Stuttgard Youth Club Resists Censorship

The website Stattweb.de reported last weekend on a Black Metal concert held in Stuttgard on Saturday 14 November, featuring the Italian band STURMKAISER and the French band NOCTURNAL DEPRESSION. It seems the shady and hysterical Stuttgard Anti-Fascist Action pressured the youth centre to rescind their contract and ban the concert, alleging the bands were "Nazi". Fortunately, the venue resisted the pressure and the concert went ahead, as scheduled.

Stattweb's article is, of course, quite ignorant and grossly slanted, and received a lengthy refutation from the Popbüro Region Stuttgart, whom the article characterised, in an crudely defamatory fashion, as having provided a platform for anti-Semitism, Nazism, and racism. Unfortunately, the Popbüro comes across as on the defensive, which is not good, as this shows weakness and acceptance of the enemy's premises.

As to STURMKAISER, they state in their website that they are an apolitical band and that they simply use the aesthetics of paganism and warfare in a symbolic fashion. I have learnt to take such statements with a pinch of salt, as band members whom I have known to have clear political views, and whose music is, if in a sublimated and symbolic way, an expression of a strongly politicised sensibility, then claim they are "apolitical" in order to avoid boycotts and bans from frightened or politically correct distributors and magazines, or, worse, to avoid violence from terroristic political thugs, like the masked enforcers of political correctness who seek to ban and disrupt Black Metal concerts. Nevertheless, even if STURMKAISER's statement is an accurate reflection of their views, if I were them I would not bother with such remarks: when you play Black Metal, and when you use provocative imagery, you are inevitably going to upset people, even if you aim your art to a cloistered audience of like-minded fans. STURMKAISER should positively revel in being seen as monsters by the limp-wristed egalitarians, not grovel, explain, and apologise to them. Why be on the defensive? That only encourages the opposition, who are impervious to reason or persuasion anyway. The band should rather be attacking the idea that they owe egalitarians a justification for their elitism and hierarchical view of life, and follow the Nietzschean maxim of daring to be themselves.

Undead

Due to commitments elsewhere, we have neglected our blog for quite sometime. In all honesty, we have not ever been very good at maintaining them, perhaps because there is always a great deal to do and a blog, if it is to be kept interesting, needs a sustained investment of time and effort. Another problem is, perhaps, the fact that lack of time has meant not having prioritised thinking through the various options, conceptually speaking, to arrive at a sustainable and effective formula.

At any rate, we have now decided to put a remedy to that and will begin posting here once more. Keep your eyes open for updates on our activities, new arrivals, comments, and more.

Oops!

We did something wrong while uploading files onto the server yesterday afternoon and this has caused a blockage. As a result, if you visit our website you will get a 500 error. We working with our webhosting company to resolve the problem as quickly as possible.

Update:
Problem fixed.

KRODA Attacked by "Anti-Fascist" Terrorist Thugs in Poland

According to a report published by The Pagan Front, the thugs demolished the car, destroyed the instruments, and seriously injured members of the band. Consequently, the band was forced to abort their mini-tour through Poland, Germany, and Austria.

Following this incident, the German Metal magazine Ablaze Verlag has issued the following statement:

To all Bands, Labels, Mailorders, Publishers and Concert
promoters:

Once again within a few weeks, we have witnessed how Black Metal is being exploited for political purposes. That has to stop finally!

Due to this reason, we have published a proclamation ... that is primarily addressed at the Bands, Labels, Mailorders, Publishers and concert promoters, plus the entire Black Metal-scene in general. Show your public solidarity with our concern in this regard, please!

Some may wonder why we speak out against the so-called 'Antifa', and their activities in regard to Black Metal, first and foremost. Is it not that every political extremism has to be shunned altogether? Listen up, please! We don't care if one political ideology is 'better' than any other, be it 'left-wing' or 'right-wing' for that matter! We could not care less about such arguments.

We do care, however, when freedom of speech and of expression in Black Metal are at stake. Such danger is imminent, and it has one cause only: the 'Antifa', that is! Who else is terrorizing the scene with a campaign of threats, intimidation and violence against those who hold an opinion of their own? No one else but the 'Antifa' - but what do they have to do with Black Metal anyway?! They don't even listen to this music! They are only interested in enforcing their own political agenda, including the persecution of those who have different opinions. In this regard, the 'Antifa' is not different from any other group who subscribes to a totalitarian ideology. But no other group is pushing their politics on our scene like the 'Antifa' does. They have declared an outright culture struggle (Kulturkampf) on our scene, in order to decide upon the future definition of Black Metal. To this end, the freedom of speech and of expression
shall be abolished. We denounce this outrage, and we do so publicly!

Defend the freedom of speech and of expression in Black Metal!

The editors of Ablaze
http://www.ablaze-magazin.de/

Outage Resolved

The maintenance issue has been resolved and our webstore is once again working normally.

Temporary Outage

Our webstore is temporarily out of action due to unexpected maintenance issues. We are currently communicating with our webhosting company in order to get the matter resolved.

The Meads of Asphodel: Black Metal's Harry Stephen Keeler

If there was ever a literary equivalent to THE MEADS OF ASPHODEL, it would have to be the novels of Harry Stephen Keeler.. Having always been interested in extremes, and being, back in 2007, in the process of writing a novel (completed in 2008, and due to be published this year), I discovered this author after doing a Google search with the term "worst ever author" - knowing, of course, that "worst" often means, not "really bad" necessarily, but "misunderstood genius or non-conformist".

Like the abovementioned English Black Metal band, Keeler violated all the accepted rules for (in his case, not composing an album but) writing a novel: he crammed his often long and convoluted and intricately-plotted mystery novels with all manner of bizarre ethnic characters, improbable coincidences, and an tortuous and highly inventive prose - something we can find parallels of in the MEAD's eccentric songwriting and flouting of Black Metal orthodoxy. One of the most often cited examples of Keeler's style is the following segment, to be found in the first chapter of his 1934 novel, "The Riddle of the Travelling Skull":

For it must be remembered that at the time I knew quite nothing, naturally, concerning Milo Payne, the mysterious Cockney-talking Englishman with the checkered long-beaked Sherlockholmsian cap; nor of the latter's "Barr-Bag" which was as like my own bag as one Milwaukee wienerwurst is like another; nor of Legga, the Human Spider, with her four legs and her six arms; nor of Ichabod Chang, ex-convict, and son of Dong Chang; nor of the elusive poetess, Abigail Sprigge; nor of the Great Simon, with his 2163 pearl buttons; nor of--in short, I then knew quite nothing about anything or anybody involved in the affair of which I had now become a part, unless perchance it were my Nemesis, Sophie Kratzenschneiderwümpel--or Suing Sophie!

Such a segment reveals also a type of humour which can be readily identified in Metatron's spawn, what with the absurdly long titles to some of the MEADS' songs, such as "Behold the Kindred Battle Carcasses Strewn Across the Bloodied Dunes of Gilgamesh Mute in the Frenzied Clamour of Death's Rolling Tongue and Ravenous Bursting Steel" (Damascus Steel); "On Graven Images I Glide Beyond the Monstrous Gates of Pandemonium to Face the Baptized Warriors of Yahweh in the Skull Littered Plain of Esdraelon" (Exhuming the Grave of Yeshua); and "Falling with Lightning Rays Beamed through the Blazing Firmament Towards the Untented Burial Ground of Kharsag" (The Excommunication of Christ); or, the lyrics of that latter song.



Unsurprisingly, and not unlike the MEADS, Keeler had a dedicated following (peaking in the mid-1920s and early-1930s); while otherwise remaining a fairly marginal within the genre, never reaching the mass appeal levels of more conventional counterparts. We know plenty of very good, but otherwise orthodox, Black Metal bands who have attained commercial success; Keeler's literary counterparts, at least during the 1920s and 30s, were the likes of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett - authors who, defined a genre and became successful, but who avoided the fervid, far-out eccentricities seen particularly in Keeler's later novels.

I mention Keeler a few times in Mister, and one of my birthday presents from my wife last year was a first paperback edition of Keeler's most popular novels (and, as far as I know, the only one that was ever made into a film), Sing Sing Nights.



The parallels between the MEADS and Keeler do not end there, but discussing them here would reveal more information than is appropriate.

I wonder whether Metatron would concurr with my appraisal.