Reenactment and the Far-Right Black and Pagan Metal Scene

The music genre of black metal, particularly its subgenres Viking and pagan metal, is perhaps the most important subculture overlapping the early medi­eval reenactment scene. The distinction between the individual subgenres is not always clear and largely depends on the musicians’ self-perception and how they present themselves.

To understand the radical political background of an important part of this music scene, it is necessary to introduce some major protagonists and networks. Black metal emerged as a subgenre of heavy metal in the 1980s. Although originally applied to heavy metal bands with satanic lyrics, the term has also been used since the 1990s to describe groups devoting them­selves to nihilistic, misanthropic, and pagan themes, the majority of which are influenced by the dominant Norwegian scene. From the early 1990s, this scene became increasingly radicalized, and it was not long before the majority of the members known as its Inner Circle received lengthy prison sentences for murder, rape, church arson, and the desecration of graves.In Honor of the Forefathers 89 One of the most prominent individuals was Kristian “Varg” Vikernes, heading the band Burzum.

In the German scene, Hendrik Mobus from the Thuringian band Absurd is regarded as one of the most prominent figures combining heavy metal with extreme right-wing ideology. Absurd represents a strand within the black metal scene which is characterized by references to National Socialism and hence known as National Socialist black metal (NSBM), a term also attributed to Vikernes. Glorifying the Nazi era and regarding it nostalgically as an occultist, esoteric phenomenon, NSBM uses elements of Nordic mythology and a blood-and-soil ideology to produce the construct of “Aryan supremacy.” Like Vikernes, Mobus also went to prison for mur­der (of a 15-year-old schoolmate), and he later declared himself Reichsftihrer (imperial leader) of the AHF. Since 1994, with his brother Ronald, he has run the label Darker Than Black Records, one of the foremost European record labels and concert promotion agencies in the field of NSBM. In an attempt to avoid prison, he fled to the USA in 1999, where he was given ref­uge by William Luther Pierce (1933-2002), founder of the white supremacist National Alliance. Pierce is the author of The Turner Diaries (1978), a kind of manual for armed struggle based on the principle of leaderless resist­ance used by militant white supremacists.

In addition to his involvement with Graveland, Fudali plays in Lord Wind, a pagan folk band which often performs at reenactment festivals like Wolin, Ogrodzieniec, and elsewhere.

The cited quotes show the ideological proximity between the NSBM and radical strands of pagan metal and openly neo-Nazi organizations, the latter of whom has undertaken efforts since about the mid-1990s to woo heavy metal fans to support a racist ideology via “white music.” Attention is focused on the concept of white supremacy, which has largely replaced the Nazi racial theory of the 1930s. For example, the main aims of the inter­national neo-Nazi network Blood & Honour were to coordinate neo-Nazi bands with each other, use concerts to spread a National Socialist ideol­ogy, acquire funds and create a well-networked cadre structure. Founded in the UK in the 1980s, it doubtlessly played a significant role in turning far- right circles toward neopaganism as well as Germanic and Viking mythol­ogy (Goodrick-Clarke, 2009, pp. 96-114; 402-434). Numerous white power bands were influenced by Ian Stuart Donaldson, a co-founder of Blood & Honour, who in his band Skrewdriver dealt with religiously charged neo­pagan references, e.g., Thor and Wotan. Consequently, fans increasingly explored neopagan themes and aspects of ancient history outside their musi­cal activities, too. The musical spectrum has expanded since, and in issue 23In Honor of the Forefathers 91 of Blood & Honour magazine (2001), for example, the above-mentioned bands Burzum, Absurd, and Graveland were presented in an article titled “National Socialist Metal” as the best-known flagships of this genre.

A report in the aforementioned US neo-Nazi magazine Resistance impressively shows the close international links between the partly militant extreme right-wing scene, heavy metal subculture and reenactment activ­ities since the turn of the millennium.

Besides joint activities in Wolin, there are a number of other ways in which several members of Ulfhednar are connected to this domain. For example, a greeting message to several bands including Graveland was printed on Menhir’s 2007 album Hildebrandslied (Menhir, 2007a). In view of the exceptional international importance and popularity of Fudali and Graveland, Ziliox’s claim that the musicians in Menhir were not aware of Graveland is impossible to believe following the publication of this message. Further insights are provided by Menhir’s association with the record label Perverted Taste, which released or rereleased not just Hildebrandslied but also the band’s other albums:—Thuringia, Die Ewigen Steine, Buchonia and Ziuwari (Menhir, 2003c; 2003d; 2004; 2006b).

Dornbusch and Killguss (2005) are right to state that Menhir’s music does not glorify National Socialism. Even so, with the lyrics of Menhir’s songs echoing a volkisch and blood-and-soil philosophy, it has been described as a far-right band by some authors and experts on the music scene (Fromm and Kernbach, 2001; von Hoyningen-Huehne, 2003, pp. 100-101; Dornbusch and Killguss, 2005, pp. 113-115; Fromm, 2007). Menhir and Ulfhednar both strongly refute this allegation. Nevertheless, Thomas “Fix” UBfeller, a member of Ulfhednar and the bands Odroerir and Menhir, revealed in an interview traditional racist-volkisch elements of a blood-and-soil ideology as well as a reference to alleged racially prede­fined human archetypes, which we will address further below. He declared: “Nevertheless, we should respect our recent ancestors, not only our ancient forefathers because they are the reason that I, we, exist and continue to carry their blood. We can’t simply deny our archetypes and run after some strange thing [i.e., Christianity] which isn’t connected to our homeland or its inhabitants” (Odroerir, 2001).

In addition to such references to their common “blood,” Menhir’s lyrics also contain references to the “soil.” The “ancient Thuringian” is presented as a product of nature, with which he shares a common essence or affinity (Dornbusch and Killguss, 2005, p. 114). This affinity of being between the “arable land” and the people living on it is not necessarily intended to assert the natives’ superiority over outsiders but merely to construct the differ­ence between them. Heiko Gerull, the singer of Menhir and head of the Thuringian chapter of Ulfhednar, summed it up as follows in an interview: “Maybe the typical Thuringian in the literal sense does not [exist], but there is certainly a breed of people with their own mentality. This is doubtless not unusual, for when you leave Thuringia, you come across quite different human characteristics in terms of disposition, spirit, their mentality, views and interpretation” (Fischer, 1999). By saying things like this, the musicians from Odroerir and Menhir seem to reveal a belief in conceptions of native soil and ancestry that is, in line with their other statements, clearly mov­ing in the set of values of volkisch and ecospiritual pagan groups (Grunder, 2018), to which we will return later on.

When addressing historical themes, Menhir—and Ulfhednar by association—are not interested in a proper exploration; instead, based on the concept of “I think and feel like my [Germanic] ancestors” (Fischer, 2001), they concoct calls for action. As Gerull stated: “Since my dislike was aimed at the church, Christianity and thus also against the Christianized ruling parties, sooner or later it was necessary to find a life philosophy of my own.... By founding Menhir, we also saw an opportunity to open up this experience and our philosophy to a wider audience.... The church, which is responsible for the fact that our former pagan ideas have been allIn Honor of the Forefathers 93 but extinguished, only deserves our hatred and disgust. At the moment, we are still fighting merely ideologically against it by reviving old Thuringian traditions, legends, the everyday life of our ancestors and the pagan world of gods in our songs” (Fischer, 2001). This statement bears a frightening resem­blance to Mobus’s proclamation according to which “NSBM is a refined tool of agitation and propaganda... to compel the audience to take action... a call to arms!” (Mobus, 2001). As mentioned above, for years Menhir also used a pseudohistorical wooden stele in its performances. The bearded man wearing a helmet with a swastika was referred to by Menhir as “our God” (Dornbusch and Killguss, 2005, p. 110; Menhir, 2002; 2006a; 2013;). There is no archaeological evidence of such a stele sporting this symbol, so the use of a swastika out of proven historical context constitutes a criminal offense as explained above. Evidently, the deliberate, pointed violation of a gen­eral taboo was intended to emphasize to the spectators the musicians’ seri­ousness of purpose to uncompromisingly follow their conviction. Precisely this seriousness and an intentionally displayed willingness to act are valued in the scene as a sign of a high degree of credibility (Penke and Teichert, 2016, p. 31). Regarding the Menhir members’ activities as reenactors with Ulfhednar, this sheds additional light on the questionable use of swastikas in the group’s performances.

A statement by Menhir in its online visitors’ book clearly shows that the use of the swastika, far from being by chance or an oversight, is, in fact, key to its political objectives. On 15 March 2005, a fan appealed for swastikas not to be displayed on stage anymore as they represented hor­rors like Auschwitz. The response posted by an unidentified member of Menhir was: “Why should we simply throw away our cultural heritage or have it banned by some institution or other? Shamanism, warriorism, honor, loyalty and pride are all words and values which are unfamiliar to this society, but which we are rediscovering or already carry within us. You have evidently not understood what Menhir is about. I carry the Sonnenrad [sun wheel] in my heart and won’t allow anyone to take it away from me—including in the knowledge that my fate was imposed on me by the Norns to test my station, which I will one day take up in the great hall, in the circle of my companions, and I will not meet people like you there” (Menhir, 2005).

These utterances starkly demonstrate that Menhir’s members do not sim­ply aim to create a historicizing atmosphere to underscore their musical style. Rather, they show that the genuine interest in history claimed in the above-quoted statements by band members and Ulfhednar alike appears to be restricted to very peculiar notions of the past that seem to demonstrate their own pagan and contemporary political aspirations. We will show now that these ideologized views set forth with a strong sense of mission clearly refer to volkisch ways of thinking from the 19th and 20th centuries in which neopagan, spiritually charged ideas of “Germanic-Aryan origins” played a key role.