Hate band tours the UK

Infernal War are touring in support of the Swedish group black metal band Marduk, as part of their European tour, and are also set to play in Glasgow and London. Marduk have themselves long been accused of paying tribute to Nazism.  

Infernal War, who previously went by the name Infernal SS, have a sick fascination with Nazi atrocities; the band’s singer, for example, goes by the name “Herr Warcrimer” and their guitarist calls himself “Zyklon” (a reference to the gas used to exterminate Jews in the gas chambers).

The band made their debut on the 2001 compilation The Day Of The Rope vol.1, released on the white supremacist record label Strong Survive Records, alongside a number of nazi bands. The compilation is named in reference to the noxious nazi book The Turner Diaries, a novel which has inspired numerous violent racists and terrorists, including the Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

Infernal War’s first EP contained track titles such as “Czarne Legiony SS” (Black Legions of the SS). On their split EP with the band Inferno – released on openly nazi record label Deathabyss Productions – they released their song “Jewhammer”. The band’s first official T-Shirt reportedly bore the slogan “Pure Elite Aryan Terror”.

Infernal War have denied being a political band or belonging to the National Socialist Black Metal (NSBM) scene, describing themselves rather as “a soundtrack to genocide” and standing for “the extermination of the weak and ignorant human masses”.

However, according to Encyclopaedia Metallum, the band’s drummer “Stormblast” has previously played with established nazi bands Honor and Warhead, and Infernal War has previously played at extreme right music festivals, such as “Hot Shower 3” in Milan, 2014.

Marduk, who are headlining the tour, have also been accused of Nazi leanings. The group’s 1999 album was entitled Panzer Division Marduk, referring to the tank divisions of the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany, and Frontschwein, German military slang for a soldier serving at the frontline.

Song titles included “The Hangman of Prague”, and “The Blond Beast”, references to Holocaust architect Reinhard Heydrich. According to Swedish newspaper Dagens ETC, the band’s founder guitarist, Morgan Håkansson, runs Marduk’s business through a company named Wolfsschanze (Wolf’s Lair), named in reference to Hitler’s wartime bunker.

Dagens ETC also reported that two members of the band have purchased nazi propaganda through the website of the nazi Northern Resistance Movement (NRM). This claim is disputed by the band, which denies charges of Nazism, saying that its lyrics “deal with religion and history, nothing else”.

The tour is also currently listed to play at Audio Glasgow tomorrow and The Dome, north London, on Friday. Other bands on tour with the group include Norwegian band Ragnarok, German band Unlight and French band Azziard.