We refrained from commenting a few days ago when our bros at Metal Injection reported on a story from Shamelessnavelgazing that essentially called black metal band Inquisition Nazis. The centerpiece of the story was a quote from a former white supremacist that drove the band’s tour bus:
I pulled off my t shirt and there it was…my giant swastika for them all to see…they clapped and cheered…Inquisition (both Tom and Jason) were thrilled.
They boasted about their admiration for Hitler, how they loved the white power movement, and had many friends from South America and Everett, Washington…turns out we had mutual acquaintances. Tom used to hang out with the World Church of the Creator and still boasts his admiration for the church. Jason boldly stated he loves imagining living in the Nazi era and wished that would happen in America. They ranted until I shut them down.
The reason we stayed quiet about this was that it was all circumstantial, and we knew that the band would eventually weigh in on it. They finally have, in a lengthy interview with Decibel, guitarist/vocalist Jason “Dagon” Weirbach point blank stated “I’m not a Nazi and I’m not out to persecute a particular race – or any race- white or non-white.” He had to be reminded of the incident when it happened, and remembered it differently. He remembered the tour bus driver, who was hired by the band they were touring with, Gyibaaaw, as having swastikas. He said that he and drummer Thomas “Incubus” Stevens, looked at the ink in fascination, but weren’t cheering it on or anything:
I can’t literally go over every single thing I said. But I can honestly tell you that I never flat-out said I thought it was a horrible thing, or that I was against it, but never did I say I was with it and that I believed in it. What I have always told people is I understand it. I understand that when you look at history and what was happening at the time, whenever you put yourself in everybody else’s shoes—and if you’re smart enough, and you have… maybe common sense is not the word, but you have an understanding of why things happen in history and in humanity the way they do, it doesn’t matter how ugly it is to you or how great.
He also claims that their former cover artist Antichrist Kramer isn’t a white supremacist, and they wouldn’t have worked with him if they thought that he was. He also discusses his side project 88MM and the band’s affiliation with the No Colours label. In all, it’s worth reading the whole thing, but it can be summed up by the headline.
