BLACK METAL fans recently learned that Norwegian act TAAKE had to cancel their US tour because of the actions perpetrated by the fascist fringe group antifa. It was antifa who waged a campaign, obviously via email or phone, to pressure venues and promoters to cancel shows. Part of the pressure is said to have been threats of violence. As you may remember this happened last year to Swedish Black Metal act MARDUK. Here we are just starting out 2018 and the fascists of antifa have claimed another victim in their crusade to deny bands they do not like access to venues in America.
The band released an official statement on their Facebook page. You can read it below but first some music.
So here's the Facebook link:
https://www.facebook.com/taakeofficial/posts/1723116881088879
I'm also reposting the band's message as follows:
It is with great regret that we have to inform you that Taake's US Tour has been cancelled. Despite all those incredible people who stepped up and tried to help us save the tour, and to whom we are more grateful than we can express, time and logistics are just not on our side. It was not our wish to cancel, but the decision was forced on us by the illegal activities of Antifa and its supporters who applied pressure on venues and promoters to cancel shows. Pressure, it has to be said, that has frequently been accompanied with threats of violence both towards those involved in the organisation and towards any fans attending (not to mention the bands who would be playing). Why these threats are not reported to the police, we don't know.
We have explained on many, many occasions, the history behind what caused the problems, and there are plenty of articles in the unbiased press and on social media where you can read the truth of it, but just for the sake of clarity Taake is not now, has never been, and never will be a Nazi band. What we want to address here is the cancellation of the tour itself.
This cancellation is unfortunate in many ways, not just for the bands who were going to take part. Not just for the ordinary working Americans with families to support and bills to pay who have lost much needed income because of it. Not just for the fans who wanted to see the bands. Not just for music fans in general. But, also, and more importantly, for America as a whole.
Why? Because it is the ultimate demonstration of how, through the dissemination of lies, misinformation and unfounded accusations, along with credible threats of violence, a small minority of left wing agitators are able to force their agenda on the majority, and deprive music fans of their freedom to attend concerts and go about their day to day activities without the fear of reprisals and retaliation.
And these agitators won't stop once they have destroyed the soft targets from Europe and other parts of the world. Their next targets will be American music, American art, American literature, American theatre, American cinema. Anything, in fact, that does not adhere strictly to their views. And if this reminds you of the McCarthy witch hunts, it is because that is EXACTLY what it is like.
Whilst none of us blame venues for cancelling because they are afraid of violence, we do deplore the excuses presented by some of them. The desire to "protect" their audience and staff, to create "safe spaces" is not a need brought about by the bands involved, nor their fans. It is the masked thugs hiding behind the banner of Antifa and other organisations like them, who are doing all the threatening. And maybe we should also remind these venues that so many of the musical genres today exist due to those other small venues back in the day who dared stand up to threats and gave a voice to those musicians who brought us Blues and Jazz - the basis of so much of today's music.
We would also like to speak out about celebrities like Talib Kweli, who was unfortunate enough to have allowed himself to be played by the lies spread by Antifa and who, as a result, issued statements that are libellous and slanderous. His heart may have misguidedly been in the right place, but his brain, and his legal advisors, were not. Had he bothered to check the facts he would have realised that he had put himself in a position of looking like someone who doesn't know, or understand, or even care about, all the facts, and who is easily manipulated by others to dance to their tune.
We should also mention those members of the press who failed to fact check and did not bother to contact us, or anyone else for that matter, for our side of the story. They simply went right ahead and printed libellous statements. This is irresponsible journalism at its worst, and we can't just single out inexperienced editors of webzines. Complicit in this are long-established and (once) respected publications. Their actions show the utter contempt they have for facts and the disrespect they have for their readers.
Ending on a positive note, we really do need thank those who stood by us, and especially the venues who refused to be cowed, and those that stepped in offering us alternatives for cancelled shows. We have had messages from all over the world, and from people of all political and religious persuasions, offering not just their support, but also offering their help. And these are not just our fans. We have been contacted by people who admit that they had never heard of us, or that they hate black metal, or that they hate Taake, but have nevertheless felt compelled to let us know of the disgust they feel at the way Antifa, and their like, demand slavish adherence to their agenda, and punish anyone who defies them, riding roughshod over the freedoms of the American people to decide for themselves.
You, my friends, do not need to apologise for the lies and actions of a fringe group. You are the majority, you are the ones who refuse to bow your heads to those who would dictate how you live your lives, and who attempt to restrict your freedoms - you are the ones who can do something about it.
Taake
And now a few things I'd like to say.
1) First off as a fan of this band I can say honestly that they are not nor have they ever been a NSBM band. Just listen to their music. In fact the only thing controversial about them is including some banjo playing on an album. And yet I saw one music site include the words "CONTROVERSIAL BAND" in their headline about TAAKE. Look assholes, Black Metal in general is controversial to all those in the lame mainstream. That's fine by me if you don't like it so go listen to boring hipster shit.
2) Now for those shit stains in the liberal metal media who are going "but look he wore an anti-islam shirt on stage and an iron cross necklace." Yeah Hoest did and he also routinely comes on onstage with an inverted cross painted on his chest. Oh but you don't care about that because you in the liberal metal media are pussies and hypocrites who believe certain people are part of protected classes. Well in that case you might not want to be listening to metal because most of it contains hateful bigoted lyrics and imagery against someone. We don't want to see you all butthurt.
3) Why would anyone in the metal media take the accusations from a fringe fascist group like antifa seriously unless they secretly agreed with them. Basically we live in a society based on the market place of ideas. We have freedom to pick and choose what we like or don't like. That's why we are constantly bombarded with advertising in order to get us to like something or someone. Fascist groups like antifa, but lets just say all those on the Left, hate freedom in general. The mere idea that people should have the ability if not an all out right to choose is abhorrent to them. That's why they try to ban things or demonize them because yes they disagree with anything that doesn't follow along their own line of thinking. But also because they can't compete. Their ideology only works by forced compliance.
4) Who the fuck is Talib Kweli and should we all care? Well a simple search told me that this guy is just a black rapper/activist who hipster scribes like. So who the fuck cares about him or what hipsters have to say. Actually it looks like Talib is just using this incident to get his name in print. I would check out his music but I hate rap. I wouldn't ban him from performing though.
5) Finally I would love to see the listings of past shows by all of the venues that caved in to antifa's bullshit. I just want to see if their past shows reflect their "desire to protect their audiences/staff and create safe spaces."
The bottom line here people is that enough is enough. Sure we can all scream "Yeah if those antifa pussies show up at a show I'm at they're gonna get their asses kicked." But you see they're not showing up, they're calling or emailing the venues. Chances are they don't even live in the very cities that TAAKE was going to play in. They had knowledge of the tour dates and a handful of antifa pussies made threats. But hey you can prevent it.
I'm kinda lucky to live in a city where one the major metal show promoters hates people who try to censor bands. This person especially hates antifa as well as any self righteous piss ants. You might not be so lucky so if you hear that one of your favorite bands is coming to town but some fascist activists are out to close it down then fight back. Contact the promoters or venues and tell them how you feel about the freedom to choose. Tell them about the fascist as well as cowardly exploits of antifa. Explain to them what's more important, a crowd of show attendees with money or a butthurt asshole using a coffee house's free wifi to lodge a threat.
Nuff Said
Mr. Wolf
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