Montreal: Black Metal Festival Shut Down By Antifa Over Nazi Band

From Idavox

A Black Metal music festival was shut down on Saturday after dozens of antifa showed up to protest because a band with connections to Nazism was scheduled to perform.

A statement by the venue Théâtre Plaza announced the cancellation of the Messe Des Morts (Mass of the Dead) festival, which started on Thursday. “For safety reasons, we are forced to cancel tonight’s concert,” the statement read. “Know that the Théâtre Plaza’s administration, as well as the Messe Des Morts’ organisation have put every effort to find another conclusion. Despite this announcement, we invite you to go back home calmly and to show the same respect you have shown since the festival’s debut. Understand that we cannot give you further details for the moment.”

Ongoing standoff between #antifa and #Montreal cops. Peeps are preventing a white power metal band from performing pic.twitter.com/UtSKzLqRdF

— stimulator (@stimulator) November 26, 2016

Tensions were raised when the Polish band Graveland was scheduled to perform as part of the festival Saturday night. The band’s lead singer Robert “Rob Darken” Fudali has been open about his National Socialist views in his career and the band was noted in a 1999 article by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as one band that has joined Nazi “skinhead” culture with Black Metal. In 2008 four of Graveland’s albums were outlawed in Germany as “unsafe for youth”.  The Montreal crew of Red and Anarchist Skinheads (RASH) were among those who protested the show.

An anti-fascist alert sent to the Montreal Gazette said Martin Marcotte, the head of Sepulchral Productions, has organized several concerts of extreme-right groups, and “doesn’t seem to want to change his habits.”

#antifa clash with montreal police as the block white power band graveland concert pic.twitter.com/ctvDuJcOCk

— stimulator (@stimulator) November 26, 2016

“A band with racist and anti-Semitic ideas has no place in Montreal,” Karine Fortier wrote in the alert. “Montreal must remain a safe place for everyone and where racist people who think they have an opening to express their discriminatory ideas must meet with resistance.”

Marcotte denied the charge or far right/Nazi ties to either his festival or Graveland, noting in a statement that Fudali held “distressing” views but they were in the past, and that bands invited in the past featured Asian and Black musicians. Fudali himself noted an October post on the band’s websiteacknowledging that there were pictures of him and members of the now-defunct Polish Nazi band Honor, but they were taken in 2001 and the band has not political affiliations. “They have nothing to do with politics, and they are not reflecting my political view, either, the post read. “Graveland is not an NSBM band and never was!”