Since last week

[thedarkproject]

I have been to the Peak District, and down in a cave. I like the Peak District and caves are interesting too. I play a lot of computer games where I explore caves, usually armed with a sword to fight off the inevitable goblin attack. There were no goblins this time but there were a few small Polish children. I blame budget cuts.

The day after that was band practice without our singer, who was up in Leeds visiting his girlfriend who's just left to go to university. Apparently this time is very stressful for him with regards to their relationship, but it does mean he gets to write lots of Twilight's Embrace lyrics about his woes, so it's all good. (From a selfish point of view...)

The rest of the week was mostly just a case of going to work, doing work, and coming home from work, which is the same old thing every day. The evenings saw occasional socialising with other people's girlfriends in various pubs.

Yesterday morning I started rewriting a song for the 3rd or 4th time. I have 55 minutes of recorded material for it and yet am still struggling to pull 6 to 10 minutes of coherency out of there. Ah well. If a record deal was to land in our lap tomorrow though, at least we have have enough material in some form or other.

Yesterday evening I went to the Fires of Rebellion night, which was good fun, 7 folk-themed extreme metal bands at the Old Angel. Unfortunately there was this implied aspect of "oh, it's bands singing about their cultural heritage, which means it's racist", which makes me angry for several reasons - firstly, because it's simply not remotely true, secondly, because Scandinavians sing about the same things without getting any grief (is it only ok if foreigners do it?), and thirdly, because there's this stupid taboo which implies that if you know a racist, or have ever been in a band with a racist, or have ever worn or displayed any symbol whatsoever that has once been used by a racist organisation (despite it being native to some historical period, or significant in wicca or other paganism, or being your own country's flag, or whatever), then you are, by necessity, a racist. It's a modern witch hunt encouraged by the far left, who like to claim that anybody who disagrees with them is obviously part of the British National Party (or 'has links to' - weasel words which can be applied to almost anybody that you want to discredit), and which is adhered to by people scared of losing their liberal colours by being labelled as some sort of fascist collaborator. Very tiring. Nobody should have to defend their interest in history or in supporting traditions, nor should we be expected to only ever surround ourselves with people that completely agree with us on every political aspect.

Grr. Anyway.

There's not all that much happening with me next week - another band practice, maybe going along to see how well Lisa manages this year's batch of rock-loving students on Wednesday, and it's the Assault rock/punk/metal/plus-industrial-due-to-pressure-group night on Friday, which I'm sure will be as bad as it always is (if not worse) but most of my friends will be there.

Now, I am going to either go and write music, or play Braid, or program in Python and Actionscript, while listening to "oh but it might be racist because they sing about Saxons" music.

Comments

[https://users.livejournal.com/-arnamentia-/]

Having read both yours and Jimmer's entries on the subject, I'd be curious to know where the 'racist' comments came from - were there people outside the venue protesting, or something?

[thedarkproject]

No, there was nothing like like that, and I didn't expect there to be (although Jim obviously expected differently). For me it was more that people always seem to have this sort of issue in mind, and either see the need to defend themselves or feel that they need to comment on it. Which is frustrating, and to a degree, self-perpetuating.

But Reena was one person on Facebook who suggested it was a front for semi-racist people, and other people who know full well that this sort of gig is completely innocuous also sometimes fall foul of the "guilt by association" fallacy when talking about other bands.

[ironlord.livejournal.com]

Most of this has been caused by the knee-jerk reactions as soon as the words "Winterfylleth" or "Wodensthrone" are mentioned. Both bands have expressed their extreme indignation, several times, when they've been thrown off gigs or had the whole carpet pulled out from under them because other people of a militantly left-wing persuasion have accused them, due to a twisted interpretation of their lyrics and their interviews, where those people have read meanings that aren't there. The two "W" bands, having both been signed by (unfortunately...) Candlelight, have now been thrust firmly into the UK black metal limelight - Winterfylleth getting coverage in Terrorizer and a cover feature in Zero Tolerance, for instance - and events like FORN are the grass roots from which those bands have risen. Ravenage, the headliners, are more into the parpy folk metal side of the scene, Windrider are another very keyboard-heavy band, Cnocantursa are more straight-ahead black metal with lyrics about Scotland, Scotland and Scotland, Old Corpse Road are a bit more experimental than that - but all the bands are effectively derived from the same root which is being blackened with the same brush by the Antifa goons who see even the remotest piece of interest in the history of this country, or any country in Northern Europe, as a racist and white supremacist statement where none was intended at all. But because they are left wing they think that they are always correct, and every accusation they make has to be taken as the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and anyone who disagrees with them must also be some kind of racist. It makes me boil with rage.

Mark Wood, on joining Winterfylleth late last year, felt the need to repeat a statement the band had made previously; that everyone, both existing Winterfylleth fans and "political sceptics" alike, should actually talk to the members of the band before drawing their conclusions. That's something I fully intend to do; had Mark not left Ravenage I'd have had the chance to talk to him that night, and at Gathering Of The Clans in just under two weeks I won't have the chance either as Guthrum have pulled out! (The Guthrum EP, available for free download, is very good, by the way.) But I will have the chance there to talk to members of Wodensthrone, should the fancy take me - and now I know what Cnocantursa look like I may also have a chinwag over a plate of haggis and neeps with them, although they all look like they'll beat the shit out of anyone who stands in their way. SO what I did was the next best thing; I talked to as many people as I could who were involved in the bands, and they are all, without exception, very friendly, and the total number of comments I heard over the entire might which even the most ardent lefty could have interpreted as even mildly racist was ZERO. I talked to Catie and Richard from Northern Oak, Richard expressing his extreme dislike of racists; I talked at length with Elliot from Windrider & Ravenage, doing a proper interview which you should all hear on the Wyrd Ways Rock Show - he's had no unwanted attention from Antifa, and long may it stay that way. I talked to Glyn and Stig, also of Ravenage, mainly to find out why Mark had left them, and Glyn said quite firmly that "Mark may be many things, but a racist he is not." Some people will assume he is, though, the only reason being that he's joined Winterfylleth, the Antifa's favourite target. And, most of all, I talked to Steve Mills of Old Corpse Road, who'd put the whole thing together and shared my concern that the lefty idiots would attempt to wreck the whole thing due to their own prejudices and never mind the facts.

I must say I am sorely disappointed in Reena for making such allegations. Though I think someone with her history of dribbling over certain Norwegian black metal musicians with openly right wing tendencies should have led her to bring only silence to that conversation.

And talking of Winterfylleth...

[ironlord.livejournal.com]

I'm sure we all know who their biggest fan round these parts is! I've recently been talking to Death Metal Ben about them, seeing as he was the one who first drooled very enthusiastically about them; I knew he was a bit of a lefty, and he reminded me about standing for the Green Party in Nottingham East, as well as that he is in a crust-punk band that has previously been attacked by the far right when on tour in Europe... would someone with those ties to the left - not the far left - be listening to a racist band? I think not.

[thedarkproject]

Ohh... but there was a rare appearance from Socialist Sam downstairs, and I couldn't help but shake the feeling that he was there to check up on it all.

[ironlord.livejournal.com]

I know the one you mean. He's one of the reasons I consider "left wing" and "someone you'd want to go drinking with" are mutually exclusive terms, and knowing what I do about his politics, I would not put it past him to be one of those people making baseless accusations, deciding that everyone involved is an actual Holocaust participant without ever having deigned to make conversation with anyone there.

Whatever happened, he did not, and presumably was not allowed to interfere with the proceedings.