“Nazi” music fest canceled after they were exposed by Antifa

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A Denver venue has canceled a November 15 and 16 music festival organized by Metal DP, a Colorado-based independent music promoter that has booked bands that use neo-Nazi iconography, revel in the Holocaust and affiliate with labels that have been blasted for fascist and white supremacist ties.

On Monday night, venue owner Ken Morris — who has spent this year trying to save the Lakewood bar and club most recently called the Silver Spur Saloon — came across a string of bad reviews online of his venue, which he's renamed Antero Hall at Eck's Saloon. However, they weren't run-of-the-mill "the joint's dirty, the sound's bad and the staff's unfriendly" jabs. Reviewers accused the venue of being a hub for Nazis and fascists.

Morris says he was taken aback. He claims he lost friends after he hung a sign, not long after reopening the venue, asking patrons who encounter racism, sexism, homophobia or harassment to notify staff immediately.

On Tuesday morning he spoke with one of his critics, who pointed to Colorado Springs Antifa's documentation of the fascist ties of the bands Metal DP had booked for the festival, which was dubbed Divinus Principium and would have hosted a roster of black-metal groups.

When Colorado Springs Antifa caught wind of the show, the activists dug into the bands' histories and documented how the groups affiliated with fascist, neo-Nazi, anti-Semitic and racist ideas, symbols and causes.

There was the headliner Deiphago, which describes itself as "arguably the most violent band on the planet" and issued a record with the band Necroholocaust called Gods of Holocaust. The Philippines-based group had already been taken off the lineup by Metal DP after the U.S. government declined to allow its members into the country. The other headliner, Obeisance, also released an album with Necroholocaust, called Bringers of Black Genocide, that had Nazi soldiers on its cover.

Activists encouraged others to blast Antero Hall with negative reviews until the owner canceled the show. Morris ultimately conceded — partially because he hadn't secured a liquor license from the city, so he couldn't sell alcohol, and also because he didn't want the debate to continue over his bar.

This was not the first time Morris had worked with Metal DP or the first time he canceled one of the promoter's concerts. When Metal DP attempted to bring the band Horna, whose members have ties to National Socialist Black Metal, Morris booked but later ditched the group over its alleged fascist affiliations. The band was also slated to perform at the hi-dive, which also canceled.

After Morris canceled the show, activists removed the negative reviews and promised to write positive ones. But Morris says he only wants sincere reviews, whether they're positive or negative.

He says he'll never work with Metal DP again.

"Both sides are idiots for different reasons. I'd rather not play with either of them," he says of Metal DP and Antifa, adding, "I got caught in the crossfires of something I didn't know was brewing."

I have no problem with NSBM bands struggling to find places to play. Most black metal isn't NSBM, but NSBM is a genre that's fixated on ethno-nationalism and the concept of race war.

Also, "Antifa" opposing actual literal fascists? Who'da thunkit?

all they did was bum out a few hillabilly metal fans, and are still useless as tits on a boar.

The bands probably got free advertising out of to make up for these lost shows.

Most metal fans who are also Nazis would have already known about these bands. Most Nazis who aren't metal fans wouldn't likely become fans because some lo-fi metal band has agreeable lyrics, most metal fans who aren't Nazis wouldn't suddenly embrace bands like this because very few NSBM bands bring anything new to the table that some band that aren't Nazis haven't already done better.

All it did was demonstrate that Nazis aren't welcome in that community.

I disagree. As a metal fan I am somewhat disturbed at the lack of concern about following bands that have sympathies with nazism (there's a quite a few in the metal scene). The metal community has a lot of supporters who embrace subversive lyrics and musical genre of Nazi bands but who don't necessarily buy into the jackboot culture. There is a general feeling in the metal community to seperate the art from the artist. Cancelling bands is against the general ethos of metal.

The proof of the pudding is the huge support right wing bands have in non-European countries in Asia, Mexico or South America, Skinhead music is really popular in Malaysia when I was there in the 1990s and being a skinhead and the "Oi" culture was really popular among urban Malays. Nothing weirder than seeing young Malay boys imitating British skinheads.

The point is Nazis aren't themselves welcome but I accept their music is popular among metalheads. Nothing can be done because you can't tell metalheads what they can and can't listen to.
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We can embrace the "Oi" culture without catching the disease if you know what I mean

I'm aware there's been Nazi metalheads for along time, but I don't think so many of them separate out the art from the artist as you say, I believe a bigger portion of them actually do buy into those ideals and just stay fiercely opposed to getting called out on it.

Unrelated to that, I wouldn't assume oi fans are racist, just like I wouldn't assume black metal fans are. Skinhead culture isn't rooted in racism even if a portion of skinheads are racist and have tried to appropriate the entire culture for their own purposes. SHARPs are skins too.

There's definitely a portion of metal fans who take a morally nihilistic approach to everything and really don't care what a band is about, but I'd be very curious how many of those people actually embrace Nazi metal compared to people who do buy into the values and just won't admit to it. Most of the people who I've met who listen to RABM are lefties who do hold those views for the most part, why would NSBM be any different? I wouldn't claim I've spoken to enough fans of it to be representative, but in my experience I've never met a NSBM fan who wasn't also racist.

BTW what do you think of "Negro Terror:" reclaiming the famous racist anthem "The voice of Britain" by Screwdriver. I think it's damn cool. It's funny how the original Screwdriver lead singer John "Grinny" Grinton moved from being conventional heavy metal to normalising white power. As Dave Chapelle famously said "this s**t is flimsy".

I think I listened to two Skewdriver songs once each in high school, neither were The Voice of Britain so I didn't get the joke there. I was just bummed I only heard Negro Terror after Omar passed away.

As for NSBM fans outside of the west, they tend to be fascists even if white nationalist politics aren't locally applicable.

I don't think so FE, I moved in their circles when I lived in Kuala Lumpur and they were just "James Dean" type characters (rebels without a cause). I did point out their music is skinhead and they shrugged their shoulders. They didn't care,

On Monday night, venue owner Ken Morris — who has spent this year trying to save the Lakewood bar and club most recently called the Silver Spur Saloon — came across a string of bad reviews online of his venue, which he's renamed Antero Hall at Eck's Saloon. However, they weren't run-of-the-mill "the joint's dirty, the sound's bad and the staff's unfriendly" jabs. Reviewers accused the venue of being a hub for Nazis and fascists.

...useless as tits on a boar.

I would pay/donate money to support up and coming African-American metal bands. The only other one I can think of is Living Colour who were awsome but they would be in a retirement home by now.