Antifa: The New Fascists and New Enemies of Rob “The Metal Guy”

Graveland "Thousand Swords"

    I guess you could say I am late pertaining to the whole Graveland and Messe Des Morts music festival situation, however, after seeing some more anti-fascist activity that in my opinion looks pretty darn close to actual fascist tactics, I am finally expressing my thoughts on the subject. If we can all be honest with ourselves, throwing rocks and resorting to terror like tactics to shutdown a concert because one band is accused of having a certain point of view, comes across as more fascist than anti-fascist.

    Since the Graveland show cancelation in Canada has past, I will try not to dwell too much on it, but the main points of the situation should be discussed. If you do not know what happened here is the quick rundown: Graveland is a Polish black metal band that has been labeled a national socialist black metal band(NSBM), which is false since the band constantly denounces any affiliation with NSBM, so people need to get over this false narrative. A bunch of Canadian Antifa(anti-fascist psychos) protestors used their terrorist like tactics to shutdown an entire black metal festival the band was playing at, and screwed over fans who paid money to see some good black metal acts perform that night. In the end, their actions were childish and Graveland was not going to put on a pro-Nazi performance like those Antifa jerks claimed would happen.

    See, I am worried that this is not just a metal related issue, but a societal one. I am not afraid if I lose readers over this piece, because I honestly think that I am speaking from my heart. Racism is wrong and supporting Nazi ideology is wrong, but you can’t go around covering your faces and throwing objects to silence others for having an extreme point of view. In this world you have to deal with different points of view no matter how silly or outrageous they might be to you. Using aggressive force to silence them is no different than what the Nazi party did when Hitler was around. Also, to reference the Graveland case again, we can point out how the protestors were acting on false information about the band being NSBM. Now that is scary, because people are jumping to action without knowing the entire facts!

    Again, I worry about how the metal community and society will be able to move forward if people are going to be running around acting like the gestapo because one band is “accused” of having a certain extreme point of view. If a band actually advocates for the physical harm of a group of people, I can see where that is serious matter that should be looked into right away. However, that is not what happened with the Graveland situation and most of the Antifa incidents involve the anti-fascist protestors doing most of the physical harm.

    In conclusion, I am a fan of Graveland and will not stop supporting them because some Antifa whack jobs believe they are a racist band. If you want to believe the false narrative of them being NSBM, you can choose not to support them. One day I would like to see everyone put on their big boy/girl pants and just do what they want to as long as it does not physically hurt someone else. Now, go listen to Graveland my people!...or write a comment insulting me. Either way, you have the freewill and option to do so.