National Socialist black metal (also known as NSBM or Nazi black metal) is a movement within the black metal music genre that promotes neo-Nazism, neo-fascism, and white supremacist ideologies. NSBM artists typically combine neo-Nazi imagery and ideology with modern paganism, Satanism, or Nazi occultism, and vehemently oppose Judaism, Christianity, and Islam from a racialist viewpoint. According to Mattias Gardell, NSBM musicians see their ideology as "a logical extension of the political and spiritual dissidence inherent in black metal". NSBM artists are a small minority within black metal.Mattias Gardell, Gods of the Blood (2003), p.307 While many black-metallers boycott NSBM artists, others are indifferent or say they appreciate the music without supporting the musicians. Like Nazi punk, Nazi black metal is not seen as a distinct genre, being "distinguished only by ideology, not musical character".
NSBM artists do not always convey their political beliefs in their music but may express their beliefs in interviews or imagery. Artists who hold far-right beliefs but do not express them in their music are not considered NSBM by many black-metallers, but they may be considered NSBM by outsiders. War and catastrophe are common themes in black metal, and some bands have made references to Nazi Germany for shock value, much like some punk rock and heavy metal bands.
The emergence of NSBM in the mid-1990s is linked with the prominent Norwegian black metal musician Varg Vikernes. After his imprisonment for church burning and murder, he developed his anti-Christian beliefs into an increasingly white nationalist and neo-Nazi form of Heathenry. The first black metal bands to have neo-Nazi lyrics and imagery were German band Absurd, and Polish bands Infernum and Graveland. In the United States, Grand Belial's Key and Judas Iscariot became involved in NSBM (the latter has since distanced themselves from the movement). As NSBM grew internationally, it started to overlap with existing white power music such as Rock Against Communism, hatecore, and the far-right faction of Oi!. The neo-Nazi record label Resistance Records, associated with the National Alliance, started releasing NSBM albums and even purchased Vikernes' label Cymophane Records. In 2012, the NSBM Asgardsrei festival was established in Moscow, Russia, and then in 2014 relocated to Kyiv, Ukraine.
Black metal
Black metal is generally not political music and the vast majority of bands do not express political views. Black metal originated in the 1980s from the work of thrash metal bands such as Venom (whose 1982 album Black Metal coined the term), Mercyful Fate, Bathory, Slayer, Hellhammer, Celtic Frost, and Sodom.Moynihan & Soderlind, 2009, p. 10 These bands did not form a scene of their own, nor did they have a common musical style. A lyrical focus that is anti-Christian, Satanist, neopagan, or a combination thereof, is often considered a prerequisite for the genre, and originally the term "black metal" was synonymous with "Satanic metal". A stricter definition still requires Satanism for a band to be classified as black metal. Non-Satanic bands from the same surroundings originally used other terms for their own music, such as pagan metal or Viking metal. In the late-1980s and early-1990s, the early Norwegian black metal scene, developed by bands such as Mayhem, Thorns, Immortal, Darkthrone, Burzum, Emperor, Satyricon, and Ulver, established a more specific sonic template that came to define Norwegian black metal and subsequently a great part of black metal in general, although other styles of black metal, like war metal, still exist. Common traits of Norwegian black metal include a fast tempo,Patterson, Dayal, 2013, p. 151 blast beats and double-bass drumming, a thin, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted guitars played with tremolo picking and power chords, either lo-fi or well-produced recordings, an emphasis on atmosphere, and an "unholy" aesthetic. Keyboards are sometimes used, as are elements of neoclassical, folk, and ambient music. Artists often appear in corpse paint and adopt pseudonyms. Many black metal artists prefer to be underground, inaccessible to the mainstream, and even intentionally push away audiences and demonstrate anti-social behavior.Venkatesh; Podoshen; Perri; Urbaniak, 2014, p. 371-372
History
Origins in the Norwegian black metal scene
In the early 1990s, the early Norwegian black metal scene developed black metal into a distinct genre. The scene members were fiercely anti-Christian—most generally presented themselves as misanthropic devil-worshipers who wanted to spread hatred, sorrow and evil, though some wrote about pre-Christian Scandinavia and its mythology. Among some members of the scene, the antagonism toward Christianity turned violent, and arson and attempted arson was perpetrated against a number of churches from 1992 through 1995. Among the perpetrators were Varg Vikernes of Burzum and Mayhem, Euronymous of Mayhem, Samoth of Thou Shalt Suffer and Emperor,Lords of Chaos, p. 100. Faust of ThornsLords of Chaos, p. 94f. and Jørn Inge Tunsberg of Old Funeral, Immortal, and Hades Almighty, some of whom are among the most prominent musicians in the scene. In January 1993, Vikernes spoke with a journalist from Bergens Tidende. The loft where the interview was conducted was filled with Satanist and Nazi paraphernalia, along with weapons, and Vikernes declared he was at war with Christianity, had already burned eight churches, and would continue his terrorism.
The violence and misanthropy in the scene also included murder. In August 1992, Faust killed a gay man—Magne Andreassen—who had propositioned him in Lillehammer. Faust was not caught for a year, despite his actions being an open secret known to many in the scene. Many have attributed the murder to homophobia;Clifford-Napoleone, Amber R. 2015. p. 88-89Dyck, Kirsten, 2017. p. 59 however, Gaahl, a vocalist from the band Gorgoroth, later came out as an openly gay man who was voted Gay Person of the Year in 2010 in Bergen, expressed belief that the killing of Andreassen by Faust had nothing to do with Andreassen's sexuality. Likewise, Faust himself, along with bandmate Ihsahn, have claimed that Andreassen's sexuality was irrelevant, and Faust simply had a murderous impulse. In August 1993, Vikernes, with Snorre Ruch from Thorns and Mayhem as an accomplice, killed his bandmate Euronymous and was arrested shortly after.Lords of Chaos (2003 edition), p. 125-130. Vikernes was convicted in the spring of 1994 for arson, murder, and illegal possession of weapons. Vikernes insists that he killed Euronymous in self-defense, although while in prison, he claimed that it was also because Euronymous was gay and communist. Euronymous was interested in communism, even professing to be a Stalinist in 1992,Patterson, Dayal, 2013, p. 367 and in the 1980s had participated in the Marxist–Leninist youth group Rød Ungdom, which he later disavowed,Lords of Chaos (2003 edition), p. 74. but there is no evidence that he was a gay man. Despite Vikernes' later claims, the killing is not believed to have been politically motivated, which even Vikernes claimed at first, and is generally thought to have been because of a personal dispute.
There is an undercurrent of Romantic or ethnic nationalism in black metal, and racism is not uncommon in the scene, even though most black metal and other extreme metal musicians disavow neo-Nazism and racist ideology. Within the Scandinavian scene, several musicians made racist statements and utilized Nazi language and paraphernalia—yet black metal is also highly performative, intentionally contradictory, and artistically transgressive, and some musicians cultivate an evil, ultra-right-wing image as an aesthetic.Venkatesh; Podoshen; Perri; Urbaniak, 2014, p. 379-380 Many of the artists who flirted with fascism, totalitarianism, and violence in their artistic themes did not find a political connection with that imagery. Still, a minority in the scene, in their opposition to Christianity and reverence for a pre-Christian past, stepped into fascist and racist ideas, particularly Nazi occultism. Euronymous, in a personal letter in the early 1990s, made the sweeping claim that "Almost ALL Norwegian bands are more less nazis [sic]. Burzum, Mayhem, Emperor, Arcturus, Enslaved, you name them." Similarly, scholar Kirsten Dyck has described the Norwegian scene's "Black Circle" as neo-Nazi. According to her, the Black Circle melded Nazi occultism, anti-Semitism and the conspiracy theory of a Jewish plot for world domination, homophobia, and xenophobia with Nietzschean philosophy, Satanism, and Scandinavian neopaganism, which then contributed to the violence perpetrated by some of the musicians.
In 1994, Hellhammer, the drummer for the Norwegian band Mayhem, said of the genre's links with racism: "I'll put it this way, we don't like black people here. Black Metal is for white people".Lords of Chaos, p. 351. When Mayhem reformed after Euronymous's death, they began releasing merchandise bearing World War II-era Nazi symbols.Mayhem Frontman Says Varg Vikernes Is 'Very Polite And Kind'. Blabbermouth.net. 26 January 2010. However, in a later interview, Hellhammer said, "I don't give a crap if the fans are white, black, green, yellow, or blue. For me music and politics don't go hand in hand". In 1995, Gaahl described "niggers" and "mulattoes" as "subhuman" and stated his admiration for Vikernes and Adolf Hitler. However, he too has since distanced himself from these statements. Vikernes also wrote some lyrics for the album Transilvanian Hunger by Darkthrone, another key band in the Norwegian scene. It was released in 1994 with Norsk Arisk Black Metal ("Norwegian Aryan Black Metal") printed on the back cover, and issued a press release stating, "If any man should attempt to criticize this LP, he should be thoroughly patronized for his obviously Jewish behavior." After the ensuing controversy, Darkthrone claimed that "Jew" is simply a Norwegian word for "stupid" and that they were "not a Nazi band nor a political band". In a 2007 documentary, bandmember Fenriz claimed he was once arrested while participating in an anti-apartheid demonstration and later had a "phase of being really angry with ... other races" before he became "totally unengaged in [political] shit".Zebub, Bill (2007). Black Metal: A Documentary. Scholar Keith Kahn-Harris argues that it is almost impossible to believe that Darkthrone did not know that a pejorative use of the word "Jew" was offensive, and the denials from Darkthrone that the members had racist or fascist sympathies was disingenuous, given the statements made. But Kahn-Harris also notes that Fenriz has made more jocular references to racism and fascism, and has interacted well with black metal enthusiasts from Israel, so Kahn-Harris believes that the actions by Darkthrone were intentionally contradictory as a form of transgressive artistic discourse and not expressions of a sincere ideology. Axl Rosenberg from the website MetalSucks notes that after these offensive actions from the band in the mid-1990s, Darkthrone has not repeatedly demonstrated racist behavior. He opines that the band members are far older now and that "it’s feasible their worldviews have changed; it’s feasible they were being provocative for the sake of being provocative when they made Hunger and have since seen the error of such sophomoric behavior." After his release from prison, Faust stated regarding the arson and murder he committed that "I was never a Satanist or fascist in any way, but I put behind me the hatred and negativity. Those feelings just eat you up from inside."