Editing National Socialist black metal (section)

== History ==
{{Listen
| filename     = 
| title        = 
| description  = 
}}

=== Origins in the Norwegian black metal scene ===
{{Further|Early Norwegian black metal scene}}
In the early 1990s, the [[early Norwegian black metal scene]] developed black metal into a distinct genre.<ref name="Stylus Magazine">{{cite magazine|last1=Voegtlin|first1=Stewart|date=January 9, 2006|editor-last=Lee|editor-first=Cosmo|title=Into the Void: Stylus Magazine's Beginner's Guide to Metal: Black Metal|url=http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/weekly_article/into-the-void-stylus-magazines-beginners-guide-to-metal.htm|magazine=[[Stylus Magazine]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060909023059/http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/weekly_article/into-the-void-stylus-magazines-beginners-guide-to-metal.htm|archive-date=September 9, 2006|access-date=17 May 2010}}</ref> The scene members were fiercely [[Criticism of Christianity|anti-Christian]] — most generally presented themselves as [[misanthropy|misanthropic]] [[Theistic Satanism|devil-worshipers]] who wanted to spread hatred, sorrow and evil, though some wrote about pre-Christian [[Scandinavia]] and its [[Norse mythology|mythology]]. Among some members of the scene, the antagonism toward Christianity turned violent, and arson and attempted arson was perpetrated against a number of churches from 1992 through 1995. Among the perpetrators were [[Varg Vikernes]] of [[Burzum]] and [[Mayhem (band)|Mayhem]],<ref name=":4">{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/holden-matthews-varg-wikernes-norwegian-black-metal-lords-of-chaos-820995/|title=Did a Norwegian Black Metal Band Inspire the Louisiana Church Burnings?|last=Dickson|first=E. J.|date=2019-04-11|magazine=[[Rolling Stone]]|language=en-US|access-date=2020-04-10}}</ref><ref name=":7"/> [[Euronymous]] of Mayhem,<ref name="onceuponatime">{{cite video|title=Once Upon a Time in Norway|people=Martin Ledang (director), Pål Aasdal (director)|publisher=Another World Entertainment|year=2007|medium=motion picture}}</ref> [[Samoth]] of [[Thou Shalt Suffer]] and [[Emperor (Norwegian band)|Emperor]],<ref>''Lords of Chaos'', p. 100.</ref> [[Faust (musician)|Faust]] of [[Thorns (band)|Thorns]]<ref name="Lords of Chaos, p. 94f">''Lords of Chaos'', p. 94f.</ref> and [[Jørn Inge Tunsberg]] of [[Old Funeral]], [[Immortal (band)|Immortal]], and [[Hades Almighty]],<ref name=grude>{{cite video |people=Grude, Torstein (director) |year=1998 |title=Satan rir Media |medium=motion picture |location=Norway |publisher=Grude, Torstein}}</ref> some of whom are among the most prominent musicians in the scene. In January 1993, Vikernes spoke with a journalist from ''[[Bergens Tidende]]''. The loft where the interview was conducted was filled with Satanist and [[Nazism|Nazi]] paraphernalia, along with weapons, and Vikernes declared he was at war with Christianity, had already burned eight churches, and would continue his [[terrorism]].<ref name=":7" />

The violence and misanthropy in the scene also included murder. In August 1992, Faust killed a gay man —  Magne Andreassen — who had propositioned him in [[Lillehammer]].<ref name=":7" /><ref name="LoC111">{{harvnb|Moynihan|Søderlind|2003|p=111}}</ref><ref name=":12">{{Cite web|url=https://www.metalsucks.net/2017/01/05/editorial-regarding-euronymous-claim-that-almost-all-norwegian-bands-are-more-or-less-nazis/|title=Editorial: Regarding Euronymous' Claim that "Almost ALL Norwegian Bands are More or Less Nazis"|last=Rosenberg|first=Axl|date=2017-01-05|website=MetalSucks|language=en|access-date=2020-04-10}}</ref><ref name=":9">{{Cite book|last=Clifford-Napoleone|first=Amber R.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mg-UBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA88|title=Queerness in Heavy Metal Music: Metal Bent|date=2015-03-24|publisher=[[Routledge]]|isbn=978-1-317-91655-0|location=[[Abingdon-on-Thames]]|pages=88|language=en}}</ref> Faust was not caught for a year, despite his actions being an open secret known to many in the scene.<ref name=":7" /> Many have attributed the murder to [[homophobia]];<ref name=":18">Clifford-Napoleone, Amber R. 2015. p. 88-89</ref><ref name=":19">Dyck, Kirsten, 2017. p. 59</ref> however, [[Gaahl]], a vocalist from the band [[Gorgoroth]], is now an openly gay man who was voted Gay Person of the Year in 2010 in Bergen,<ref name="Trelldom interview">{{cite web|url=http://www.gorgoroth.com.pl/english/art-interview_with_gaahl_from_polish_holocaust_magazine_1995|title=Interview with Gaahl|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130416072609/http://www.gorgoroth.com.pl/english/art-interview_with_gaahl_from_polish_holocaust_magazine_1995|archive-date=16 April 2013|access-date=29 August 2017}}</ref> and believes that the killing of Andreassen by Faust had nothing to do with Andreassen's sexuality.<ref name=":18" /> Likewise, Faust himself, along with bandmate [[Ihsahn]], have claimed that Andreassen's sexuality was irrelevant, and Faust simply had a murderous impulse.<ref name="LoC114">{{harvnb|Moynihan|Søderlind|2003|pp=111, 114}}</ref> In August 1993, Vikernes, with [[Snorre Ruch]] from Thorns and Mayhem as an accomplice, killed his bandmate Euronymous and was arrested shortly after.<ref>''Lords of Chaos'' (2003 edition), p. 125-130.</ref> Vikernes was convicted in the spring of 1994 for arson, murder, and illegal possession of weapons.<ref name=":7" /> Vikernes insists that he killed Euronymous in self-defense,<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|last=Swenson|first=Ingrid|entry=Moynihan, Rodrigo|date=2003|publisher=Oxford University Press|encyclopedia=Oxford Art Online|doi=10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.t060090}}</ref> although while in prison claimed that it was also because Euronymous was gay and [[Communism|communist]].<ref name=":9" /> Euronymous was interested in communism,<ref name=":13" /> even professing to be a [[Stalinism|Stalinist]] in 1992,<ref>Patterson, Dayal, 2013, p. 367</ref> and in the 1980s had participated in the [[Marxism–Leninism|Marxist–Leninist]] youth group [[Red Youth (Norway)|Rød Ungdom]], which he later disavowed,<ref name="LoC74">''Lords of Chaos'' (2003 edition), p. 74.</ref> but there is no evidence that he was a gay man.<ref name=":9" /> Despite Vikernes' later claims, the killing is not believed to have been politically motivated, which even Vikernes claimed at first, and is generally thought to have been because of a personal dispute.<ref name=":13" />

There is an undercurrent of [[ethnic nationalism]] in black metal,<ref name="Gardell" /><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Trafford|first1=Simon|last2=Pluskowski|first2=Aleks|year=2007|editor-last=Marshall|editor-first=David W.|title=Antichrist Superstars: The Vikings in Hard Rock and Heavy Metal|url=https://www.academia.edu/521897|journal=Mass Market Medieval: Essays on the Middle Ages in Popular Culture|publisher=[[McFarland & Company]]|pages=64|isbn=978-0-7864-2922-6}}</ref> and racism is not uncommon in the scene even though most black metal and other extreme metal musicians disavow neo-Nazism and racist ideology.<ref name=":16">{{Cite book|last=Kahn-Harris|first=Keith|url=https://archive.org/details/metalrulesglobeh00wall|url-access=registration|title=Metal Rules the Globe: Heavy Metal Music Around the World|publisher=Duke University Press|year=2011|isbn=978-0-8223-4733-0|editor-last=Wallach|editor-first=Jeremy|location=Durham, North Carolina|pages=[https://archive.org/details/metalrulesglobeh00wall/page/n212 203]|language=en|chapter="You Are from Israel and That Is Enough To Hate You Forever": Racism, Globalization, and Play within the Global Extreme Metal Scene|author-link=Keith Kahn-Harris|editor-last2=Berger|editor-first2=Harris M.|editor-last3=Greene|editor-first3=Paul D.}}</ref><ref name=":17">{{Cite book|last=Tromp|first=Carline|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OTGbDwAAQBAJ|title=Northern Myths, Modern Identities: The Nationalisation of Northern Mythologies Since 1800|publisher=[[Brill Publishers]]|year=2019|isbn=978-90-04-39843-6|editor-last=Halink|editor-first=Simon|series=National Cultivation of Culture|volume=19|location=Leiden & Boston|pages=233|language=en|chapter=Apocalypse Now: Norse Gods and the End of the Nation}}</ref> Within the Scandinavian scene, several musicians made racist statements and utilized Nazi language and paraphernalia — yet, black metal is also highly performative, intentionally contradictory, and artistically transgressive, and many of its musicians cultivate an evil, ultra-right-wing image as an aesthetic.<ref name=":9" /><ref>Venkatesh; Podoshen; Perri; Urbaniak, 2014, p. 379-380</ref> Many of the artists who flirted with fascism, totalitarianism, and violence in their artistic themes did not find a political connection with that imagery.<ref name=":17" /> Still, a minority in the scene, in their opposition to Christianity and reverence for a pre-Christian past, stepped into fascist and racist ideas, particularly [[Occultism in Nazism|Nazi occultism]].<ref name=":16" /> Euronymous in a personal letter in the early 1990s made the sweeping claim that "Almost ALL Norwegian bands are more less nazis [sic]. Burzum, Mayhem, Emperor, [[Arcturus (band)|Arcturus]], [[Enslaved (band)|Enslaved]], you name them."<ref name=":12" /> Similarly, scholar Kirsten Dyck has described the Norwegian scene's "[[Early Norwegian black metal scene#Helvete, ideology, and the "Black Circle"|Black Circle]]" as neo-Nazi. According to her, the Black Circle melded Nazi occultism, anti-Semitism and the [[conspiracy theory]] of a [[Antisemitic trope|Jewish plot for world domination]], homophobia, and [[xenophobia]] with [[Friedrich Nietzsche|Nietzschean philosophy]], Satanism, and Scandinavian neopaganism, which then contributed to the violence perpetrated by some of the musicians.<ref name=":19" /><ref>{{Cite book|last=Dyck|first=Kirsten|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZdnIDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT113|title=Historicizing Fear: Ignorance, Vilification, and Othering|publisher=[[University Press of Colorado]]|year=2020|isbn=978-1-64642-003-2|editor-last=Boyce|editor-first=Travis D.|location=[[Louisville, Colorado]]|pages=113|language=en|chapter="They'll Take Away Our Birthrights": How White-Power Musicians Instill Fear of White Extinction|editor-last2=Chunnu|editor-first2=Winsome M.}}</ref>

In 1994, [[Jan Axel Blomberg|Hellhammer]], the drummer for the Norwegian band [[Mayhem (band)|Mayhem]], said of the genre's links with racism: "I'll put it this way, we don't like black people here. Black Metal is for white people".<ref>''Lords of Chaos'', p. 351.</ref> When Mayhem re-formed after Euronymous's death, they began releasing merchandise bearing World War II-era [[Nazi symbolism|Nazi symbols]].<ref>[http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/mayhem-frontman-says-varg-vikernes-is-very-polite-and-kind/ Mayhem Frontman Says Varg Vikernes Is 'Very Polite And Kind']. [[Blabbermouth.net]]. 26 January 2010.</ref> However, in a later interview, Hellhammer said "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".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://thydoom.com/en/interviews/6.html |title=ThyDoom.com |publisher=ThyDoom.com |access-date=2011-10-06 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101002121928/http://thydoom.com/en/interviews/6.html |archive-date=2010-10-02 }}</ref> In 1995, Gaahl described "niggers" and "mulattoes" as "subhuman" and stated his admiration for Vikernes and Adolf Hitler. However, he too has since distanced himself from these statements.<ref name="rockhardgaahl">{{cite web |url=http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=107859 |title=BLABBERMOUTH.NET – GORGOROTH Frontman Opens Up About His Sexual Orientation: 'I've Never Made Any Secret About It' |publisher=Roadrunnerrecords.com |access-date=2012-02-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111121222135/http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=107859 |archive-date=2011-11-21 }}</ref> Vikernes also wrote some lyrics for the album ''[[Transilvanian Hunger]]'' by [[Darkthrone]], another key band in the Norwegian scene. It was released in 1994 with ''Norsk Arisk Black Metal'' ('Norwegian Aryan Black Metal') printed on the back cover, and issued a press release stating "If any man should attempt to criticize this LP, he should be thoroughly patronized for his obviously Jewish behavior."<ref name=":12" /><ref name=":20">{{Cite book|last=Kahn-Harris|first=Keith|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wwgd9y-Ww5UC&pg=PA152|title=Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge|publisher=[[Berg Publishers]]|year=2007|isbn=978-1-84520-399-3|location=Oxford and New York|pages=152|language=en|author-link=Keith Kahn-Harris}}</ref> After the ensuing controversy, Darkthrone claimed that "Jew" is simply a Norwegian word for "stupid" and that they were "not a Nazi band nor a political band".<ref name="MusicMight biography">{{cite web |url=http://www.musicmight.com/artist/norway/kolbotn/darkthrone |title=MusicMight :: Artists :: Darkthrone |work=[[MusicMight]] |access-date=23 September 2012 |archive-date=11 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110811061536/http://www.musicmight.com/artist/norway/kolbotn/darkthrone |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name=":20" /> In a 2007 documentary, bandmember [[Fenriz]] claimed he was once arrested while participating in an anti-[[apartheid]] demonstration and later had a "phase of being really angry with&nbsp;... other races" before he became "totally unengaged in [political] shit".<ref name="billzebub2">Zebub, Bill (2007). ''Black Metal: A Documentary''.</ref> Scholar [[Keith Kahn-Harris]] argues that it is almost impossible to believe that Darkthrone did not know that a pejorative use of the word "Jew" was offensive, and the denials from Darkthrone that the members had racist or fascist sympathies was disingenuous, given the statements made.<ref name=":20" /> But, Kahn-Harris also notes that Fenriz has made more jocular references to racism and fascism, and has interacted well with black metal enthusiasts from Israel, so Kahn-Harris believes that the actions by Darkthrone were intentionally contradictory as a form of transgressive artistic discourse and not expressions of a sincere ideology.<ref name=":20" /> Axl Rosenberg from the website MetalSucks notes that after these offensive actions from the band in the mid-1990s, Darkthrone has not repeatedly demonstrated racist behavior. He opines that the band members are far older now and that "it’s feasible their worldviews have changed; it’s feasible they were being provocative for the sake of being provocative when they made ''Hunger'' and have since seen the error of such sophomoric behavior."<ref name=":12" /> After his release from prison, Faust stated regarding the arson and murder he committed that "I was never a Satanist or fascist in any way, but I put behind me the hatred and negativity. Those feelings just eat you up from inside."<ref name=":12" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://heavymetal.about.com/od/interviews/a/faust_2.htm|title=Faust Interview - Conversation With The Legendary Black Metal Drummer|last=Bower|first=Chad|date=n.d.|page=2|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090503034123/http://heavymetal.about.com/od/interviews/a/faust_2.htm|archive-date=May 3, 2009|access-date=April 12, 2020}}</ref>

Similar statements were also uttered by scene members from other countries. [[Michael W. Ford]] of the American band [[Black Funeral]] mentioned that [[Occultism in Nazism|Nazi occultism]] was very important to him,<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Lahdenpera|first=Esa|date=1995|title=Embrace The Sounds Of Grim Medieval Vampiric Black Metal...|url=http://paganbelial.awardspace.com/?p=841|magazine=Kill Yourself!!! Magazine|issue=4|page=37|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130314233544/http://paganbelial.awardspace.com/?p=841|archive-date=2013-03-14|access-date=2023-02-12}}</ref> called his former band Sorath his "old SS Death squad"<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Lahdenpera|first=Esa|date=1995|title=Embrace The Sounds Of Grim Medieval Vampiric Black Metal...|url=http://paganbelial.awardspace.com/?p=841|url-status=dead|magazine=Kill Yourself!!! Magazine|issue=4|page=35|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130314233544/http://paganbelial.awardspace.com/?p=841|archive-date=2013-03-14|access-date=2023-02-12}}</ref> and claimed "you have to be white to play Black metal".<ref name="killyourself-p36">{{cite magazine|last=Lahdenpera|first=Esa|date=1995|title=Embrace The Sounds Of Grim Medieval Vampiric Black Metal...|url=http://paganbelial.awardspace.com/?p=841|url-status=dead|magazine=Kill Yourself!!! Magazine|issue=4|page=36|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130314233544/http://paganbelial.awardspace.com/?p=841|archive-date=2013-03-14|access-date=2023-02-12}}</ref> We was the American leader of Cymophane, an organisation started by Vikernes.<ref name="killyourself-p36"/> He would later disassociate himself from Nazism.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fmp666.com/moonlight/blackfun2.html|title=Interview with Michael Ford|author=Eosforos|editor=Thorns|publisher=[[Full Moon Productions]]|language=en|access-date=2023-02-12}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.beyondthedarkhorizon.com/BlackFuneral.html|title=Black Funeral|author=Blissfulviolet|access-date=2023-02-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070704073005/http://www.beyondthedarkhorizon.com/BlackFuneral.html|archive-date=2007-07-04}}</ref> According to the authors of ''[[Lords of Chaos (book)|Lords of Chaos]]'', in 1995, three Swedish black-metallers (including Mika "Belfagor" Hakola of the band [[Nefandus]]) went on a "niggerhunt" in [[Linköping]]. Wielding an axe and two machetes, they "terrorized" a black man.<ref>''Lords of Chaos'', pp. 308–309.</ref> Nefandus were later "considered to be Nazi sympathizers", though Belfagor explained: "This could not be further from the truth, but I guess this has to do with some of the controversial comments I made in various magazines in my youth, when I still aspired to play in the most hated band in the world. I used a lot of provocative language back then. But to sort things out: I associate with people of all creeds and colours. ... So to be labeled a Nazi or a racist is very offensive to me".<ref>Terry Demeter: ''Ofermod''. ''Breath of the Dragon''. In: ''Unrestrained Magazine'', no. 39, p. 74.</ref>

Vikernes and his project Burzum are generally seen as the main catalyst in the development of the NSBM movement, although Burzum was never explicitly political.<ref name=":13" /> Although Vikernes has claimed to not be a neo-Nazi, he has participated in neo-Nazi activities and his statements have expressed neo-Nazi views and antagonism toward Muslims and Jews.<ref name=":4" /><ref>Venkatesh; Podoshen; Perri; Urbaniak, 2014, p. 383</ref> According to an interview in ''Blood & Honour'' magazine, Vikernes contacted neo-Nazi organization [[National Socialist Movement of Norway|Zorn 88]] in 1992<ref name="Unheiligepage277">''Unheilige Allianzen'', p. 277.</ref> and joined [[White Aryan Resistance (Sweden)|White Aryan Resistance]] before he killed Euronymous.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.berlinonline.de/berliner-zeitung/archiv/.bin/dump.fcgi/1996/0902/reporter/0002/?subnav=Spezial|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120723205956/http://www.berlinonline.de/berliner-zeitung/archiv/.bin/dump.fcgi/1996/0902/reporter/0002/?subnav=Spezial|url-status=dead|archive-date=23 July 2012|title=Aktuell|website=www.berlinonline.de|access-date=29 August 2017}}</ref>  While in prison, "Vikernes began to formulate his nationalist heathen ideology"<ref>Goodrick-Clarke, p. 204.</ref> and wrote a manifesto called ''Vargsmål''. It became available on the internet for a while in 1996,<ref>''Lords of Chaos'', p. 159.</ref> and in 1997 it was printed by a Norwegian publisher.<ref name="hist">{{cite book|last=Christe|first=Ian|title=Sound of the Beast: the Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal|publisher=HarperCollins Publishers Inc.|year=2003|location=New York City|page=279}}</ref> Once imprisoned, Vikernes abandoned the black metal scene and started touting a neo-Nazi variety of [[Heathenry (new religious movement)|Heathenry]].<ref name=":7" /> According to Vikernes, he stopped playing metal music because of its origin as "Negro music", and argued that "the 'metal heads' tend to behave like a bunch of 'White Niggers', so to speak, with their sex, drugs and rock'n'roll culture."<ref name=":3" /> Vikernes also has claimed that the scene had begun "as a nationalistic (Norwegian-centric), racist and anti-Christian revolt" but was "hijacked" by the "Jew-dominated music industry".<ref name=":14" /> He claims the industry made it into another tool with which to destroy Europe, by promoting bands who embraced "everything sick and anti-European on this planet, from porn and promiscuity to drugs and homosexuality".<ref name=":14">Vikernes, Varg. [http://thuleanperspective.com/2013/03/07/how-to-revolt-in-practise-ii/ "How to revolt in practise II] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130311135742/http://thuleanperspective.com/2013/03/07/how-to-revolt-in-practise-ii/ |date=2013-03-11 }}". Thulean Perspective. 7 March 2013.</ref>

=== Development of National Socialist black metal ===
One of the first explicitly NSBM releases was the 1995 demo ''Thuringian Pagan Madness'' by German band [[Absurd (band)|Absurd]]. It was recorded while the members were imprisoned for murdering a boy from their school. On the demo cover is a photograph of his gravestone and the inlay contained pro-Nazi statements.<ref>[[Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke]]: ''Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism, and the Politics of Identity''. NYU Press, 2003. p. 206.</ref> Bandmember Hendrik Möbus stated that NSBM was the "logical conclusion" of the Norwegian black metal movement and interpreted the church burnings as a "cultural [[atavism]]".<ref name="Möbus" /> Other bands deemed to be part of the early NSBM scene include [[Graveland]] and [[Infernum]], from [[Poland]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.decibelmagazine.com/2013/05/13/interview-author-dayal-patterson-on-black-metal-evolution-of-the-cult/|title=INTERVIEW: Author Dayal Patterson on Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult|last=Horsley|first=Jonathan|date=2013-05-13|website=[[Decibel (magazine)|Decibel]]|language=en-US|access-date=2020-04-09}}</ref> Rob Darken of Graveland in particular was a very central figure in the development of NSBM in Poland.<ref name=":1" /> The burgeoning black metal scene in Poland was far more pronouncedly racist, and The Temple of Fullmoon, of which several Polish bands were members, turned into a far-right organization.<ref>Patterson, Dayal, 2013. p. 362-364</ref> Similar to what happened in Norway, the scene became increasingly violent, and three of the four members of the NSBM band Thunderbolt were imprisoned for arson and murder.<ref>Dyck, Kirsten, 2016. p. 62</ref><ref>Patterson, Dayal, 2013. p. 364</ref> According to Gunnar Sauermann, in the 1990s, some of the earliest American black metal bands—like [[Grand Belial's Key]] and [[Judas Iscariot (band)|Judas Iscariot]]—joined an international NSBM organization called the Pagan Front, although Judas Iscariot's sole member Akhenaten left the organization.<ref name="mh82007">Gunnar Sauermann: ''Special: Black Metal in den USA''. ''Schwarzes Amerika''. In: ''[[Metal Hammer]] Germany'', August 2007, p. 88.</ref> Thelemnar, the drummer of German band [[Secrets of the Moon]], said he got to know him "only as an intelligent person and never as a Nazi".<ref name="mh82007" /> The United States project I Shalt Become was another pioneer in the nascent NSBM scene.<ref name="I shall become">{{cite web |last1=DePalma |first1=T. |title=From the Past Comes the Storms 06 |url=http://www.chroniclesofchaos.com/articles.aspx?id=6-978 |website=[[Chronicles of Chaos (webzine)|Chronicles of Chaos]] |access-date=April 12, 2020 |date=January 9, 2007}}</ref> NSBM came to dominate the black metal scenes in Poland, Ukraine, and Russia.{{Sfn|Olson|2008|p=99}}

In 2012, Alexey Levkin, frontman of the band {{ill|M8l8th|es|M8L8TH}}, along with others, started the NSBM music festival [[Asgardsrei festival|Asgardsrei]] in [[Moscow]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://militant.zone/ar2017/|title=ASGARDSREI 2017 – Absurd, Peste Noire, Goatmoon, Naer Mataron, M8L8TH, Burshtyn (Kiev, 16.12.2017) {{!}} Militant Zone|language=en-US|access-date=2020-04-08}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2020/01/02/dispatches-from-asgardsrei-ukraines-annual-neo-nazi-music-festival/|title=Dispatches From Asgardsrei: Ukraine's Annual Neo-Nazi Music Festival|last=Colborne|first=Michael|date=2020-01-02|website=[[Bellingcat]]|language=en-GB|access-date=2020-04-08}}</ref> The event is named after the 1999 album of the same name by Absurd.<ref name="newyorker">{{cite magazine |last1=Moynihan |first1=Colin |title=Metal Confronts Its Nazi Problem |url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/heavy-metal-confronts-its-nazi-problem |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |access-date=17 July 2019 |date=19 February 2019}}</ref> The festival was relocated to [[Kyiv]] in 2014 when Levkin and the other organizers relocated to [[Ukraine]] to join the [[Azov Assault Brigade]].<ref name=":0" /> [[Steelfest]] is a Finnish annual black metal festival that has been held since 2012. Steelfest is notorious for hosting a venue for National socialist black metal bands, and bands and audience have done mass nazi salutes.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Steelfest 2019: Nazi bands in Hyvinkää city facilites – Varis |url=https://varisverkosto.com/2019/05/steelfest-2019-nazi-bands-in-hyvinkaa-city-facilites/ |access-date=2023-11-19 |website=varisverkosto.com}}</ref>