Infester

[Christ Fucking Malarkey]

"Infester innovated a new style of metal and inspired many of the recent technical death metal inventors, but were blacklisted for their political beliefs (including by this site for many years)."

Taken from: http://www.anus.com/metal/infester.html

What political beliefs exactly, led ANUS to blacklist this band? That is to say, what ideologies do they advocate that aren't represented by other bands to varying degrees?

[Nile577]

Well, if you look on the inside sleeve of the Depths.. album, there is a swastika (somewhat hard to make out) behind one of the band members.

ANUS, as far as I am aware, used to be against politics in Metal.

[death metal black metal]

ANUS, as far as I am aware, used to be against politics in Metal.

Still is.

[Stars Down To Earth]

Yet you recommend Graveland in the black metal section?

[Annihilaytorr]

Politics and philosophy are not the same.

[death metal black metal]

Yet you recommend Graveland in the black metal section?

Yes.

Ani DiFranco = politics first, art second

Graveland, Burzum = art first, politics second (and not discernibly in lyrics)

We're also not kneejerk dogmatists. Plenty of bands have arguably political content, but if it's more than dogma, we approve. For example, Immolation. We're also ludicrously tolerant of leftist bands.

[Death]

What exactly does a barely discernable swastika in a band photo have to do with the ideological inclinations of the band or their music? Obviously its appearance isn't an accident (though probably just for shock value), but is there anything about Infester's artistic output itself that's strikingly political or NS?

[kontinual]

Some of the lyrics mention "african-americans" and other things if I am not mistaken.

Haha a certain derogatory term for African-Americans is not allowed!

[euronymous]

What exactly does a barely discernable swastika in a band photo have to do with the ideological inclinations of the band or their music? Obviously its appearance isn't an accident (though probably just for shock value), but is there anything about Infester's artistic output itself that's strikingly political or NS?

http://www.nsbm.com/bands/infester/index.html

[baxter]

the phrase "repulsive ebony flesh" is in one of the lyrics, but that's it .

Which just means they're RACIST.

[Death]

http://www.nsbm.com/bands/infester/index.html

I don't get it. Because they're listed on an ANUS-affiliated site as NS, without any apparent reason as to why, this makes them an NS band?

I admit that they have some subtly racist lyrics ("Repulsive ebony skin", "Ridding the world of those pigmented abortion babies"), but this doesn't seem to be a consistent theme and for the most part their lyrics deal with morbid and abstract concepts. Labelling them as NS because of that is completely blowing things out of proportion. While you're at it, you might as well throw Slayer in the NS pile because of Angel of Death and their obsession with Nazi imagery. If anything, metal is a genre where lyrics and image are not meant to be taken at face value.

Incidentally, this is my 88th post.

[Christ Fucking Malarkey]

I guess the question initially put forth is this: at what point does a philosophy cross the line into something uglier (politics)?  How can one possibly make that judgment in a group so limited? That is to say, do politics depend on the amount of support a philosophy is given, or would it instead be considered a distinct ideology by which issues--which can be generalized as some form of "economics" or another--are permitted an idealized franework by which the lives of a population are dictated?

[death metal black metal]

Here's the policy -- bands with more than simply repeating a dogma are tolerated, but the kicker is that we don't really have to enforce this one. Strictly political bands generally suck, because they value message before music. E.g. almost all "white power" bands.

I don't know for that reason if we have to worry about a dividing line; many of us, although not antifa by any means, did not want to invite "white power" morons into metal, but Infester's good music, and that + lack of dogmatic associations confirmed it. No rules, only interpretations.