Neo-Nazi Alert – Rickshaw Theater, Vancouver, BC, Canada October 9, 2022

On October 9, 2022 the band Vastatum is scheduled to open for Polish metal band Batushka at the Rickshaw Theatre, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Vastatum, a two-piece band, includes Trevor ‘Luzifaust’ King who has decades long and deep associations with the leadership of neo-Nazi organizations including Vinland Hammerskins (formerly Northern Hammerskins), Blood and Honour International and Volksfront International.

The presence of Vastatum and white nationalist followers poses an extreme threat to the audience, venue staff and to the surrounding community. Vinland Hammerskins, Blood and Honour and Volksfront are international neo-Nazi organizations that in addition to assaults and murders (singular and mass) use the music industry as a front for business and recruitment.

Call To Action

Demand the Rickshaw Theater venue immediately cancel the band Vastatum (Luzifaust), issue a public statement against neo-Nazis at music venues, and alert the public on the elevated risk of violence for staff, management, attendees, and the local community in the DTES. Contact: Mo Tarmohamed – mo@rickshawtheatre.com
Demand that The Invisible Orange promotion company account for their business with a neo-Nazi band, issue a public statement to clarify whether they will continue or not to promote neo-Nazi affiliated bands in the metal scene. Contact: Invisible Orange – info@theinvisibleorange.com
Demand IATSE Local 891 review their Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion/Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression Statement and determine whether it is consistent to provide film industry employment to Luzifaust, aka Trevor King, with full union protections (as he uses his active status within IATSE on public social media), given the risk posed in doing so to other IATSE members, film casts and crews. Contact: IATSE Local 981 President’s Office – president@iatse.com and 604-664-8911
On October 9, exercise caution and keep each other safe in the DTES and East Vancouver. Whether the band is cancelled or not, it is likely that neo-Nazis will show up regardless. Stay alert! Workers in nearby restaurants, pubs, and bars are at risk across East Vancouver. The risks of attacks on the homeless and targeted communities is elevated during this weekend. The recent attempted burnings on sleeping homeless people with lighter-fluid resembles attacks made by Blood and Honour back in 2009 (See https://globalnews.ca/news/7571436/vancouver-homeless-arson and http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/story/not-good-year-neo-nazi-blood-and-honour-canada/10321)

In October 22, 2022 there was a neo-Nazi event at a Los Angeles metal show with armed neo-Nazis in the neighborhood.

5. Antifascists in other cities, check these tour dates and opening acts!

Oct 7	San Francisco, CA – DNA Lounge
Oct 8	Portland, OR – Dante’s
Oct 9	Vancouver, BC – Rickshaw Theater
Oct 10	Seattle, WA – El Corazon
Oct 12	Denver, CO – Summit Music Hall
Oct 13	Lawrence, KS – Granada Theater
Oct 14	Minneapolis, MN – The Cabooze
Oct 15	Joliet, IL – The Forge
Oct 16	Pittsburgh, PA – Preserving Underground
Oct 17	Toronto, ON – Lee’s Palace
Oct 18	Quebec City, QC – Imperial Bell
Oct 19	Montreal, QC – Le Ritz PDB
Oct 20	Manchester, NH – Jewel Nightclub
Oct 21	Brooklyn, NY – The Monarchoct

Background

These fascists and their affiliates will be playing the Rickshaw event and drawing neo-Nazis to East Vancouver. The time is now to stop them!

Luzifaust and Hammerskin bands

Luzifaust, (aka Trevor King) of Vastatum is directly connected to multiple white power bands with overlapping Hammerskin members. His Hammerskin affiliated band Nordwind opened for a 2019 show hosted by the Vinland Hammerskins where Odin’s Law headlined. His deepest association with Hammerskin members is with Robertson De Chazal, aka Chernobog.

Refer to the text image below for an outline of his neo-Nazi musical associations:

Source:

Robertson De Chazal (aka Chernobog)

Robertson De Chazal (aka Chernobog) is entrenched in the white power scene as a former Blood and Honour member turned Hammerskin who plays in the band Antichrist with members of Odin’s Law. He also plays in Luzifaust’s bands Hostium and Nordwind with Brian Reed of Odin’s Law. (Source: metalarchives.com)

Chernobog’s identity as Robert De Chazal can be confirmed by cross-referencing the Antichrist band photo with a photo of Robert De Chazal and Jesse Rankin in a Canadian Anti-Hate Network article.

According to the Canadian Anti-Hate Network “[De Chazal] has previously played in white power bands, including those that headlined the Hammerskins’ event in Hamilton in 2019. While still with Blood and Honour, De Chazal was one of three men accused by police of hate crimes.” (https://www.antihate.ca/neo_nazi_street_gang_quietly_whites_only_workout_clubs_canada_vinland_hammerskins)

The three Blood and Honour members, charged with three separate hate-motivated assaults in East Vancouver, BC were Alistair Miller, Robertson De Chazal, and Shawn MacDonald. One of the assaults occurred on Oct. 10, 2009, in which a Filipino man was lit on fire on Commercial Drive. (http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/story/not-good-year-neo-nazi-blood-and-honour)

While the prosecution of all three was unsuccessful, and De Chazal denied his role in setting the man on fire, his bandmate Necrovermin of Hostium alludes to an incident of “human torches” when asked why Luzifaust’s band Hostium hasn’t been active for 8 years: “Alcohol, drugs, violence (some between band members) side projects, barbells, court cases, human torches ect…” (https://www.themidlandsrocks.com/interview-with-necrovermin-of-hostium, https://www.antihate.ca/neo_nazi_street_gang_quietly_whites_only_workout_clubs_canada_vinland_hammerskins, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/white-supremacists-charged-in-vancouver-hate-crimes-1.992440,https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/charges-stayed-robertson-dechazal-assault-1.3585008)

De Chazal was also accused of assaulting a Black man unconscious. His affiliate, Shawn Macdonald, faced multiple charges between the 2008 and 2010 for assaulting an Indigenous women, a Black man, and a Hispanic man. By 2015, the crown failed to convict De Chazal and Macdonald. (https://bc.ctvnews.ca/alleged-white-supremacists-charged-with-assaulting-minorities-1.738288)

Shawn MacDonald

Blood and Honour (B&H) was founded in the United Kingdom by Ian Stuart Donaldson of the neo-Nazi band Skrewdriver in 1987. It rose to some significance in the Pacific Northwest in the early 2000’s. In BC, Shawn Macdonald was considered one of the main leaders. (https://www.vancouverobserver.com/politics/2012/03/19/racist-hate-crimes-condoned-public-apathy-and-silence-police.html, http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/story/not-good-year-neo-nazi-blood-and-honour-canada/10321)

In 2016, Macdonald was identified as the operator of the Vinland Awake blog and the current Vinland Awake Facebook page that promoted the Vinland Hammerskins’ Hamilton, Ontario concert with Odin’s Law and Nordwind. (https://anti-racistcanada.blogspot.com/2016/12/so-what-has-shawn-macdonald)

Odin’s Law

Formed in Surrey, BC Canada by neo-Nazi skinheads, Odin’s Law released its first demo tape in 1993 in tribute to a dead American Hammerskin musician and hit the international white power band circuit. It was “one of a growing number of Nazi skinhead bands that use heavy metal to spread their message of white power that recruits youth into their movement since the 1990s”. (https://www.spokesman.com/stories/1997/sep/06/mayor-seeks-to-halt-show-by)

Four years later, they would sign with a Hammerskin International label:

The CD ‘Battle Legions of Wotan’ by the Canadian Hammerskin band ‘Odin’s Law’ was also released in 1997 via ‘Viking Sounds USA’. The label became the exclusive distributor of all these bands in Europe, which not only allowed Oreel to maintain its ‘standing’ but also earned it well.
https://exif-recherche.org/?p=9556

In 1998, five neo-Nazi associates brutally beat and killed the care taker of the Sikh Gurdwara, Nirmal Singh Gill, in Surrey, BC. The international spotlight of the murder, and eventual move to the status of “former” (as in ‘former’ white nationalist) of their manager lead to the band’s rapid decline until 2019. With assistance from Hostium (Luzifaust et al), Odin’s Law re-emerged along with Hammerskin leaders spanning decades. (see: https://apnews.com/article/ba4004362900bb1c272eafbd43c8b603, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/crown-seeks-life-in-b-c-skinhead)

Volksfront’s Scott Sinclair and Andrew Sandiland connection

When Volksfront went “international” in the early 2000s, Canadians played a significant role until their leader joined the growing ranks of “formers”. Scott Sinclair and Andrew Sandiland, (aka Andrew OfOf) both remain active with Sinclair taking position within the Hammerskin network.

A young Sandiland is seen kneeling second from left with Sinclair second from right

For more on Volksfront international see:

(Source:https://www.antihate.ca/former_blood_honour_volksfront_members_form_neo_nazi_kindred_bc)

While Volksfront may have “officially’ disbanded in 2012 members have maintained contact years later over social media. (https://rosecityantifa.org/articles/volksfront-takes-down-website-proclaims-organizations)

current picture of Andrew Sandiland with wife Tifanie

Hammerskin Nation (general)

The Hammerskins are one of the oldest and most stable neo-Nazi organisations in the world. Founded over thirty years ago, the tightly organised brotherhood considers itself the “elite” of the neo-Nazi scene. It is a sworn community that rallies under the Hammerskin Nation banner, which serves as an overarching structure uniting Hammerskins from Europe, the US and New Zealand. Their activities cover a broad range of areas, and their members are among the driving forces of the militant neo-Nazi scene.

Hammerskins are hardly ever in the media spotlight. Their behaviour is conspiratorial, their structures are closed off to outsiders and remain clandestine. Public visibility, in their view, would only restrict the scope of their activities: earning profits and engaging in political propaganda and networking through right-wing rock music, making preparations for “Day X”, including shooting exercises at home and abroad, and the advancement of their political goals complete with all the consequences this entails, including right-wing terrorist attacks.
https://antifascist-europe.org/uncategorized/brothers-keep-silent-the-secret-hammerskin-network

The decades of violence is not unique to Canada but a well-documented pattern across borders. The following details events in 2018 prior to a December “Martyrs Day” event in Lynnwood, Washington by Hammerskins and affiliated Crew 38:

Early morning Saturday the 8th, just before 1230 a.m., a group of more than a dozen Nazi skinheads entered the Rec Room Bar and Grill off Highway 99 in Lynnwood,WA. At around 12:40 a.m., 911 received calls reporting gunshots, and that 14 white people were beating down the Black DJ.

The driver of their getaway vehicle was Cory Colwell, 34, of Eugene, Oregon. Court papers say Colwell wore a sweatshirt that said “Brotherhood” and “Blood Honor,” and a Crew 38 patch. Crew 38 is the support group for one of the largest and most violent white nationalist gangs, the Hammerskins.

Colwell has been photographed multiple times with Jake Laskey, a prominent American Front and former Volksfront member who was released from prison in October 2015 after serving 11 years for an attack on the Temple Beth Israel Synagogue in Eugene, Oregon.

See more on Jake Laskey here:

Also in the car was Daniel Dorson of Corvallis, OR. A former Portland street youth, Dorson has apparently been initiated into the world of white supremacy. At the time of his arrest he was wearing a Crew 38 jacket, t-shirt and was carrying a literal Crew 38 business card.

A handful of those arrested were found sporting Crew 38 apparel. Crew 38 is a support group for skinheads of the Hammerskins. Also seen sporting Crew 38 apparel later that day, in a separate yet related incident, was Jason Desimas while on his way to Whidbey Island to take part in commemorating Mathews’ death. Jason Desimas is the owner of TacTown Tattoo, a Nazi skinhead tattoo shop in Tacoma. A few of the arrested have had interactions with the tattoo shop on-line. Earlier this year, the Hammerskins released what they called “Hunting Guides,” which were lists of mosques and synagogues in the region for targeted attacks.
https://enoughisenough14.org/2018/12/18/what-we-know-about-the-hammerskin-attack-in-lynnwood-wa

July 2022 Hammerfest Idaho

Source: https://twitter.com/RedoubtAFA/status/1544660178347253766?t=QdwZNl0PD7KiXwOa87217w&s=19

Beer Hall Putsch and Christopher Lord

Finally, Beer Hall Putsch’s frontman is Christopher Vertrice Lord, who goes by “Chris Laird” on Facebook. Judging from his patch in recent photos, Lord appears to be a Hammerskin prospect at the time of writing [in 2015]. Lord however has an extensive history in the white supremacist scene, having been one of the two people convicted for a drive-by shooting against the Temple Beth Israel synagogue in Eugene, Oregon in 1994 (fortunately, nobody was inside the Temple at the time.) Lord is now based in Idaho, in the Boise area. At the time of the 1994 shooting, Lord was affiliated with a different neo-Nazi grouping, the American Front. Now Lord sings songs about neo-Nazi terror for a Hammerskins-affiliated musical project, urging crowds to commit similar acts of intimidation
https://rosecityantifa.org/articles/alert-northwestern-hammerskins-
annual-martyrs-day-celebration-2015-washington-state-weekend-of-december-56th/?s=09

Las Angeles, October 1st, 2022

Neo-Nazis hosted a national socialist black metal show in Las Angeles.

Page became involved in white power punk after attending 2000’s Hammerfest, a fascist-punk festival hosted by the Nazi group Hammerskin in Orlando, Fla., according to an interview with Page posted on the website of Label 56, which released his albums.
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-xpm-2012-aug-07-la-et-ms-hate-rock-20120808-story.html

This work is made possible by the dedication of antifascist crews past and present – all errors and omissions within are ours.