The record shop by the name KVLT Shop was established in Punavuori, Helsinki in 2010. The shop is a part of KVLT Limited Oy, a company owned by black metal musician Sami Juhani Tenetz and Tuomas Karhumäki (owner of the record label Primitive Reaction). The record shop focus on black metal and other subgenres of metal. Tenetz is the owner of the KVLT record label as well as the labels No Sign Of Life and Hammer of Hate. KVLT Shop run merch tables at many black metal concerts and festivals such as Steelfest in Hyvinkää, Finland. Tenetz is very well known in the black metal scene due to his long involvement as a black metal musician and businessman. Tenetz publish and distribute Nazi music, play in Nazi bands and sell Nazi merchandise and paraphernalia.
KVLT Shop have been selling Nazi music for years, mainly NSBM (National Socialist Black Metal) and RAC (Rock Against Communism). The shop also sell white power industrial and -noise music, hategrind and fascist neofolk. KVLT Shop sell records from many well known NSBM bands such as Absurd, Dark Fury, Der Sturmer, Goatmoon, Grand Belial’s Key, Graveland, Nokturnal Mortum, Stahlfront, Spear of Longinus and Totenburg as well as RAC bands such as Dead Kommunist, Honor, Marder, Pagan Skull, Pylvanainen and Vapaudenristi. Members of Marder, Pylvanainen and Pagan Skull are also activists in the outlawed neo-Nazi organization Nordic Resistance Movement.
The KVLT catalogue of Nazi music is extensive and the groups mentioned above are just an example of all the sketchy music sold at the store. Many Finnish RAC- and NSBM releases are so small that KVLT shop is likely to have bought them wholesale directly from the neo-Nazis. Nazi records also constantly figure in the ”bestseller” top 200 list at the website which shows that they are an important source of income for the shop. Below a couple of examples of NSBM and RAC records sold at KVLT Shop:
Apart from Nazi music, KVLT also sell numerous pieces of Nazi merchandize such as t-shirts, patches and badges. The examples of fascist and racist pins and patches sold at KVLT are many, below a few examples:
Tenetz is also a board member of the Teemu Raimoranta fund connected to the ELMU foundation as a representative of his former employer Spinefarm Records. Tenetz managed the sub-label Spikefarm between the years 1999-2009. Tenetz most famous band is the melodic black metal group Thy Serpent. The ELMU foundation and Spinefarm are probably not aware of Tenetz´s and KVLT Shop´s connections to the Nazi music subculture and it is unlikely that this is in accordance with their values.
Tenetz´s Nazi friends and his sessions as a guitar player in Goatmoon.
KVLT sublabel No Sign Of Life published speeches of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany marching songs as “Hitler´s Inferno vol. I – II” on CD in 2015, and they also published a “Hitlerjugend” record. No Sign Of Life began publishing Nazi music in 2015. That year was a notable year for many other in the Finnish “apolitical” black metal scene, and the “refugee crisis” caused by the Syrian civil war turned many of them on to far-right politics. No Sign Of Life have published such Nazi bands as Auschwitz Symphony Orchestra, Der Sturmer, Goatmoon, Fatherland, Kommandement and Aryan Kampf 88 and they also published two albums for fascist pagan folk metal band Stormheit.
Apart from business, Tenetz also have personal connections to neo-Nazis like members of the NSBM band Goatmoon and RAC band Marder. Tenetz have played live with Goatmoon on several occasions; In Helsinki at Alem restaurant on March 5th 2016, on the secret French NSBM festival “Call of terror” on February 9th 2019 and the Asgardsrei Fest in Ukraine on December 15th 2018. The Asgardsrei Fest is right now the largest NSBM festival in Europe that had an audience of 1500 (2018) and many connections to militant fascist groups.
Sami Tenetz and KVLT Shop are legitimizing the Nazi musical subculture and helping it out into the mainstream by selling their music and merchandise. Sami Tenetz is not only a distributor of Nazi music but also an active publisher and manufacturer of their products. It is clear to everybody that it is his clear ideological choice to sell records and merchandise by and for neo-Nazis, NSBM fans and boneheads. KVLT Shop is important infrastructure for the Nazi music subculture in the same way Mikko Aspa´s Sarvilevyt shop in Lahti and Sami Haavisto´s Horror Shop in Konala, Helsinki.
Let´s not give the neo-Nazis and their enablers any space in the musical subcultures, record business, public space or anywhere. Let´s stop the growth and mainstream acceptance of their subculture and push it back out into the periphery. Record shops should not take part in distributing Nazi music and landlords should not allow them to rent anywhere. If you want you can contact KVLT Shop´s landlord here:
KVLT Shop
Iso Roobertinkatu 42
00120 Helsinki
Asunto Oy Iso Roobertinkatu 42:n yhteystiedot:
c/o isännöitsijätoimisto Lasse Bäck
Yleiskontrahti Oy
09 611 411 (+358 9 611 411)
09 680 2262 (+358 9 680 2262)
Köydenpunojankatu 7 A 1
00180 Helsinki
Do you have more information on Sami Tenetz, KVLT Limited Oy or other influencers of the Finnish NS music scene? Contact us on varistoimitus [ät] riseup.net!
More articles about the Finnish NS music scene in English: