NSBM band Necropole on a minitour in Finland – first gig with nazi bands in a secret venue in Jyväskylä.

This is an English translation of text that first appeared on the webpage of Anti-fascist Network Varis in Finnish. Original was published here 18th of November 2018.

The French NSBM (National Socialist Black Metal) band Necropole, founded 2012, will do a short tour in Finland in 22th to 24th of November 2018. The band that rarely plays anywhere outside Finland starts its tour on Thursday 22nd, playing in Jyväskylä at a secret concert with Finnish nazi bands Vapaudenristi and Pagan Skull. Vapaudenristi and Pagan Skull play RAC (Rock Against Communism) music, a genre favored by nazi skinheads. On friday 23rd the band will play at Varjobaari in Tampere and on Saturday 24th at Bar Rock Bear in Vantaa, a venue known for hosting neo-Nazi concerts. On Friday and Saturday Necropole will be joined by black metal bands Nephilim´s Howl and Kuilu. Kuilu have played both 2015 and 2016 at the Apocalyptic Rites festival, a Finnish underground NSBM and RAC music festival. Necropole has played at the Turku Saatanalle festival in 2017 and in Lahti on the now defunct Rooster Pub on 13th of August 2016. Necropole frontman Amertume is also a member of NSBM band Caverne. In many European countries public NSBM concerts have been made impossible by antifascist actions, civil society and the legislation against hate speech.

Ukkometso, the secret venue of neo-Nazis in Jyväskylä

The secret concert in Jyväskylä is by all probabilities arranged in a secret club house called Ukkometso. The concert has been promoted by Finnish neo-Nazi blog Veriyhteys, who promoted it in a review of a 13.10 2018 concert at the same place. The club is run by Crew 38 Jyväskylä, a support group for the US neo-Nazi organization Hammerskins.

At least ten Nazi concerts has been arranged in Ukkometso since 2015. The most common genre is RAC, but there has also been NSBM nights like the concert with Goatmoon, Circle of Dawn and Goats of Doom 24.2 2018. It is quite likely that Crew 38 has close ties to the Finnish branch of Nordic Resistance Movement (NRM), since several NRM members play in Finnish RAC bands. In Jyväskylä, there are at least three RAC bands at the moment: Pagan Skull, Pylvanainen and the reunited White Minority. Both Pylvanainen and Pagan Skull have NRM members in their lineups.

A shared Nazi ideology and antisemitic lyrics

It is not a coincidence that an obscure french NSBM band plays a thursday night gig in a neo-Nazi club house. At the concert Necropole will be joined by Vapaudenristi, whose front man Mikko Aspa (for more of Aspa”s releases check his Discogs page) have released Necropole records on his label Northern Heritage. Vapaudenristi has played at the Ukkometso club house several times, and recorded a live album there. Apart from shared musical projects, the bands performing all share the national socialist ideology. Vapaudenristi and Pagan Skull are mainly listened to by Finnish boneheads and their lyrics praise fascism, with the goal of spreading it through ”cultural struggle”.

The Ukkometso concert is promoted through Aspa´s Northern Heritage label, and the tour is promoted both to the underground neo-Nazi scene and a broader audience. However, the Ukkometso concert is not featured on the poster, probably to not endanger the tour by connecting the other venues with an openly bonehead club.

Necropole´s music is similar to other modern European NSBM bands. The lyrics are a bit more subtle even if the antisemitism is obvious. Necropole’s songs are mainly standard nazi propaganda and fascist pagan imagery, with the usual rambling about jewish conspiracies and Aryan master race. As an example from the song Trahison fratricide (”The Brother War´s Betrayal”), a quick translation in English:

The ancient enemy who once caressed your back,

viciously planted his filthy nails

in your pulpit.

And you, a designated victim, ravaged by remorse

which had no place to be,

You begged the vermin to offer you forgiveness,

which allowed the cockroaches to multiply.

The complaints of the Aryan, who have become supplicants,

only accompany the crash of his chains

What a miserable fate for the one who privileged

the unhealthy ways of mixing blood

We denounce you fire our Brother

as you denied us.

You have squandered the inheritance,

you gave it to the vultures,

as you now offer

at the mercy of your masters.

You cultivated our loss, did you even want it,

an ignoble traitor?

The desert that vomited your kings

will not be able to absorb all the trouble

Generated by this fratricidal betrayal.

But if we have not abdicated yet,

facing the multitude, facing the cosmopolitan mass,

we the worthy sons of the land of Europe

We hate you, felon, more

as the hierodules of the eternal poison.

In the song Jews are referred to as traitors, cosmopolites, vultures, cockroaches and parasites – all well know from fascist antisemitic propaganda. The lyrics also mention ”brothers”, ie. other white europeans (”Aryans”) that do not believe in antisemitism and therefore doom their own ”race” and forefathers, letting ”cosmopolite masses” rise to power. The references to ”brother wars” is an old but common fascist conspiracy theory about the second World War. Many fascists imagine that Jews secretly control the world governments and act to destroy Europan unity, culture and race. The national socialists consider themselves as a resistance to a ”moral and racial degeneracy” and picture themselves to be a master race that is threatened. These conspiracy theories are just as common in fascist pamphlets and books as in NSBM lyrics.

The lyrics in the song Le ver immonde are also filled with blatant anti-antisemitism. In that song  ”Zion” refers to Jerusalem as a holy place for Jews, and to the state of Israel. The song also mentions returning lost glory and mentions Jews as lazy and corrupt – all common antisemitic propaganda.

Necropole´s racist and antisemitic lyrics are also noted by metal blogs Deathmetal.org, Trashcore.com and Hornsup.fr, among others. This is the Deathmetal.org review of a Necropole record in 2016:

Necropole’s riffs and compositions are mostly singularly effective at mourning the decline of the French nation due to third world immigration from the ruins of the French Empire, leftism, and multiculturalism but are often overlong and indistinguishable from each other as a whole.

Here an excerpt from a Trashcore.com review 15.4 2017:

The vocal part torn from Déchéance (finally quite similar to Amertume in his personal project) sticks to the content of the texts, gloubi-boulga as exalted as tendentious: they are certainly very well written, but to heal and illuminate the form is not enough to make forget a fund that oscillates between racialism and anti-Semitism.

In the Black metal subculture there is a common idea that freedom of speech allows them to criticize and mock Jews as well as Christians and Muslims, and that this is not racist or wrong. There is however a difference between criticizing a powerful religious institution that is the majority in your area, and to attack an minority by spreading hate speech, racism and conspiracy theories. This is particularly offensive right now, when the far right and antisemitism is on the rise again in Europe. France, the homeland of Necropole is a dangerous example of this, and thousands of Jews move away from the country every year.

Do you have information about Necropole, Finnish neo-Nazi music subcultures or other underground clubs? Or do you want to ask more about the Finnish far right or need specific information related to Finland? Contact us on varistoimitus[at]riseup.net.

Afterwords to English translation

Varjobaari in Tampere eventually cancelled the gig of NSBM band Necropole. After we published this article the band Kuilu cancelled their appearance at the Varjobaari, Tampere concert, and shortly after the whole concert was cancelled. Necropole got a last minute replacement gig in rural Pirkkala, where the audience was scarce.

After the minitour organized by Finnish neo-Nazis the singer of Necropole gave this comment to Bartho Methodology webpage:

On November 22 we played with VAPAUDENRISTI and PAGAN SKULLat a private venue in Jyväskylä. This combined with the release of “Solarité” – along with trigger warnings from concerned citizens – stirred some virtual vigilantes into writing a very long, highly amusing, but not too factual article about NÉCROPOLE, after which some small-time socialist and green politicians from Tampere expressed indignation. This led to the stepping down of one ill-informed support band for the second tour date and subsequent cancellation from the venue. Stormheit of GOATMOON managed to arrange a last-minute gig at this wooden party hall, a civil war shelter for Whites, where he alongside us and VAPAUDENRISTI also played a short acoustic set using a backline provided by the original organiser.

The private venue in Jyväskylä was the neo-Nazi clubhouse Ukkometso which we described in this article. Goatmoon is probably the best known NSBM band in Finland. Goatmoons guitarist Stormheit (Joakin Kuotesaho) helped to arrange the cancelled gig and played there. As you can read from the above group, Necropole doesn’t have any problems to side with well known fascists against “concerned citizens”.

See also:

• The influencers of the Finnish NS music scene part 3: Mikko Aspa of Northern Heritage, Clandestine Blaze, Vapaudenristi & Sarvilevyt