EXTREMISMNeo-Nazi Music Concerts: Incubators of Far-Right Extremism
Music’s role within the far-right extremist culture is critical to understanding why concerts and musical gatherings have retained their prominence and have attracted an increasing number of recruits to the racially divisive ideological belief and value system. Such concerts feature bands who promote a bigoted and racist ideology, including one of the most notorious sub-genres within the black metal musical arena, i.e., National Socialist Black Metal or NSBM.
Far-right extremist music concerts Call of Terror and Hot Shower in France and Italy respectively in February–March 2024 were expected to intensify the far-right movement moving forward. This is the first time such concerts were being organized since the COVID-19 outbreak. These concerts, like Ukraine’s Asgardsrei festival—a famous black metal Neo-Nazi musical event that was held annually until the pandemic—are pivotal to the mobilization and recruitment of hardened extremists.
Such concerts feature bands who promote a bigoted and racist ideology, including one of the most notorious sub-genres within the black metal musical arena, i.e., National Socialist Black Metal or NSBM. Racist neo-Nazis have used this genre of music to disseminate a violent and xenophobic ideology which espouses White supremacy, anti-establishment narratives, Holocaust denial and anti-Jewish sentiments. At the same time, they have popularized music as a key avenue for transnational networking of like-minded individuals who ardently support a virulent ideological belief, raising millions of Euros in revenue.1
The network established among such ideologically inclined individuals (neo-Nazi black metal followers) spans the European continent and encompasses Russia as well as the United States. It brings together those driven by White supremacist narratives, glorification of violence, and call for violent actions aimed at realization of ethno-national racial and cultural superiority.
The resurgence of Call of Terror and Hot Shower needs to be contextualized in the backdrop of legalization of the fascist salute in Italy, the remigration debate in Germany, and the far-right in Europe gaining increasing popularity as the only viable alternative to address the electorate’s socio-economic concerns while pushing for the adoption of a more hardliner approach on immigration.
It also needs to be understood within the ambit of the ongoing Israel–Hamas conflict and the Ukrainian crisis, which have resulted in widespread anti-Semitism, racist ethno-nationalism, and vilifying rhetoric against Jews propounded by Neo-Nazis across Europe and the United States. Ukrainian neo-Nazi groups like Azov Battalion have showcased Nazi insignia on their uniforms. This group has been integrated into the Ukrainian armed forces to fight against Russia’s military actions.