can do something about it."

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The Problem with Taake Isn't Just the Swastika Chest Paint Incident | MetalSucks

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When the NYC show of Taake's now-canceled North American tour was called off - the first of what would end up being an avalanche of cancelations brought on by pressure from antifa - the band's frontman, Hoest, released a statement.

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Kultförklarad neonazist.

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Detta är en kulturartikel som är en del av Aftonbladets opinionsjournalistik.

Dömde nazisten Varg Vikernes manar till skoningslös rensning av "blandrasiga byrackor" i sina bloggar

Varg Vikernes har återigen ställts inför skranket. Denna gång i Paris, anklagad för hets mot folkgrupp i någon av hans (minst) tre olika rasistiska bloggar. Han har manat sina följare att stödja honom i en politisk skådeprocess initierad av den socialistiska internationella judendomen.

Om du inte vet vem denne 40-årige exilnorrman är, betyder det att du varken är intresserad av geniförklarad vit makt-metal eller svensk kulturjournalistik.

Ty journalister som bevakar rock och kultur älskar att älska nazisten Varg Vikernes, black metal-ikonen som gör musik under namnet Burzum. En ung konstnär som mördade sin vän, brände kyrkor, satt på kåken, kom ut, flyttade till Frankrike och nu lever ett stilla liv som familjefar och krigare för den vita européns framtid. Eller, för att använda Vikernes ord för tesen att den vite mannen är rasbiologiskt överlägsen: odalism.

Journalisterna älskar inte bara att älska en nazist. De älskar även att kokettera med hur oerhört problematiskt det är att lyssna på, och ljudligt hylla, Varg Vikernes för konst som anses ha mycket hög verkshöjd. Och nu när Vargfrågan återigen är på tapeten räknar jag med ännu ett götterdämmerung av solida Wagner-liknelser.

Om Vikernes kommer att fällas? För en lekman ter sig en man som lägger upp bilder på Hitler och Quisling under rubriken "gudomlig godhet" bredvid bilder på judar och rubriken "parasiter", som ett säkert fall. Men jag vet lite om det franska rättssystemet.

Däremot vet jag rätt mycket om Vikernes tankar kring det kommande raskriget. I ett blogginlägg från maj 2013 slog han fast att det gäller att vara skoningslös och effektiv när man rensar ut "konstgjorda judar" och "blandrasiga byrackor". Inlägget hade då över 800 positiva kommentarer.

Du behöver inte gräva särskilt långt tillbaka i de massiva textmassorna, uppbrutna av rasistiska nidbilder och tvivelaktiga GIF-animationer, för att slå fast vilken tidstypisk iskyla Vikernes saluför. Dagen innan rättegången, alltså igår, skrev han så här:

"Europas framtid beror på om vi kan göra oss av med alla utländska influenser och istället arbeta för Europa: för det europeiska blodet och den europeiska andan; för en europeisk framtid som är baserad på en helt igenom europeisk grund!"

Klarare korvspad än så blir det inte - det europeiska blodet som pumpar genom samhällets ådror ska vara kritvitt. Tro inget annat. Raskriget är här.

I ett allt brunare Europa, där högerextrema bygger nätverk så det knakar och mördar motståndare på öppen gata - känns det då verkligen relevant och rakryggat att gömma sig bakom "vi måste skilja på konstnären och konsten-floskeln"?

Burzums senaste skiva var inte ens särskilt bra.

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aftonbladet: sveriges nyhetskälla och mötesplats

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KULTUR: Hyllad artist anklagas för hets mot folkgrupp

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Detta är en kulturartikel som är en del av Aftonbladets opinionsjournalistik. Dömde nazisten Varg Vikernes manar till skoningslös rensning av "blandrasiga byrackor" i sina bloggar Varg Vikernes har återigen ställts inför skranket. Denna gång i Paris, anklagad för hets mot folkgrupp i någon av hans (minst) tre olika rasistiska bloggar.

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Dagens ETC:s avslöjande om Marduk-medlemmarnas beställningar från NMR kan bli svåra att bortförklara, säger Emelie Draper.

- Litteraturen skulle de väl kunna hävda är för inspiration till sina "opolitiska texter". Men de beställer inte flyers och klister-märken om de inte tänker sprida dem.

Enligt Emelie Draper finns det problem med nazism inom black metal-scenen.

- Att hävda annat är bara löjligt. För de här banden är det viktigt att vara så extrema som möjligt, och för den som saknar både analys och fantasi ligger nazismen nära till hands. Men det är inte så att black metal föder nazism.

Drar till sig extrema

Black metal är en extrem kulturyttring som drar till sig extrema människor. Det säger journalisten Christoffer Röstlund Jonsson som har lång erfarenhet av att bevaka olika subkulturer.

- De lever inte heller på en isolerad ö. Resten av samhället går åt höger så varför skulle inte black metal-scenen, som redan från början är hatisk, gå åt samma håll?

Vad är problemet med att black metal-band som vanligtvis -hyllar död och satan i sina texter också är nazister?

- Jag tycker att det ska finnas utrymme för extrema yttringar men drar personligen gränsen om bandmedlemmar är aktiva i en nazistisk organisation som NMR, säger Christoffer Röstlund Jonsson.

Nyligen skapade Watain, ett annat svenskt black metal-band, rubriker när deras gitarrist gjorde Hitlerhälsning på scen och på ett bandfoto. Han lämnade bandet efter kritik.

- De som ställer sig på scen och heilar, flirtar med nazism i lyrik och estetik eller hänger med NMR får räkna med att behöva stå till svars. Och hängas ut, säger Emelie Draper.

Men hon vill inte gå så långt som att uppmana till bojkott.

- Vet inte om det är min plats att säga åt andra vad de väljer att göra med sin moral. Men det är ju bra att ha i åtanke att de som går på konserter faktiskt supportar en nazistisk organisation med sin närvaro.

Blivit en industri

Black metal var i början under 80- och 90-talet en liten obskyr subkultur men har nu vuxit till en industri. Watain och Marduk är bland de största namnen i genren och medlemmarna är yrkesmusiker som turnerar världen runt. Även om ett band har en medvetet provokativ image kan nazistkopplingarna skapa problem, tror Christoffer Röstlund Jonsson.

- Generellt är det svårt för ett band som stämplas som högerextremt att kunna jobba på som förr i till exempel USA och Tyskland, två lukrativa jättemarknader som är mindre förlåtande mot sådant än vad den svenska marknaden är. Framför allt Tyskland har som bekant dåliga erfarenheter av nazism.

Gillar du det vi gör?
Swisha en peng till: 123 401 876 8

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Dagens ETC:s avslöjande om Marduk-medlemmarnas beställningar från NMR kan bli svåra att bortförklara, säger Emelie Draper. - Litteraturen skulle de väl kunna hävda är för inspiration till sina "opolitiska texter". Men de beställer inte flyers och klister-märken om de inte tänker sprida dem. Enligt Emelie Draper finns det problem med nazism inom black metal-scenen.

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Skin from Skunk Anansie / Race / Intersectionalty

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Skin from Skunk Anansie / Race / Intersectionalty

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"I know people say it all the time, but you've got to make huge fucking mistakes or you just won't learn." It's a hot summer afternoon, and I'm thankful for the respite I've found in the air-conditioned lobby of the downtown Manhattan hotel where I'm interviewing (and getting valuable life advice from) Skin, lead singer of the British rock band Skunk Anansie.

Even in an oversized black tee, loose fitting knit pants, and sans makeup, the 49-year-old-who doesn't look a day over 35-could easily be mistaken for a model. Talk to her for only a few minutes, though, and you'll realize that her fronting a genre-defying, boundary-breaking, nonconforming band with hits such as "Yes It's Fucking Political" and (the anti-Nazi song) "Little Baby Swastikkka" makes perfect sense.

Born Deborah Anne Dyer in London, Skin was raised in a strict Christian household by tough Jamaican parents. Her grandfather, who ran London's most popular shebeen (what, in the U.S., we would call a speakeasy), used his business to cultivate an environment which introduced Skin to her first musical influences. "When I was little, people like Cassius Clay before he was Muhammad Ali used to go to my granddad's club. So did Bob Marley. So did Peter Tosh," she recalls.

Shebeens differed from bars or nightclubs in that they provided refuge to black people who were often excluded from public spaces due to discrimination and flat-out racism. "When [people like Ali and Bob Marley] would come to London, the clubs that black people could go to were nonexistent," Skin explains. "They could be on stage dancing, playing the music, but they weren't admitted onto the dance floor." In that sense, her grandfather's shebeen offered more than entertainment-its mere existence, working against oppressive social structures, was a radical act. "And that's the environment I grew up in."

Perhaps this is why, when I ask her simply, "what do you do?" she makes a point to say, "I'm a little bit of an activist," before rattling off a list which includes singer, writer, and techno DJ.

Before entering the music industry, though, Skin was an interior architect, a career she enjoyed thanks to a now-defunct free education program. "If you're from a poor background and you want to do better than your parents, the only thing you have is education." The UK has slowly taken that away, though-"Americanized it," as Skin laments. Now, "society and culture is just missing out so much on people that are from very lowly backgrounds-like myself, with no money-all the things that we can contribute. We can contribute a lot," she says, as if she's pleading with an invisible force.

She liked the design work, but ultimately knew it wasn't what she would do forever. "I always wanted to do something with my life that I enjoyed doing all the time." Turns out that thing was singing.

"I remember wanting to be a singer when Blondie came on [music TV show] Top of the Pops-she had on this black and white striped dress, and I just remember thinking that is cool as fuck." Skin didn't actually try singing until she was about ten, despite the fact that she says she "always knew" she could. "It wasn't even a question." I smile at Skin's endearing bravado, the perfect complement to her surprisingly soft-spoken voice.

While the Blondie moment was pivotal, Skin points out that her first love was reggae. "Being of Jamaican heritage, Bob Marley is my Elvis. He's my first musical hero."

Later, in her teenage years, she discovered ska. "There were all these kind of Blue Beat boys, these white boys, who were playing ska in the late '80s, early '90s, and that was very familiar to me, but it was also different." Skin was attracted to that sound of altered familiarity, and it was through these ska boys-"these white, skinny boys, playing black music"-that she actually discovered guitars. "Once I discovered the guitar, I just sort of went headfirst into it."

Her early musical days were spent songwriting with a partner. "We wrote songs for like, three years, nonstop, every single day-that was our 10,000 hours." She formed a band-a precursor to Skunk Anansie-but it didn't work out. "All of the mistakes that I've made happened in that band." They got all fundamentals wrong that first time around. "[We] got the songs wrong, got the sound wrong, got the look wrong, got everything wrong," she says. "By the end of two years of being in that band, I really knew what I was doing."

Eventually she started over, retaining only her original bass player, Richard "Cass" Lewis, and the Skunk Anansie we know today was born.

Skin tells me that back then their sound was inspired by "the blues-y, riff-tastic, noisy American bands" of the time, and what she calls the "Brendan O'Brien sound" particular to a lot of American grunge music. She launches into the chorus of Stone Temple Pilots' "Dead and Bloated" to give me an idea of what she means.

Ultimately, Skunk Anansie developed a sound wholly their own-which some might consider "clitpop."

Skin launches into the term's origin story: "I was doing an interview, and [the reporter] said to me, in a sort of sarcastic way, 'How do you feel about the fact that you're not really part of the scene?'" In the mid-'90s, Britain's mainstream, popular music scene-Britpop-was massive. According to Skin, if you weren't part of it, you were a real outsider. "That meant that you weren't getting TV shows, you weren't getting playlists, you weren't getting any of that goodness that those [more mainstream] bands were getting," she recalls. "So I said, ya know, fuck that, we're not part of the scene, we're not Britpop-we're clitpop!"

Skin says that the band (who reunited in 2008 after an eight-year pause) is actually more Skunk Anansie now than they were then. "We're grown-ups now," she tells me.

I ask her about their name, part of which reminds me of a character from African diasporic folklore; turns out the Anansi of my childhood is the Anansi of Skin's, too. Inspired by an influential figure in Jamaican culture and host of a popular children's TV program, Louise Bennett-Coverley (Miss Lou), Skin borrowed "Anansie" from the stories she heard Miss Lou tell about the character. "When we went to put the band together, I wanted [the name] to mean something-I wanted a bit of heritage in there. I wanted it to be important to me. Everything that we do, I want it to mean something, to have substance."

And "Skunk?" Skin tells me that was Cass' contribution. "Skunk is the animal that nobody will go near, but it's not aggressive, and so it's sort of clever."

Being called "Skin" also has ties to her Caribbean roots. "My name was actually Skinny, and that was because when I was [very young], I was incredibly skinny," she tells me. "In Jamaican terms, that was not good."

"Skinny" began as a sort of tease, but eventually turned into a permanent moniker-one that she's had "from childhood upwards."

"When I got into a band they just shortened it to Skin, because in England everyone shortens everyone's names," she says. "It just stuck."

Another thing that has stuck is Skin's signature shaven-head look, which she first tried out when she was 22. "I was suddenly good-looking!" she laughs, recalling her initial reaction. She did it because she didn't want to deal with all the "fussing around" associated with haircare, and black haircare in particular. "I started wearing head scarves, and that was the beginning of like, the afropunk kind of thing." Then one day, while a friend trimmed his beard, Skin asked him for a haircut. "It took me two hours to persuade him to do it." He finally gave her a low fade, but wouldn't do any more than that, "because it was really a radical thing in those days-the early '90s."

She went to a barber the next day and had them shave the rest. "That was a horrible experience because it was the same argument: 'Why you want to cut off your hair?'" Eventually she learned how to do it herself so that she wouldn't have to "take shit" every time she wanted a haircut. "The minute I shaved it off and looked in the mirror, I was like, 'There you are.'"

She admits that she did go through a bit of an identity crisis when she was younger, because she always saw herself as Jamaican, but when she went to Jamaica, she felt like the odd one out. "They were speaking patois, and I didn't understand it." And things weren't much better back home in England. She describes the cultural confusion of her generation: "Are we British? Are we black? Are we English? What are we?"

Eventually, she began to feel English, and tells me that, now, America is probably the only place where she feels "really black." Careful to point out that England isn't without racism of its own, she says, "in America, I can feel that people see I'm black first. And then I open my mouth, and they're like, 'Oh, but you're English, so you're not one of our blacks that we can behave badly to.' It's just rough here, man, it's just rough. You really feel your race in this country. You really feel your race in a way I don't feel it in England."

I ask her what she thinks of American politics as I try and digest what she's said. "It's really depressing," she replies in a very serious tone before taking a vehement stance on Donald Trump. "You have to stop him. He has to be stopped. You cannot let this man be your next president." This is unsurprising, considering that Skin has always been outspoken; awareness of her own intersectionality has informed her work since the beginning.

"I'm a female, I'm also black. I'm also gay, bisexual, I have fluid sexuality. I'm also from a very poor background-those four things really created my character and my identity," she tells me. "And because of all of those things, because I've had knives thrown at me from all directions because of one thing or another, I have very open eyes," she says, staring at me wisely, at once encouraging and challenging.
Emma Bracy is a person who writes things and listens to rap music while doing crossword puzzles. Follow her on Twitter @emmabracy.

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Bald, black, and British: Why Skunk Anansie's Skin is the UK's top Afropunk export

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"I know people say it all the time, but you've got to make huge fucking mistakes or you just won't learn." It's a hot summer afternoon, and I'm thankful for the respite I've found in the air-conditioned lobby of the downtown Manhattan hotel where I'm interviewing (and getting valuable life advice from) Skin, lead singer of the British rock band Skunk Anansie.

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The life and liberation of a female black metal fan

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The life and liberation of a female black metal fan

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Music writer Laina Dawes is a die-hard Judas Priest fan. She's all about the band's loud and fast guitars, the piercing vocals - and she loves to see the group perform live.

Now, a fact that shouldn't matter: Dawes is a black woman. This, she says, can make things uncomfortable on the metal scene. She says she's been verbally harassed and told she's not welcome.

"There's still a lot of resistance in terms of who should be listening to what genre of music based on their gender and their ethnicity," Dawes says, "which does not make any sense to me."

Dawes writes about the issue in her new book, What Are You Doing Here?: A Black Woman's Life and Liberation in Heavy Metal. Speaking here with NPR's David Greene, Dawes explains how metal grabbed hold of her as a child in rural Ontario, and how she came to realize that connecting with her fellow fans would be an uphill battle.

Interview Highlights
On discovering metal as a young misfit
"Being 11 or 12 years old, I really resonated with the sound of anger and my internal struggles or what I was going through. I found that listening to the music in my bedroom, being able to feel like you could scream and yell and really express your anger, that really helped me out when I was a kid. ... I went to a primarily white school, so we dealt with a lot of racism. My parents, even though they were always there and supportive as much as they could be, I didn't feel that they were taking my concerns seriously. Like, you know, getting on the school bus and things being thrown at you and racial insults. As soon as I got home, I knew that I couldn't tell my parents. I knew that they wouldn't understand, and that really caused a lot of depression for me as a kid because I really didn't feel like I had anyone to talk to about it."
On feeling resistance from all sides
"There was a boy who went to another high school. He was really into metal, and we would talk on the phone, and I remember that he said that he wanted to meet me at a shopping mall on the weekend. And he said, 'Well, what do you look like?' And I said, 'Well, I'm black and this and this...' and he hung up the phone. I never heard from him again. [I also remember] my black female friends in high school and their parents wondering why I was wearing a Def Leppard T-shirt or whatever, and really kind of questioning me on my cultural legitimacy as a black person. All of those together made me really understand at a pretty young age that, as a black woman, I'm not supposed to be doing this, and there's something wrong with me because I enjoy this music."
On preconceptions about "black" and "white" musical styles
"In black communities, music is so integral in terms of a storytelling mechanism. Back in the blues era, African-American women were actually able to talk about their hardships and sorrows through music, and be very personal. [The same is true of] hip-hop because it's also obviously a black-centric music form. When I was in my 20s and hip-hop was coming out, a lot of black people felt that if you listened to hip-hop, that means that you're really black, that you're proud of yourself, that you know who you are. So when black people listen to 'white-centric' music - which is rock 'n' roll, country, heavy metal, punk, hardcore - it's seen that they are somehow not proud of who they are."

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The 'Life And Liberation' Of A Black Female Metal Fan

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Music writer Laina Dawes is a die-hard Judas Priest fan. She's all about the band's loud and fast guitars, the piercing vocals - and she loves to see the group perform live. Now, a fact that shouldn't matter: Dawes is a black woman. This, she says, can make things uncomfortable on the metal scene.

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Rob Flynn on Phil Anselmo & Racism in metal

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Rob Flynn on Phil Anselmo & Racism in metal

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The reality of being a multicultural metalhead

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The reality of being a multicultural metalhead

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Rock And Metal Is Only For White People: The Reality Of Being A Multicultural Metalhead

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Black metal is a historic subculture tied to a genre of heavy metal music that involves bleakly/brutally distorted guitars, tremolo picking, lo-fi recordings and an emphasis on atmosphere or ambience. The music genre was spawned as an aesthetic in the first wave, most notably by Venom (with the album Black Metal), Bathory (which got its name from the Venom song " Countess Bathory"), and Celtic Frost. Ideologically, this music was rooted in Norse and Viking culture - indeed, Bathory provided a schemata for black metal before moving on in their fifth album "Hammerheart" to begin the viking metal scene. The label 'black metal' has also been used synonymously with 'satanic metal,' as its proponents tend to be staunch enemies of Judeo-Christian ideology and Christian practice. Black metal advocates are usually divided between Satanists and pagans as well as individualists and group-identifiers. One might guess that these radical polarizations (especially between individual and community emphasis) would lead to contradictions later on. Also, as you may have guessed by the title of the article, black metal was started by a community of exceptionally hateful heterosexual white males (statistically, empirically, overwhelmingly so).

You should listen to a bit of the music itself before continuing to read my dissection of its history and relevant political/social movements. Mayhem may not be the first band the average black metal fan would pick to describe the genre ( Darkthrone and Bathory are probably essential listens for you metal aesthetes out there), but I actually like this album, so here you are.

The subculture of black metal has its origin in the early Norwegian black metal scene, or the second wave of black metal. The subculture has been faced with extreme resistance in mainstream culture largely because of all the weird shit that these musicians get up to when they're not howling their guts out in their practice spaces. The Norwegian black metal community was subject to a huge amount of mainstream media attention when its members were discovered to be responsible for over 50 arson attacks against churches between 1992-1996. Varg Vikernes in particular (occasional Mayhem bassist and Burzum one-man mastermind) has been prosecuted for murder and arson, most notably the arson of the Fantoft Stave Church (which he photographed and used as the album artwork for his Burzum EP Aske or Ashes). Varg is a particularly interesting case, and also probably an outlier that black metal fans would characterize as unfair when writing an article that makes large generalizing sweeps about the scene and what it was. If you're interested, you can read the wiki yourself.

Samoth, guitarist of Emperor, was sentenced to sixteen months in jail after being convicted of church arson in Norway. Jørn Inge Tunsberg, guitarist of Hades (now Hades Almighty), was also convicted for burning down a church in Åsane, Norway, and spent two years in prison.

Faust, drummer of Emperor, traveled to Holmenkollen Chapel with Euronymous of Mayhem and Varg Vikernes of Burzum with the intension of bombing the chapel. When the homemade bomb they put on the altar refused to detonate, they soaked hymnals and Bibles in gasoline and lit them on the altar, burning the church to the ground. Source: Metal Injection

Now, I'm going to list some things that white musicians did that could have gotten a black man killed or arrested (at least, more immediately and more severely than these men). I'll also recount some intertwined narratives which are very telling. On February 1, 2004, during a recorded for DVD concert in Kraków, Poland, the legendary Norwegian band, Gorgoroth displayed sheep heads on stakes, Satanic symbols, a bloodbath using 80 litres of sheep's blood and four naked crucified models on stage. Gorgoroth vocalist Gaahl also once detained an old man at a party, beat him, cut him, and began to collect his blood in a cup while saying shit like "I'm going to drink your blood, I'm going to sacrifice you." He served one year in prison and was fined over $26,000. Gaahl has come out in support of the actions of men like Varg Vikernes and Adolf Hitler, and he has characterized "niggers, mulattoes, and Muslims" as "subhuman." Nice guy, right?

Mayhem's lead singer Dead infamously saw himself as a non-participant in the real living world (hence his name) and often cut himself with a hunting knife while on stage (and threw rotting pig flesh at fans to make sure that 'only the most brutal' would see the end of his concerts). He committed suicide on April 8, 1991 in a cabin in the Norwegian wilderness; after Mayhem guitarist Euronymous found his body, he ran to a nearby convenience store and purchased a disposable camera which would be used to create a photograph of Dead's suicide (later used as album artwork for some live bootlegs: graphic link). When describing Dead's death to a friend, Euronymous reportedly said "Dead has done something really cool! He killed himself!" He also claimed that Dead had killed himself because of the "trendy commercialism" of death metal (which can be linked to a nationalist rivalry between Swedish death metal bands and Norwegian black metal bands). On top of this insanity, it's rumored that Euronymous made necklaces of Dead's skull fragments and distributed to those he thought were "brutal" (honorable, in black metal speak) enough to deserve them. There's also a rumor of the band members making a stew of Dead's brain and consuming it. No comment. The death of Dead reportedly lead to Euronymous' retreat into fantasy and excessive brutality; as a leader of the black metal scene and owner of influential record shop Helvete, he had a great say in what was 'black metal' and what was not. Here's a little quip by Euronymous on black metal and Christianity:

They [Christians] must feel that there is a dark, evil power present that they have to fight, which...will make them more extreme. We also believe that when a church burns it's not only Christians who suffer, but people in general. Imagine a beautiful old stave church...what happens when it burns? The Christians feel despair, God's house is destroyed and ordinary people will suffer from grief because something beautiful was destroyed. So you end up spreading grief and despair, which is a good thing.

During the last two years of his life, he took Varg Vikernes (5 years his junior) under his wing and invited him to play bass in Mayhem. This decision would lead to the end of his life and the most disputed/interpreted homicide in the history of metal. First, a small (and potentially related) aside about Faust (pictured below with sword).

Emperor's drummer Faust fatally stabbed a gay man in Lillehammer, Norway in 1992. This has been radically de-sensationalized and it's not entirely clear why it happened, but no one appears to hold it against him these days. He claimed to have no remorse at the time, and his bandmates noted that he had been fascinated by serial killers for some time beforehand.

This man approached me - he was obviously drunk and obviously a faggot [...] it was obvious that he wanted to have some contact. Then he asked me if we could [...] go up to the woods. So I agreed, because already then I had decided that I wanted to kill him, which was very weird ... because [usually] I'm not like this". Faust always carried a knife while traveling, explaining: "It's better to have a knife you don't need than to not have one when you need it". Once in the woods, Faust stabbed Andreassen 37 times and then kicked him in the head repeatedly as he lay on the ground.

After a year of living freely (which included that arson with Euronymous and Varg), Faust was arrested and confessed to the stabbing. He served nine years of a prison sentence and was let out early. Currently, he's the main lyricist for Zyklon (more fun Holocaust references!). I'm not entirely certain whether I can claim that this was a hate crime ("faggot"? crime starts with sexual solicitation?), but it's pretty hard to cast Faust's action in a favorable light regardless.

Also, metal scenes tend to espouse homophobia in general - on "metalstorm.net," one article entitled "101 Rules For Going to a Metal Concert" says: "89. A concert that has seating is gay and therefore not metal." Clearly, 'metal' fans don't intend to coexist with those who are okay with things that are 'gay.' On thatsnotmetal.com, we have the excellent statement that metal concerts "are where men gather to be men... we celebrate by hitting each other." But I digress.

With this stabbing in mind, let's revisit Varg Vikernes' murder of Euronymous. It has been speculated to be an attempt to "out-do" the stabbing committed by Faust, a dispute over a record contract, or simply a power struggle within an extremist group of friends. Varg claims that the murder was a result of Euronymous telling a "select group of friends" of his plan to electro-shock Varg, tie him to a car, and torture him to death all while videotaping it. One of these friends told Varg (who "wouldn't have taken it seriously if [Euronymous] had told just anybody of his plans"), who then drove to Euronymous' residence with an accomplice to pre-empt Euronymous' claims. This plays into Varg's claim that his murder of Euronymous was performed in self-defense - you can surely read more about this online, but Faust and other members of the black metal scene have cast doubt onto Varg's self-defense claim. Black metal, after all, is an exclusive community populated by those who support an inverted system of morality and advocate brutality, grief, and suffering. I do not find it too far-fetched of a claim to read Varg's murder of Euronymous as (a) a one-upping of Faust's murder in Lillehammer (minus homophobia) and (b) a sort of pre-empted action to a murderous power struggle within a tight-knit community of social rejects. Also, when Varg was sentenced for the murder, I should note that he was sentenced for 21 years in prison, the maximum sentence for any crime committed in Norway. Interestingly enough, their prison system is globally acclaimed as the 'most successful' and 'most humane' prison in the world, but Varg actually escaped prison with a guard's vehicle, weaponry, GPS, and cash TWICE. Perhaps there should be a special prison for black-metalers, as Varg used his lock-up time to record albums and do all sorts of ideological scheming. In some senses, Varg may be one of the only people in the world who actually deserves to do time in a US federal prison.

I want to take a minute to discuss Varg's lofty (and often confused) ideology. He espouses Odalism (From Norse óðal (homeland, allodium, allodial law, nobility, noble, inherited goods, fatherland, land property, distinguished family, distinguished, splendid, kin and the nation)) and National Socialism (he's not a "Nazi" but rather someone who supports the Nazi persecution of "Jewish heresy" / Judeo-Christian thought) regularly on his website and obviously has taken his anti-Christian ideology into the realm of action. Varg also claims to be a racist (Odalism includes 'racialism,' which is pretty much just racism with an extra syllable) but says that he hates no one: "hatred is irrational." Alright, dude. Whatever. He also advocates eugenics, but says that everyone is free to follow their individual culture. I guess he just likes watching the nationalists squabble over territory. He also went around calling himself "Count Grishnakh" (a particularly vehement/violent orc in The Lord of the Rings) for a good period of life, so take all of this lofty ideology with a grain of Middle-Earth salt.

In any case, not all people who play black metal music are evil homophobic racists. The most recent strain of black metal ideology was put into manifesto form by Hunter Hunt-Hendrix of American black metal band Liturgy. It attempts to separate the kind of music that Liturgy makes ("transcendental black metal") from the historic Norwegian scene ("hyperborean black metal") by describing the qualifiers most idealized by each scene, and also attempts to signal a "break" from the European tradition of black metal. It symbolizes "human dignity, hybridization and creative evolution"; well gee, I like that stuff too! I think the entire treatise is a little preachy (and certainly wrapped up in its own solar ivory tower), but you can read Vice's (actually excellent) deconstruction of it here.

Those who promote a transcendental vein of black metal (and associate it with 'solar' forces) would probably do well to distance themselves from the historic black metal scene, confused and violent as it was. I agree that a nihilation of nihilism is necessary (for affirmation is the only way to justify one's continuing existence as a meaning-making being), but I don't think that the 'burst beat' and this generally horrible-sounding genre of music are the only way to achieve it. Indeed, it seems counter-productive to tie one's breaking-off movement linguistically to the same subculture one is moving away from - doesn't TBM still include 'black metal' in its very name? Why not just call it transcendental metal? White metal? ANYTHING ELSE?

As a sidenote about non-racist black metal musicians, Gorgoroth guitarist Infernus sued to earn ownership of the band name in 2008 from his bandmates Gaahl and King ov Hell and was successful. He claims to have no interest in continuing to work with those who pursue racist agendas. Many black metal musicians (notably Fenriz) have come out in support of Infernus and have called his bandmates "thieves." Notably, Infernus also claims to be a theistic Satanist - he mentions that "anti-Christian is not the same as anti-religious," and he also advocates against the burning of churches. All around, it seems like Infernus is your dude if you're trying to be a tolerant/reasonable black metal advocate. For a more detailed read on the name dispute, check the wiki.

Perhaps subcultures which are outright violent to mainstream/national culture(s) are actually more dangerous for people of color - it would give racists an excuse to persecute them for their radical ideas. Seriously, could you imagine an American metal band composed entirely of musicians of color burning down churches and making the burned-down church remnants their album covers? God-fearing white people would literally be pursuing them with nooses in tow and lynching trees in mind.

It's possible that black metal ideology and culture come from an absolute lack of struggle. With no oppression weighing down their personal lives, the men who would grow to be important black metal musicians were free to spend their days being bored out of their skulls in statistically-above-average-happiness Scandinavian countries and contemplating their finiteness as beings (and thus, mortality was revealed by the corpse paint of the black metal musician to be his one and only struggle on this cruel earth). If you've ever been to a metal concert, you probably noticed that you were standing in a crowd of sweaty, very gender-binary-conforming white dudes who probably weren't older than 30 on average. This is probably an alienating generalization, but maybe the reason why the black metal scene is so white and so devoid of non-cis-males is because those people just have more important things to contemplate than how great Norse ideology is or how angry they are at the world. Those people don't have the privilege of shutting themselves off from the mainstream world - indeed, one might view the most violent aspects of the black metal subculture as examples of deranged white men taking their privilege and running as far as they could with it.

Perhaps we can see a little into the social construction of race here, too - by distinguishing 'black' and 'white' (not the actual color of anyone's skin), we polarize 'good' and 'bad' in infantile terms clear enough for the slowest West Virginia redneck to understand. I'd like to put forward the idea that the black metal musician unconsciously attempts to make himself 'black' (racially) via his ideology and culture; the perceived enemy of European Christianity (the African Muslim or pagan) is subject to a sort of penis envy on the part of the European black metal musician. He wants to be hated by society, but by birth he is not - thus, he undertakes horrible actions in order to be deemed an outcast. This is probably my most far-fetched and theoretically intensive claim in the entire article, feel free to disregard it if you like. Just food for thought.

From the aesthetic of the music (blackened, scorched deserts of sonic space; howled, indecipherable screeches in place of singing, poorly recorded albums) to the extreme and often pathetic elitism of those who advocate it on music forums, black metal proves itself to be a generally unpleasant phenomenon (which was always its goal). Perhaps its fans can languish in the superiority they delude themselves into experiencing - "ah, yes, it is we who are the most brutal, the most anti-Christian," but in their languishing they forget the true brutalities which spawned their false sense of superiority. Unfortunately, being a fan of black metal puts you among the aesthetically illiterate, the racist, the homophobic, and among those who generally have a difficult time imagining the experiences of others (but who espouse simultaneously a sort of misguided existentialism). In the meantime, I'll be listening to the new Kendrick album and music that's generally more groovy. I'd like to take this opportunity to remind my readership that it is not the popularity (or lack thereof) which makes music good, but rather its artistic coherence and innovativeness. I'm not saying that there haven't been any creative metal bands, nor that there will never be; what I am saying is that the black metal scene (current and historic) is populated by uneducated, intolerant, insufferable brutes who could barely agree upon a common "Other" to hate among themselves. Emperor is still pretty fun to listen to, though.

Also, please enjoy a humorous photo of Abbath ( Immortal frontman/guitarist):

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Black metal is a historic subculture tied to a genre of heavy metal music that involves bleakly/brutally distorted guitars, tremolo picking, lo-fi recordings and an emphasis on atmosphere or ambience. The music genre was spawned as an aesthetic in the first wave, most notably by Venom (with the album Black Metal), Bathory (which got its name from the Venom song " Countess Bathory"), and Celtic Frost.

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Is there room for anyone who is not a white male?

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Is there room for anyone who is not a white male?

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I don't know how I got the guts to imagine myself in positions that are mostly occupied by white men, but I'm glad I believed I had the right to express my teenage anger through music that felt compatible with it.

When I was a teenager, I spent hours fantasizing about ruining my vocal cords and screaming on stage with a metal band. I took electric guitar lessons in the afternoons and practiced my throaty vocals at night. I wanted to be the opposite of a good girl. I decided to cut my hair, wear way too much eyeliner, and fill my closet with black clothes. My family didn't mind, and I was happy to have the freedom to discover and experiment. I thought I was creating an identity for myself, but I was ignoring a pretty important detail: I desperately wanted to be part of a community that didn't have a lot of room for people who look like me, so I tried hard not to look like myself.

I don't know how I got the guts to imagine myself in positions that are mostly occupied by white men, but I'm glad I believed I had the right to express my teenage angst through music that felt compatible with it. Now that I know a little bit more about life and society, I think that women and POC have a lot of reasons to be angry and want to shout our lungs out. So, why is the metal scene so white and male?

Racism and sexism are everywhere and the metal community is no exception. In the 1970s, white supremacist skinheads appeared in the punk and metal scenes in the UK. From then on, many bands that proclaim "white power" get gigs along with other supposedly neutral bands: musicians that don't mind sharing the stage with other musicians that encourage violence against women and minorities. This exemplifies the fact that political neutrality doesn't exist. Staying silent about these issues only perpetuates them, and the fact that famous figures like Marilyn Manson call racism "a stupid, made-up word" isn't helpful at all.

One of the things I love about metal is the opportunity to be a little violent in a way that is socially acceptable. Not everyone respects it, but there's an implicit agreement to push and kick one another at metal concerts without really hurting the people around you. But now, imagine you're there, enjoying the energetic aggression and enthusiasm that goes with the music you love. Then, at some point, somebody starts getting violent with you in particular. The implicit agreement suddenly breaks, and you hear a man you thought you admired shouting the words "White power!" and throwing a Nazi salute, as Pantera's lead vocalist did last year in a concert in the US, causing controversy about racism in the community. Such an experience would take you from feeling part of the crowd to feeling like a target for having a different skin tone in matters of seconds.

This kind of discrimination happens not only to fans, but also to musicians who dedicate their lives to the genre. As in other professional fields, women are taken less seriously in the metal scene. The fact that there's a whole subgenre dedicated to bands that bellow about rape and murder fantasies (think about Cannibal Corpse's lyrics: Mother ripped apart / Smashing in her face / My knife cutting holes / Fucking her remains), and the humiliation and degradation of women, should be indicative of the status of women in the industry.

The irony is clear. Metal, a genre that is supposedly subversive, isn't free of the conservative tendencies that perpetuate injustice. Nonetheless, we shouldn't give up on the music. We should expand the genre a lot more: until it includes all of us or it breaks.

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Is There Room In Metal For Anyone Who's Not A White Male?

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When I was a teenager, I spent hours fantasizing about ruining my vocal cords and screaming on stage with a metal band. I took electric guitar lessons in the afternoons and practiced my throaty vocals at night. I wanted to be the opposite of a good girl.

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Did I wish you a Happy New Year yet?

If not, I hope you are having a good one. I'm not. And I'm pissed.

Between work woes, someone copying my bank card and cleaning me out and then the bank accusing me of lying ( and then criticizing my finances, to boot) and then the following story, this month has truly sucked. Did I tell you that I have to have surgery in a few weeks and just went through a major cancer scare in which I had to have TWO biopsies?

It's been great, I tell ya.

Anyway, let's get to the story. First, I have to admit that I have a very bad habit of not forgiving people. You screw with me once = you are dead to me. I am bullheaded and I have been accused of holding people to a ridiculously high standard, standards that I do not adhere to in my own life.

But there are reasons to why I do the things I do, and this is one of them.

So today, I check Facebook at lunch, and someone I know through the metal writing thing posts something stupid on his page. He starts off with "I'm not into black chicks, but......" and then goes one to laud someone he saw on a TV show. he said, "I would even allow her to take me out."

I commented that I thought he was a douchebag.

Now, this dude is a person of colour, and I've hung out in person with him a few times, and I quite liked him as a friend...... but did think that as a POC, he seemed to be one of those people who was trying very hard to make people forget that he wasn't. What bothered me about the statement was "I'm not into black chicks, but...."

But what?

Why say that, unless if you felt that some people who were going to read it would think less of you if you found a Black woman attractive? I swear, for some guys it's like admitting that you find a black woman attractive is like admitting that you have Herpes.

And I didn't like this:
I would even allow her to take me out.
Well, he was a bit mad at me. First, he texted me, and then responded via FB, asking me why I called him that. He then went on to say that - and didn't mention this, HE did - that he wasn't a racist. "I've been attracted to white girls since I was four or five." I won't give too much away, but if he wants to fuck white girls, so what? I responded that I didn't think what he said was racist, but just ignorant.

Well then his white friends - mostly female - commented. Some went after me personally, alluded to the fact that I was fat and a "big bitch" which was interesting, because I do not have a picture of me up on my page and I am not fat...... and yada yada yada, said that they only liked white girls...... and some other racialized language. Then someone got smart and removed me from the response thread, but they went on about Jews and Latinos, etc. Oh, but some of them were Jewish, so I guess that was okay! My 'friend' I guess so happy that he got some attention, egged them on.

When I got home from work, I promptly 'de-friended' him. I'm going to two events this year where I know he will be at, and I do not plan to talk to him ever again. For a minute I was having flashbacks to high school.......(shudder).

It wasn't that he didn't defend me - I guess he was angry that I called him on his shit. It was...hell, he seemed to go along with this other 'friends' on FB. We are were not close, but as a fellow POC, I thought he would be less of a fucking asshole, but as I mentioned before, I wasn't shocked.

Just a bit disappointed.

But I do not want to associate with people who know ignorant-ass hipster racists like he does.

By the way he reacted to my douchebag comment, I think he knew he was crossing a line with his statement. But instead of offering a rational explanation instead of "I like to fuck white girls and don't call me a racist" he tried to make me the guilty party by even calling him on it. I think what bothered me was that he is brown. I thought that perhaps he shouldn't cave in to the stupid, ignorant behaviour just so he can impress his friends.

But really, I don't give a shit what he has to do to make himself feel worthy. But dissing other POC's and Jewish folks is a no-no).

Anyway, this got me thinking about my book. I have to admit that consciously, when I was in the research phase I was looking for women who were into the metal and punk scenes who were 'concsious.' They had to be Black and proud of it, and were not using the music and/or culture to be accepted by whites - the majority in the scene. Luckily for me finding women like that was almost effortless. They knew what other people thought of them, and were proud to be seen as Black women who were simply involved in the scenes because it was important to them: Nothing less and nothing more. They were not out to get the white 'man's' approval; They were in it to troll for white boys ( but I have to admit: today's events got me reconsidering my lust for Matt Pike and Robert Trujillo - hell, he's Latino so I guess that's okay, right?) I mean, part of me thought, well because I have mad crushes on white / Latino boys in the scene, what does that say about me?

Admittedly I know that it is hard to be accepted as a POC in the scene - so I do not try to be accepted - you like me or you don't. I have met some great, cool people but I know to keep them at arms' length. Some I consider friends; most I do not. They fuffill the social part of me that loves going to shows and hanging out with like-minded metal fans, and only a few I have trusted enough to reveal parts of myself that exist outside of the music scene. On the other hand, I also have friends - mostly Black - who hate the music / scene I am into and do not understand why I do the things I do. I think that they begrudingly accept that it is part of me, but I also know that they talk about me behind my back. It's hard, but it's fair, I guess.

I do not like to be judged. And trust me, I get enough judgement every goddamned day as soon as I leave my apartment, so why the hell am I going to take it from people whose names I actually know? But in this scene as a 41year old- black woman, it is part and parcel of what I do.

So about my former 'friend:' what happened today was good. He reminded me of what garbage is out there, to not get too comfortable with people and to keep my guard up. If I ever do talk to him again - which is unlikely - I will say that he is better than that. He can be proud to be who he is, and he doesn't have to throw others under the racist bus to make himself more appeasing to others. I understand where he is coming from, and I understand that to him, he probably doesn't realize that there is a problem with his need for approval and acceptance.

But if people can say racist shit to you about others, what the hell do you think they are saying about you behind your back?

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Did I wish you a Happy New Year yet? If not, I hope you are having a good one. I'm not. And I'm pissed. Between work woes, someone copying my bank card and cleaning me out and then the bank...