During a recent interview, Ivar Bjørnson of Enslaved commented on what Øystein Aarseth , the late member of Mayhem known by the pseudonym Euronymous , would think of far-right black metal.
“I was lucky to meet Euronymous, as I was a very young boy,” he told Metal Hammer (via Whiplash ). “Whatever esoteric or satanic beliefs he had, he didn’t discuss them with me. All we had in common was music and guitars. I remember going to his record store and trying to impress him: ‘Do you have anything extreme?’ And he would say: ‘Shut up! Listen to this!’ and show me some Norwegian progressive record,” he recalled.
Euronymous, who was murdered in 1993 , cared about the community, according to Ivan. "He was openly communist and would have been against everything that came after, when black metal became about positioning oneself above others."
Mayhem's show in Porto Alegre has been cancelled.
Ivan's interview was conducted before the cancellation of Mayhem's shows in Brazil. Accused of association with Nazism in social media posts made by philosophy professor Renato Levin-Borges and state deputy Leonel Radde (PT), from Rio Grande do Sul, the Finnish band had their show at Bar Opinião cancelled after the repercussions of the case and a protest at the venue, where a banner with the words "Nazism is not an opinion" was displayed.
Despite the cancellation of the date in the South of the country, the band will still come to Brazil to perform in Brasília, this Wednesday, the 22nd, at Toinha Show Brasil, which continues to promote the show and shares requests from fans for the performance not to be cancelled.
As reported by g1 , the Brazilian Bar Association in the Federal District (OAB-DF) spoke out against the presentation. "We are a mixed-race country, of various faiths, and we want to be a country of tolerance and peaceful coexistence. In the country we already are and in the project of the country we want, in whose creation the OAB-DF will diligently participate, there is no room for the ideologies of the past," the organization stated in a note released last Saturday, the 18th.
The recommendation to cancel the show was also made by the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF) and the Public Prosecutor's Office of the Federal District and Territories (MPDFT), based on the justification of the existence of "evidence that current and former members of the band are involved with neo-Nazi apologetics, suicide, cannibalism and murder, as well as various types of violence and discrimination, including church burnings, references to extreme violence, incitement to mutilation, racist and anti-Semitic statements."
When questioned by g1 about the accusations, Mayhem acknowledged problematic statements from current and former band members, but declared itself against hate speech.
“Neither the band nor any of its members tolerate racism, Nazism, homophobia, or any other 'hate crime.' Although some contrary statements have circulated in the past by individual members, this is far in the past and has never been an official stance of the band. Any form of judgment based solely on a person's background, skin color, sexual preference, or anything else over which they have no control is an act of weakness and is rejected by the band,” they stated in a note sent to the media outlet. Mayhem's last visit to Brazil was in November 2022, when the band performed at festivals in São Paulo and Maranhão.