Civil Rights

Heavy metal performer scheduled at Fête accused of ‘numerous racist comments and advocating violence against homosexuals’

Fête Music Hall scheduled a show for March 31 featuring the band Mayhem whose founder and drummer, Jan Axel Blomberg, has an alleged history of “numerous racist comments and advocating violence against homosexuals.” Attempts to reach the management for a comment have so far been unsuccessful. From Wikipedia: “[Blomberg] has courted controversy in the past by making numerous racist comments and

Rhode Island News: Heavy metal performer scheduled at Fête accused of ‘numerous racist comments and advocating violence against homosexuals’

March 5, 2018, 10:37 pm

By Steve Ahlquist

Fête Music Hall scheduled a show for March 31 featuring the band Mayhem whose founder and drummer, Jan Axel Blomberg, has an alleged history of “numerous racist comments and advocating violence against homosexuals.”

Attempts to reach the management for a comment have so far been unsuccessful.

From Wikipedia:

“[Blomberg] has courted controversy in the past by making numerous racist comments and advocating violence against homosexuals. The black metal biography Lords of Chaos quotes him as saying, ‘I’ll put it this way, we don’t like black people here. Black metal is for white people…. I’m pretty convinced that there are differences between races as well as everything else. I think that like animals, some races are more … you know, like a cat is much more intelligent than a bird or a cow, or even a dog, and I think that’s also the case with different races.’

“Blomberg said in a 2004 interview, ‘I don’t give a crap if the fans are white, black, green, yellow, or blue. For me music and politics don’t go hand in hand.’

“In the 2008 documentary film Until the Light Takes Us he says that he ‘honor[s]’ Bård G Faust Eithun for killing a ‘fucking faggot.'”

Repeated attempts to get a comment from Fête Music Hall management have gone unanswered. Fête Music Hall is associated with Firehouse 13 and the Shelter Arcade Bar.

The venue Dusk faced a similar situation in August of last year with the band Inquisition. Dusk owner Rick Sunderland cancelled the show and issued a statement saying, “I want to let you know… I will not let one event give what I’ve built for seven years a bad name… and I never want to alienate or hurt anyone’s feelings or be insensitive to their beliefs… therefore I’d rather have you guys always loving and enjoying Dusk. As a result of my introspection. I am not gonna allow the show to take place. Respect to all everyone.”


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