Metal Jew

Thoughts on an Israeli interview with Varg Vikernes

Israel's Metalist website recently published this interview with Varg Vikernes. I think it's great that they secured the interview and more importantly, that the interviewer Alon Miasnikov did not shirk from answering the hard questions.  These days Vikernes' interviews seem to be characterised by his charm and good humour rather than a desire to shock (and they can be all the more dangerous for that). He is also extremely evasive and sometimes downright misleading. When asked for his views on Nazi antisemitism and the Holocaust he first of all talks about other massacres throughout history and  the way the facts are distorted and then goes on to argue that:

My problem with all these massacres is that I really don't know if they happened as described by the victors. Nor do I trust the descriptions of the victims, as they tend to at least exaggerate. I say this because I see how even my unimportant and (to most) uninteresting story has been presented by the Norwegian system. They actually teach children in school today that I am a devil-worshipping satanist who burned churches, and they use me to prove the existence of a satanic presence in our midst. Everything they teach them is a lie, and what they teach is even easily unveiled as nonsense. You don't even need any sources to figure this out. The whole story falls apart on its own due to a complete lack of logic. When it comes to the Holocaust I have the same problem. I don't trust the official story, because I have no reason to trust those who tell me this story.

So is he a Holocaust denier or not? I guess he  is, although he couches it in terms of suspicion of all mainstream historical narratives. He has never made denial a central part of his work and public statements though and  it's good that the interview got this out of him. His proof of why official narratives can't be trusted is also hilariously weak. While he may never  been a Satanist in the conventional sense of the word, he did indeed burned churches.

Vikernes is also asked in the interview about the notorious incident when he sent a letter bomb to Zeev Tannenboim of the Israeli metal band Salem. His response is as follows:

Well, I don't remember much of this. I was 18 years at the time and was «at war with the world», so to speak. All I remember was that I sent an electronic detonator to a guy in Salem and wrote to him that «Here is the device you needed to blow up that government building», as if he had asked for it. Then I wrote «cassette tape» on the customs note, knowing perfectly well that it did not look as if the package contained a cassette tape. It was a rotten joke intended to end our communication. As far as I know he was interviewed by the police and that was it, and I expected nothing more than that. It did, by the way, very efficiently end our comunication, as intended. «Big surprise».

Who knows whether this is true or not as Vikernes tends to manipulate his past continuously. It may be true though and in which case the conventional story only needs to be rewritten to the extent that the letter momb was only a detnonator and that it was couched as a joke designed to get Tannenboim into trouble. Whatever - Vikernes was clearly aiming to attack an Israeli musician for the simple reason that he was Israel and hence a Jew.

I was dissapointed with the interview to the extent that Vikernes could have been pushed more on his views on Jews. Still, kudos to Metalist for asking questions that other avoid.

Read the interview here.

 

Israeli troops play with popular music in Hebron

During my time doing research on the Israeli metal scene in 1998 I heard an interesting story: Apparently an Israeli metal fan was doing his military service in an undercover unit in Hebron. Every day he was woken up early by the call to prayer from a nearby minaret. So he snuk into the mosque and replaced the tape of the call to prayer with one of Sepultura's 'Beneath the Remains' and the next morning Hebron was awoken by death metal.

Now this story was never corroborated so it's possible that it's some kind of urban myth. But, assuming it is true, it raises some thought-provoking questions about the politics of metal. On the one hand, the story highlights the oppressive nature of the occupation - the ability of Israeli soldiers to create mayhem at will. You can hear echoes in this story of how music has been used in military oppression and torture in the Iraq war and indeed other wars. On the other hand, you can read the story as a kind of nihilistic form of resistance at the insanity of the religion-stoked war between Israelis and Palestinians. Let's not forget that the militant settlers of Hebron, whom the IDF is protecting, are hardly metal fans. Israeli conscripts do not stop being metal fans once they join up and the story provides a hint of the complex ways in which a love of metal can both reinforce a kind of imperialism and stoke a kind of disorder that undermines military discipline in potentially subversive ways. As ever, metal is an ambivalent presence within 'real world' politics.

This story has been on my mind again due to the viral circulation of this video, made by an IDF unit in Hebron:

Unlike the Sepultura story, this prank does not appear to disturb the daily lives of Palestinians in Hebron. The dance seems to have taken place on a back street and the music itself looks like it's been overdubbed. But there's a similar kind of politics at work: the gap between the relative freedom of the IDF to 'play' in Hebron versus the lack of freedom of Palestinian residents is still stark. Again, the IDF soldiers seem to inhabit another world, not only from the Palestinians, but from the religious Jewish settlers in Hebron. The incongruity of Ke$ha's music in this context is even greater than Sepultura's (at least death metal is a sound with resonances of conflict) and perhaps this, together with the image of soldiers performing a choreographed dance while fully armed, gives the video a kind of whimsical quality that is sort of endearing.

Are some contexts too 'serious' for pranks to be appropriate? Can the pranks be read as cynical comments by soldiers stuck between two sets of fundamentalists? Does the lack of freedom of the Palestinians to engage in such pranks neccessarily mean that no one else should either?

I'm not sure what the answers are to these questions. What I do know is that they are worth taking seriously. As ever, popular music opens doors on the complexity of the political.

Article on Orphaned Land for The Forward

The new Orphaned Land album is now out. I have an article on the band, featuring an interview with singer Kobi Farhi at The Forward. As I say, the new album's progressive metal stylings are sometimes convoluted, but it's always an exhilirating and passionate journey - and the fusion of middle eastern music and metal is always complusively interesting. The promo photos are something else:

Left Right Night

On Thursday Dec 3 I will be speaking at the JCC for London's Left Right Night. It looks like it'll be a fun night - a novel mix of cabaret and discussion. You can download a flyer here and this is the blurb (typepad wouldn't let me change the font size!!!):

As the Jewish community becomes increasingly polarised along the left/right political axis, the JCC responds with a unique alternative panel discussion and cabaret night. Throwing up debates on observance, Jewish futures, Israel and economics to a panel from the entire political spectrum, this will be Question Time on steroids.

The panel includes activist Joseph Finlay, academic Keith Khan Harris and political comedian Andy Zaltzman, chaired by Tim Samuels.

The second part of the night will be a variety show which gives carte blanche to comedians, live artists and musicians to try their riskiest, most provocative knife-edge material.

The cabaret features comedians David Schneider, Andy Zaltzman and artists Oreet Ashery and Adi Lerer.

Only the open-minded need attend…

Book here.

My comment on the war in Gaza

.AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGH!!!!!!

Israeli metal - 10 years on

Ten years ago, as part of my PhD research, I spent a memorable month doing research on the Israeli metal scene. What I found was a scene that was not only highly marginal in the country's musical community, but also marginal in the global metal scene. Scene members were acutely aware of their location in Israel and many of them thoroughly resented their perceived marginality. At the same time, the scene still had a certain vibrancy. There were some good bands, most obviously Salem and Orphaned Land, but also long-dead groups like Betrayer and Dalmerot's Kingdom. Heller productions (now metamorphosed into Raven Music) put on gigs, club nights and ran a good distro. 

I met some great people during my period during research and had some great experiences. Most memorably, the band Melechesh (then unsigned, now on Nuclear Blast and living in Holland) took me into the west bank to see the desert scenery that inspired them. I also watched them and Arallu (then just getting going as a one-man project) rehearse in a converted air-raid shelter in Jerusalem's Independence Park.

I've tried to keep in touch with the Israeli scene ever since, including during my year living in Jerusalem and on several subsequent trips.  I'm not as connected as I once was but one thing is clear to me - the scene has come a long way in the last 10 years. Salem and Orphaned Land go from strength to strength, both on respected labels, both playing out of Israel (which no Israeli band had done 10 years ago). Betzefer had a shot with glory on Roadrunner. My favorite Israeli band of all time Rabies Caste (now sadly no more) were signed to Earache for a time and toured the UK a number of times. My sparring partner (ie she doesn't like me very much) Aviva at Metal Israel does great work promoting the scene. Most impressively, Israel is going to have its first metal festival this summer, featuring Dark Tranquility, Opeth and Within Temptation.

The Israeli scene is still small in global terms, but it has a well-established infrastructure and produces bands every bit the equal of those anywhere else in the world.  I have to confess though to a certain nostalgia about the  time I spent discovering the scene ten years. It felt underground and counter-cultural and the anger and resentment felt by many scene members was thrilling to witness at times. I'm not in touch enough to know how veteran scene members feel now, whether they too are nostalgic for the old days. Certainly, when I was around 10 years ago, many scene members looked back fondly to the early 90s scene.

There's an excitement that comes from obscurity. But when all is said and done, but I would guess that most Israeli scene members prefer things to be easier. In a country where things are often tough, I can't say I blame them.

Israel Unleashed - Review

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I first got to know Israeli Metal through the mid-90s 'Israheller' compilation. Long unavailable, the compilation featured tracks from Salem and Orphaned Land together with a number of other artists, some of whom never achieved anything more, while others such as Betrayer and Azazel developed modest underground reputations.  The compilation was released by Heller Productions, a short-lived forerunner of Raven , now Israel's foremost Metal label and distro.

The reason why I'm thinking about Israheller is, first that it is nearly 10 years since I did my PhD fieldwork on the Israeli Metal scene and the compilation started my journey of discovery. But the main reason is that I recently received a copy of a new Israeli Metal compilation called Israel Unleashed , featuring 15 Israeli bands, most of whom are unsigned. I posted a while back on this when the project was still at the planning stage. The odd thing is that the compilation is released by the Jewish Music Group an American label that markets its releases primarily to American Jews. Now there are probably enough American Jewish Metallers to theoretically make the CD viable, but are they plugged into the networks that JMG use to market their work? And in any case, why would they be particularly interested in buying a CD of mostly unsigned acts? Certainly I doubt whether JMG will know how to market the CD in the global Metal scene and the problem of the acts being unknown will be even greater. I guess there is a market in Israel but I don't know if it's being released there. So the question remains: who is this CD for?

The Israheller CD sugared the pill of the inclusion of unsigned bands by also including experienced and well known acts like Salem and Orphaned Land. The same is not true for Israel Unleashed. None of the big names are here, not veterans like Orphaned Land or Salem or more recent Israeli successes like Betzefer.  It's no surprise to find that the best 2 tracks here come from Desert and Vultures, both of whom have had deals with foreign labels. Vultures split up in 2004 but their industrial Metal still sounds great.  Desert's  intriguing  classic Metal with oriental touches is accomplished enough for them to have a deal with A&M.   As for the rest? Well, unlike the Israheller CD, there aren't any tracks that are too amateurish to be included. It's a mark of the maturity of the Israeli scene that all the bands on the CD know what they are doing music-wise. The problem is that there isn't enough originality or excitement. Distorted are  kind of Salem-lite, Crossfire are meat and potatoes true Metal, Manga are dead ringers for Evanescence. Other than Desert and Vultures, the only track that really caught my interest was by Xamavar whose unclassifiable alternative Metal features bagpipes!

I still have a strong emotional connection to  the Israeli scene and I wish all the bands on the compilation well, but I am really unsure what its fate will be.

Anyway, JMG sent me two copies. I'm happy to send one to anyone who wants one, in return for an interesting CD (burnt or original) of some kind.