“Fair is Foul, and Foul is Fair; Hover through the fog and filthy air.”
On Friday October 6th 2023, The WISE Hall in East Vancouver was set to host Vastatum, a neo-Nazi affiliated metal band. With concerted efforts from patrons, local metal and punk fans, and Commercial Drive neighbours, the band was dropped. The social media firestorm leading up to the event raised some interesting questions. We thought we might spend a minute going through a few.
First, the question of anonymity. According to an anonymous person posting on Vastatum’s Facebook page – the anonymous person claims that the only real question, while denying the well documented history and context of Vastatum’s neo-Nazi affiliations, is the anonymity of those providing the documentation. Thanks to the anonymous sympathizer of Vastatum along with the numerous band members using anonymous stage names and those anonymous friends of Trevor “Luzifaust” King posting harassing tweets and emails to those who made their concerns known to the public and to The Wise Hall establishment, we thought we would dig a little deeper – offer a little more verifiable information. It’s not personal, we despise neo-Nazis equally as we do those who profit from their deeds while hiding behind the excuse of “free speech” and “art”.
A whole series of questions emerge from the ashes of the proposed Wise Hall gig – beginning with who vouched for the band? Especially given that Trevor “Luzifaust” King is already well documented to have a long history of playing in neo-Nazi bands (see: https://bccounterinfo.org/2022/10/07/neo-nazi-alert-rickshaw-theater-vancouver-bc-canada-october-9-2022/#more-299 and https://bccounterinfo.org/2023/01/16/a-faustian-deal-luzifaust-kafirun-vastatum-nordwind-hostium-and-the-business-of-fascism-in-vancouvers-metal-music-scene/ ). Oddly, The Wise Hall claimed that CSIS offered a professional reference for Luzifaust as proof that he isn’t affiliated with neo-Nazis. That raises several questions: is this the same CSIS whose agent Grant Bristow established the white supremacist Heritage Front in the 1990s, leading to a scandal and national inquiry? (see: https://ricochet.media/en/2276/police-spies-and-white-supremacy-a-brief-history ) Is this relationship one of a paid informant or is the band chatting up Blood and Honour, Combat 18 and the Hammerskins for free? Is this something CSIS can neither confirm nor deny? Or is this more like how the FBI uses confidential informants as they did with Attomwaffen Division? (see: https://countersignal.medium.com/fbi-manufactured-terror-order-of-9-angles-and-the-temple-ov-blood-bf0640ac2fc0). In light of the historical record of neo-Nazi and State collaboration, it is dangerously unwise to trust either of them.
The Wise Hall claim that they could find no connection to neo-Nazis means that they either didn’t try very hard or dismissed all previous evidence. The facts of Trevor King’s long associations include but are not limited to his band Hostium. Hostium’s 2014 revival brought Robert “Chernobog” De Chazal, then of Blood and Honour, into the band. Both of Trevor’s bands, Kafirun and Hostium shared the Rickshaw stage on August 23 2014.
If readers are unfamiliar with the neo-Nazi organization Blood and Honour and how their neo-Nazi affiliated bands are essential for their business operation, begin with this Wikipedia entry:
“Blood & Honour is a neo-Nazi music promotion network and right-wing extremist political group founded in the United Kingdom by Ian Stuart Donaldson and Nicky Crane in 1987. It is composed of White Nationalists and has links to Combat 18″ (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_%26_Honour).
When asked via The Wise Hall Facebook page if there was a vetting process for bands, the answer “yes” was offered by Vastatum’s promotion company The Invisible Orange. This leads to another question – who is The Invisible Orange and what qualifies them to vet neo-Nazi affiliated bands that they promote? Let’s begin with the owner – @elgrandragon or “El Grand Dragon” Abelardo Mayoral-Fierros. Yes, The Grand Dragon is his moniker on Instagram. It’s difficult to find other references to the title of Grand Dragon other than the Ku Klux Klan. Given that Mayoral-Fierros has a long history of promoting neo-Nazi affiliated bands with The Invisible Orange, the company name suggests a nod to the orange robes of the Grand Dragon in a conspicuously visible way for those on the far-right:
“One of the most recognized symbols of the white supremacy movement is the white robe and hood of the Ku Klux Klan. Various colors of KKK robes, however, indicate rank within the organization. This orange robe and hood belonged to the Grand Dragon (represented on the robe by the letters “G” and “D”), the highest-ranking KKK official in Texas. While the Ku Klux Klan was founded following the Civil War, local groups persisted through the 20th century, when the robes and hoods were used to conceal the identities of its members, which could include prominent businessmen, police officers, and high-ranking public officials” (https://www.thestoryoftexas.com/discover/artifacts/grand-dragon-ku-klux-klan-robe-and-hood).
“El Grand Dragon” Abelardo Mayoral-Fierros’ Twitter/X account claims he is a management consultant by day and headbanger by night. His LinkedIn and other social media accounts list him as Director of System Optimization for the Fraser Health Authority. This raises concerning questions for the Fraser Health Authority as the largest health care region in the province per capita – what data access does he have? Patient data? Staff? Should the public be concerned that a Director within the largest Health Authority does a multi-million dollar side gig promoting bands affiliated with leadership in international neo-Nazi networks while using the title “El Grand Dragon”?
The Invisible Orange and “El Grand Dragon” have promoted neo-Nazi bands for nearly a decade. The 2014 Hostium gig (with neo-Nazi band member Roberston De Chazal aka “Chernobog”) isn’t the only one. In 2015, The Invisible Orange went a little “international” by bringing in the UK neo-folk fascist band Death in June while prominently displaying their Totenkopf symbol in advertisements – the specific version of the death head derived directly from the Nazi SS (Panzer Division Totenkopf) and used by Combat 18 and other neo-Nazi formations.
The North American tour was met with protests and press reports in multiple cities including Vancouver, B.C., then as now, outlining the threat and concerns of staging neo-Nazi affiliated bands. The Vancouver promoters, including The Invisible Orange could not be unaware of the concerns raised at the time. Despite community alerts by anti-fascists to deplatform the band, the promoters and venue chose to profit instead. Reports of the band members neo-Nazi affiliations and the fascist fans that attend their shows are well documented and went back nearly a decade – this is from Midwest Unrestcirca 2006:
Death in June (DIJ) is not a typical white power nazi band – they do not shave their heads, sing about lynching Blacks or rant about Jewish conspiracies. Nonetheless, DIJ’s unabashed support for fascist ideology and aesthetics is just as strong. Their use of fascist symbolism goes far beyond shock tactics, and ultimately the artistic and philosophical message they put forward serves to create an interest and acceptance that fascist cultural activists can exploit. This is particularly dangerous at a time when the white power music business generates millions in sales each year and fascists increasingly seek to gain a foothold in new subcultures, particularly the goth, neofolk, experimental and industrial scenes. Douglas Pearce, the singer/songwriter and central person in DIJ, has always been careful to conceal his true political beliefs and avoid controversy, but a close examination of DIJ’s interests and activities reveals where his loyalties lie.
The name “Death in June” refers to June 30, 1934, the “Night of Long Knives”, when Hitler had Ernst Roehm and other leaders of the SA (nazi stormtroopers) murdered. Roehm and his faction were highly critical of Hitler policies (make no mistake-they were still fascists) and are associated with a branch of fascist ideology National Bolshevism, spearheaded by Gregor Strasser. The National Bolsheviks argued for a more socialist version of fascism and criticized Hitler\rquote s (sic) reliance on industrial capitalists. (Today, this branch of fascism is called the Third Position. (sic)
DIJ repeatedly use fascist and nazi symbols on their albums and on stage, including the Death Head (worn as a pin by nazi SS soldiers), the Life Rune (a pagan symbol commonly used by fascists) and the Black Sun (another rune used by the SS). Likewise, members of DIJ have often worn nazi Waffen-SS uniforms on stage….
DIJ/Pearce have often collaborated and played with proto-fascist industrial artist Boyd Rice/NON. Pearce and Rice have also associated with fascist/Satanist Michael Moynihan of the band Blood Axis….
Moynihan wrote the book Lords of Chaos, detailing the church burnings in Scandinavia attributed to the black metal scene. These incidents led to the flourishing of NSBM: National Socialist Black Metal.
Moynihan runs a music label called Storm that distributes music by neo-nazi Varg Vikernes (of the band Burzum) as well as other NSBM music projects.
In an interview with Compulsion magazine (#3, circa 1988), Moynihan said: “I have no problem being called a fascist. If fascism will restore some sense of order, discipline and responsibility to the world, then I am all for it.”Moynihan published the book “Siege” by neo-nazi James Masonhttps://libcom.org/article/death-june-nazi-band-midwest-unrest
These bands aren’t merely extolling the virtues of Nazism and other forms of fascism, nor merely profiting from making an “art” of it, but actively engaged in international neo-Nazi networks that organize politically motivated harassment, assault, arson, and murder – including on occasion doing so themselves and to each other. Black Metal’s history with neo-Nazism begins at birth with bands like Burzum from Norway. Considered one the most influential in the Black Metal genre, setting several trends. One, producing the favourite t-shirt for neo-Nazis then and now. Just last month a neo-Nazi showed up at the anti-Trans event “1 Million March 4 Kids” in Vancouver B.C., appearing on camera for the Far Right podcaster “Clyde Do Something”. The neo-Nazi was spotted shortly thereafter Nazi saluting at the crowd while sporting a swastika button. Most notably, he wore three coats on a hot day and a Burzum t-shirt. The band also set a standard for members playing with explosives, committing multiple arsons and murdering other Metal musicians (For the long read see:Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism, and the Politics of Identity by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke https://muse.jhu.edu/book/7802).
On November 8 2023, the news outlet Raw Story revealed the identity of an Order of Nine Angels (09A) adhering neo-Nazi wearing a Burzum t-shirt celebrating the Einsatzgruppen death squad outside a drag story hour in North Carolina weeks prior.
His name is Jarrett Smith and he served a prison sentence for distributing bomb-making instructions online (https://www.rawstory.com/raw-investigates/neo-nazi-bomb-children-drag/). For more extensive background on Smith, and fellow neo-Nazi O9A satanists infiltrating the US military, plotting assassinations of key political figures including antifascists see this article (https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/the-satanist-neo-nazi-plot-to-murder-u-s-soldiers-1352629/). More on this from the Wikipedia entry on O9A:
On 23 September 2019, Specialist[142]Jarrett William Smith, 24, of Fort Riley, Kansas, was charged with distributing information related to explosives and weapons of mass destruction. Assistant US Attorney Anthony Mattivi alleged in federal court that Smith distributed explosives information and was planning on assassinating federal agents with three other people “for the glory of his Satanist religion”.[143] On 10 February 2020, Smith pleaded guilty to two counts of distributing information related to explosives, destructive devices and weapons of mass destruction and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison [144][145]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_Nine_Angles
The band Hostium was founded in 2008 and re-emerged following the hate crimes court trials of neo-Nazis Robert De Chazal and Shawn MacDonald in 2016 – including violent assaults in The Wise Hall neighbourhood:
De Chazal is charged with lighting a man of Filipino origin on fire near Commercial Drive and 5th Avenue in October 2009. Two others were involved, but no one else has been charged yet. The victim suffered minor burns,
MacDonald is charged in three different assaults – two at the same location and another one in December 2008 at Oak and King Edward on a black man
https://vancouversun.com/news/staff-blogs/suspects-charged-in-racist-attacks-linked-to-neo-nazi-group
Shortly thereafter, as De Chazal busied himself with playing music in Hostium, Nordwind and AntiChrist, Trevor King fan and De Chazal co-defendant Shawn MacDonald (Blood and Honour/Combat 18) publicized an interest in the “esoteric’ side of neo-Nazism including these books from his Facebook cover photo below.
In Shawn MacDonald’s post, Michael Moynihan is given placement with post-war internationalist fascist Francis Parker Yockey, and assorted Asatru texts. MacDonald’s trajectory (along with mates from both Volksfront and Blood and Honour) formally into Asatru then to Hammerskins, comes as Canada designated Combat 18 and Blood and Honour as terrorist organizations in 2019 (see: https://politicalresearch.org/2018/02/01/white-supremacys-old-gods-the-far-right-and-neopaganism and https://www.antihate.ca/former_blood_honour_volksfront_members_form_neo_nazi_kindred_bc). His Volksfront associates, Scott Sinclair and Andrew Sandiland would be familiar to Asatru core tenets during their time organizing Volksfront International prior to forming a “kindred’ with MacDonald in 2019 (see: https://www.antihate.ca/former_blood_honour_volksfront_members_form_neo_nazi_kindred_bc). Rose City Antifascists exposed Volksfront links to the Black Metal scene back in 2010:
On September 2 to September 5, the white supremacist organization Volksfront International held their “Althing” gathering on private land in Missouri, at the “Samuel Weaver Memorial Hall” approximately an hour outside of St. Louis. The Althing is Volksfront’s main North American gathering, the name “Althing” deriving from the national assembly of Viking times (it is also the name of the current Icelandic parliament.) The Missouri event included not just members and “official supporters” of Volksfront, but also participants in Blood & Honour American Division, the American Front, and White Revolution, all of which are closely aligned to Volksfront. Among the speakers billed for this year’s gathering were Canadian neo-Nazi leader Paul Fromm, as well as Billy Roper, head of White Revolution, who regularly speaks at Volksfront events.
Volksfront was founded in 1994 within the Oregon prison system, but now organizes in several other regions in North America, and has also spread to other continents, with divisions in Europe and Australia. Volksfront also remains the dominant neo-Nazi organization in Oregon. The organization has a long history of violence in the Northwest, including the 2003 murder of Mark Randall Townsend, a homeless man in Tacoma, Washington, by the leader of a probationary Volksfront unit and his associates.
Rose City Antifascists noted with interest that one of the musical acts billed for Volksfront’s gathering was the Oregon “National Socialist Black Metal” (NSBM) band Immortal Pride. Immortal Pride is part of a network of racist musical acts allied to Blood & Honour American Division, which is in turn largely guided by Volksfronthttps://rosecityantifa.org/articles/nazis-oregon-black-metal-scene/
As a leader within the neo-Nazi international, MacDonald barely skipped a beat in selling his allegiance from the Celtic to the Nordic Gods to gain entry into the Hammerskin business model and access fresh recruits.
2017 is also the year we find Trevor “Luzifaust” King wearing a t-shirt of his neo-Nazi band Nordwind with girlfriend Noemi Kozikowska, an artist whose works were featured on Vancouver is Awesome (https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/events-and-entertainment/vancouver-people-project-volume-27-noemi-kozikowska-artist-1929184).
One of her specialties is album cover and stage work including the cover art for Nordwind’s album Wendehorn, released in 2012 and re-released in 2015 under the US based neo-Nazi label Vanguard Productions (https://bccounterinfo.org/2023/01/16/a-faustian-deal-luzifaust-kafirun-vastatum-nordwind-hostium-and-the-business-of-fascism-in-vancouvers-metal-music-scene/). Her current Facebook friends overlap with Trevor King’s – Vinland Hammerskins’ Scott Sinclair and Shawn MacDonald. For more information on how these connected Vinland Hammerskins recruit for their gang and make money for their operations locally and nationally read the Canadian Anti-Hate Network article Underground Neo-Nazi Street Gang Quietly Running Whites-Only Workout Clubs From Coast To Coast(see: https://www.antihate.ca/neo_nazi_street_gang_quietly_whites_only_workout_clubs_canada_vinland_hammerskins).
In June 2018, the Covenant Festival featured the band AntiChrist who share members with the neo-Nazi band Odin’s Law, along with Robert De Chazal and Trevor Dann. The Covenant is a frequent partner with The Invisible Orange including their co-hosting of the Death in June show in 2015. Trevor “Luzifaust” King claims to be mistaken for Trevor Dann and it is that which drew our interest. This pic, from Trevor Kings’ Facebook page, features him with Trevor Dann bookended by two others wearing Nordwind and Hostium t-shirts along with Noemi Kozikowska.
In addition to playing music with neo-Nazis, Trevor Dann reads books, at least one. His 2018 Facebook post recommendation is the The Black Art of Vampirism published by Martinet Press and liked by his friend Trevor King. Martinet Press is the publishing house of the Temple ov Blood, which is an American offshoot of O9A (https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/countering-radical-right/nazi-satanists-promoting-extreme-violence-and-terrorism/). The UK-based organization Hope Not Hate has investigated and written extensively on O9A’s neo-Nazi occult history and current expressions within neo-Nazi formations including the North American based Attomwaffen Division and the UK based Sonnenkrieg Division, as well as its ties to metal and folk music scenes:
Given its clandestine and decentralised nature, it is difficult to estimate O9A’s true size and influence with confidence. Some believe it’s comprised of just a handful of people, while others put its global membership at 2,000. Whatever the true figure, what is abundantly clear is that O9A has enjoyed a recent resurgence among several of both the USA’s and UK’s most extreme terroristic far-right groups, and has gained a new visibility online. Most disturbingly, the adoption of O9A’s philosophy of unbridled transgression and depravity appears to have played a role in excusing, or even fostering, a culture of violent sexual sadism and the promotion of weaponised rape among certain sections of the extreme right. O9A operates on two levels. It sends its supporters into existing organisations to influence and recruit, but it also disseminates its propaganda far and wide, both through its own platforms and those of others. O9A functions both as a covert organisation, and as a brand suited to the online post-organisational far right: young radicals drawn to extreme fringe ideas can easily access O9A material and take from it what they wish.
The Temple ov Blood, and its publishing arm Martinet Press is a US affiliate of O9A. One key author of their Vampire genre is Ryan Fleming:
Ryan Fleming was a prominent activist within the now-banned British terrorist group National Action (NA). He got involved in NA in February 2015 after he made contact through the now-defunct nazi forum Iron March (IM), offering his services as a cybersecurity expert. His first public appearance for NA was on its Newcastle demo, where he made a hard-line barnstorming speech, described by soon-to-be terrorist Jack Renshaw as “great bants”.
What his new NA friends did not know was that Fleming was an important figure in O9A, running its Yorkshire nexion, and was closely linked to its offshoot in the US, the ‘Tempel ov Blood’ (ToB).
Fleming was also an established writer on the occult and Satanist scene, writing several books under the pseudonym A. A. Morain. Among his masterpieces were Scithain: Vampyric Witchcraft of the Drakon Covenant and Codex Aristarchus, with the latter having a foreword written by Czar Azag-kala of ToB. Fleming’s books focus on hunting down people in rural settings and feeding on them.
In 2011, Fleming was jailed for the sexual assault of a vulnerable young man, who he had imprisoned and tortured before forcing him to perform a sex act. This was not considered serious enough to have him excluded from NA. In 2017, after NA was banned, he was jailed for sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl
https://hopenothate.org.uk/chapter/order-of-nine-angles-an-incubator-of-terrorism/
In 2018 UK’s Quietus, an online music and pop culture site ran a series of articles exploring “what connects a convicted rapist in Yorkshire, a racist murderer in California, a critically-acclaimed underground experimental band from Ireland and a hip US ‘black metal chamber music’ group? The answer is the once-obscure – and now influential – forty-year-old Satanic Neo-Nazi organization, The Order of Nine Angles (O9A), whose membership over the past decade has grown from a handful to an estimated 2000 adherents worldwide”.
As well as reflecting O9A initiation rites, the crimes of Fleming and Woodward mirror the content of an emerging culture of Nazi-Satanist fan fictions, whose writing is encouraged as part of an O9A initiate’s practice. A key text is Iron Gates, also published by Hoy’s Martinet and credited to the ‘Tempel ov Blood’, an O9A-affiliated group headed by Hoy and Joshua Caleb Sutter. (Something of a neo-fascist power-couple, Hoy and Sutter previously operated as North Korean propagandists and Hindu Ultra-Nationlists/Esoteric Hitlerists, before turning to the O9A.) The book, which is freely available on Amazon, depicts a grim post-Magian future, set largely in concentration camps, in which opfers and child rape are carried out with post-messianic zeal. Iron Gates and other Martinet Press output provide us with disturbing insights into the mindset and desires of the new Satanic far right – “Iron Gates, NOW!”, meanwhile, has become a rallying cry for Atomwaffen Division
https://thequietus.com/articles/25716-ona-fascism-nazis-folk-horror-underground-occult
The founder and head of Temple ov Blood and Martinet Press Joshua Caleb Sutter also found time for a side gig as a paid FBI informant:
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has paid a man involved in a publishing house specializing in occult neo-Nazi books more than $100,000 since 2003, according to court filings.
The publishing house is Martinet Press, fine purveyors of Atomwaffen Division-approved books such as Iron Gates and Liber 333. The former is a book about a Satanic cult roaming a post-apocalyptic America, which opens with a scene of a child being murdered.The apparent informant is Joshua Caleb Sutter, a man with longstanding ties to white supremacist organizations
https://www.vice.com/en/article/dyv9zk/fbi-bankrolled-publisher-of-occult-neo-nazi-books-feds-claim
Given the company that Trevor Dann keeps, not just Trevor King, nor his and King’s neo-Nazi band mates, but the leadership of international neo-Nazi networks, his post broadcasting O9A/Temple ov Blood propaganda in combination with a penchant for Satanism takes a far more sinister tone. From Trevor Dann’s Facebook friends list we find his friends include current heads of Vinland Hammerskins: Scott Sinclair (former Volksfront), Shawn MacDonald (former Blood and Honour/Combat 18) and Andrew Sandiland (former Volksfront).
Just as neo-Nazism is only one of many strands of fascism, the strand within neo-Nazism feeding a new generation – Attomwaffen, Rapewaffen and the latest incarnations of O9A – is small but significant in its demonstrable violence. Just days prior to Trevor Dann’s post, Blaze Bernstein was murdered. The public exposure of Atomwaffen and its members adherence to O9A/Temple ov Blood began. ProPublica took a deep dive into Attomwaffen including its leadership within the Pacific Northwest (eventually garnering an Emmy award for the documentary series) and:
…obtained the chat logs of Atomwaffen, a notorious white supremacist group. When Samuel Woodward was charged with killing 19-year-old Blaze Bernstein last month in California, other Atomwaffen members cheered the death, concerned only that the group’s cover might have been blown…’Bring your uniform, rifle/sidearm, and whatever camping gear you need,’ he wrote. Cole, who is 22 and lives close to the Canadian border in the town of Blaine, is a National Socialist Black Metal enthusiast who holds a concealed firearms permit and owns an AK-47. In 2015, while Cole was living in Bellingham, police responded to a report that he had “Nazi memorabilia” in his residence, according to Lt. Danette Beckley of the Bellingham Police Department; he was also reported to police in the island town of Anacortes for allegedly harassing a Jewish grocery store owner by a waving a Nazi flag in front of the business, according to two law enforcement sourceshttps://www.propublica.org/article/atomwaffen-division-inside-white-hate-group, see also: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/12/us/what-is-atomwaffen.html
Trevor Dann’s placement and associations within leadership ranks of neo-Nazis puts his promotion of O9A material levels beyond teens dabbling with magic on the left hand path. Hermansson, a senior researcher with UK based HOPE not Hate warns that O9A-affiliated books are used in ritualistic ceremonies and spread O9A ideology, ultimately giving adherents clout within the community while advocating for ritualized murder. Hermansson gives us fair-warning about the dangers of people who read and practice 09A material with their secretive and murderous nexions: “You don’t buy a book just to read it, you buy [a Tempel ov Blood book] to smear your own blood over it and take pictures with it” (https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2023/06/30/the-mainstream-publishers-distributors-and-bookshops-selling-satanist-neo-nazi-books/). For a deep dive into esoteric fascism listen to: (https://www.deezer.com/us/show/2383112 – This is The Empire Never Ended, the Antifascist Amerikanski-Balkan podcast about (neo) fascist terror, the (deep) state and the alienation, nihilism and desperation produced by the capitalist system).
In the weeks surrounding The Wise Hall show featuring Vastatum, the German state was busy banning the Hammerskins as a terrorist organization. Finland was prosecuting Hammerskin affiliates, some with satanist tendencies, for planning attacks on power grids and political assassinations (https://yle.fi/a/74-20049603). Spain was arresting members of Combat 18 for their part in planning attacks on synagogues and mosques (https://tvpworld.com/73582782/spanish-police-dismantles-neo-nazi-organization). Finland and Hungary were responding to international neo-Nazi music festivals and fundraising by both Blood and Honour, Hammerskins, and others (https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2023/10/18/from-pittsburgh-to-budapest-hungary-to-play-host-to-another-far-right-extremist-meetup/ ;https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2023/08/31/saunas-and-swastikas-finlands-summertime-neo-nazi-meet-up/). The United States continued to be a hot mess of neo-Nazi appearances everywhere from Disney World to public libraries and children’s story hours. East Van was left to organize its own defences and did so effectively whilst The Wise Hall (‘the heart and soul of East Vancouver’s live music scene) chose to ignore the community which it claims to serves until it could do so no longer. It did however, provide plenty of space for Vastatum and Trevor King on its Facebook feeds which it has since deleted.
In the end, it was the promotion company The Invisible Orange, lead by “El Grand Dragon” Abelardo Mayoral-Fierros, who works for the Fraser Health Authority, that ‘vetted’ the band; one of a small but significant number of Black metal and national socialist bands whose members are affiliated with international neo-Nazi organizations. And of course, those who make their money from promoting or selling this as “art”.
Fraser Health is the heart of health care for more than 1.9 million people in 20 diverse communities from Burnaby to Fraser Canyon on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territories of the Coast Salish and Nlaka’pamux Nations, and is home to six Métis Chartered Communities.
Our hospital and community-based services are delivered by a team of 45,000+ staff, medical staff and volunteers dedicated to serving our patients, families and communitieshttps://www.fraserhealth.ca/bios/dr-victoria-lee
Perhaps the Fraser Health Authority should do some vetting of its own, including demonstrating to the public that their Director “El Grand Dragon” poses no threat and the data he has access to is secure, based on his side gig as a promoter of neo-Nazi bands. Given we have chosen open source documents with links that make the information easily verifiable, risk identification, assessment and analysis shouldn’t be difficult.
A message to The Wise Hall: try harder. You owe due diligence to the Metal community and East Van to bar neo-Nazi affiliates despite the coin they may drop in your coffers. We understand that Metal is a significant portion of your music revenues. However, profiting from the small but significantly dangerous neo-Nazi elements may be a very costly venture and not just for The Wise Hall itself but the community which you serve.
We extend our heart felt gratitude and fist in the air to all those who stood up to shut this down. Anonymously yours,
“And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, The instruments of darkness tell us truths, Win us with honest trifles, to betrays in deepest consequence.”