This blog has featured several bands from the Black Metal scene who maintain white supremacist and neo-Nazi National Socialist values and ideology. Tonight I am pleased to offer a CBC Radio interview with two First Nations fellows I know well from northern BC. Their band name is the Salt Water Brothers. I went to post-secondary school with these lads.
Spencer Greening and Jeremy Pahl approached a few years ago in the university after seeing an article about me in a local Prince George newspaper. He told me that they played in a First Nations, T’simshian, Black Metal band. He told me how they suspected many people in their circle were white supremacists. I indicated that the presumption that Black metal bands are often white supremacist was true. I indicated I was familiar with many of the guys he was suspicious about. They asked if I would come to a concert in Prince George and see if I may know members from a band that was from Edmonton who was in town Begrime Exemious. They asked me to come because they knew I was a former racist skinhead from Edmonton.
I attended the concert and low and behold the front man in the the band was a young lad that I had recruited into the white supremacist movement many years ago. I spoke with the singer of Begrime, Brian Leland for the first time in ten years. The last time I had spoke to him he ended up retreating to another province after we had a falling out. Needless to say I was an abusive arsehole at that time in my life. Brian was a youth I recruited and who looked up to me a lot. I had no care, nor concern for him at that time. I hurt him. This still bothers me today, along with the other hundreds of violent crimes I had committed.
After the concert I de-briefed with Spencer and Jeremy. They later asked me to drive their tour bus for them. I drove their band’s tour bus for a week throughout BC on their Canadian Tour. They were on tour with the headliner band Inquisition, who are white supremacists. I featured these neo-Nazis in this past article. However, Jeremy and Spencer did not fully believe that the band the looked up to could be white supremacists or neo-Nazis. After I made it apparent and unfolded facts that the band members from inquisition were linked to the same organization I once belonged to solidified my claims.
Needless to say these events did impact Jeremy and Spencer in many negative ways, as it would for any logical person. To discover many of your peers are actually racists and white supremacists would present a challenging position for any person who did not share those values. It is unfortunate that Black Metal has gone mainstream to the point where you can buy the band BURZUM’s albums in local music stores. BURZUM are National Socialist racists, yet this bands music is sold in nearly every record store in Canada. Local music shops sell BURZUM T-shirts even. I see BURZUM T-shirts in high schools and even on UNBC campus. The bands that Jeremy and Spencer are discussing in this CBC interview are the same bands I have featured in my blog articles; along with many others I have not yet got too. Be patient…I will be featuring more bands as time comes.
Now to spotlight these brave indigenous musicians:
Jeremy Pahl, a local indigenous musician, who had written a letter for one of my blog articles about Prince George white supremacists and local hate crimes.
Spencer Greening, Jeremy’s cousin, talk about their journey from being a Black Metal band to an acoustic political activist band.
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These boys have transformed from a power based metal band to cultural representation of the resiliency of indigenous cultures. They mix humour with serious political issues such as genocide, racism, and environmental issues. It is my hope that Jeremy and Spencer will continue to carry on with their impressive work.
This interview on CBC was awesome. I especially like how the make out these Black Metal bands to be foolish and ridiculous. That is because they are.
Unfortunately many people are stuck in mindsets of hate. We can look at the bands like Inquisition, Begrime Exemious, Oroborous, Godless North, and even Blasphemy.
It is nice to hear a success story about youth who have walked away from a genre of music filled with hatred and white supremacist ideologies and (neo-)Nazi symbolism.
