Gaylord’s The Black Metal Scene Must Be Destroyed: Review

J.P. Williams
Sep 6, 2018 · 4 min read

There have been many New Wave movements in heavy metal. The most well-known is the New Wave of British Heavy Metal exemplified by Iron Maiden. Others include the New Wave of American Heavy Metal, New Wave of Thrash Metal and New Wave of Swedish Metal. With its debut album The Black Metal Scene Needs to Be Destroyed, Gaylord has come to reinforce a new category defined less by its sound than by its political thrust: New Wave of Anti-Fascist Heavy Metal.

Gaylord plays black metal, the very genre it says it wants to destroy, but the primary target of its disapprobation is bands that express extreme right-wing ideologies, especially bands representative of National Socialist Black Metal (NSBM). These bands often espouse white supremacist and nationalist beliefs mixed with a variety of spiritual, philosophical and political worldviews. The scene’s members often look disquieting for their black and white corpse paint — also worn by more benign black metal bands — but they can present a very real threat: its members have been known to burn churches and commit murder.

One prominent example is Varg Vikernes, best known for his work as Burzum. In 1994, Vikernes was sentenced to 14 years in prison for murdering Mayhem guitarist Euronymous, although he claims it was self-defense. He is often described as a neo-Nazi and a racist, but he balks at these terms and supports what he calls Ôðalism, an ideology with various facets including nationalism, racialism, paganism and survivalism. Whatever distinctions he and his followers would like to make in their favor, the New Wave of Anti-Fascist Heavy Metal will have none of it.

Gaylord skewers such figures and their philosophies with lyrics that mix open insult with liberal doses of black metal tropes drawing on the occult and Norse mythology. They’re hard-hitting, foul-mouthed and often hilarious, like these from the song “Neo-Nazi Metalheads Will Be Hanged and Their Broken Corpses Openly Mocked”:

“Nazi shithead black metal
Idiotic nationalistic garbage
The riffs aren’t even good
Shut up and die you fucking cunts”

And Gaylord names names. Many names. The lyrics to the song “Odin Doesn’t Listen to NSBM You Inbred Alt-Right Shitheels” consist almost entirely of “Fuck off” followed by a band name. Gaylord lists big names like Burzum and Taake, as well as lesser-known acts like Goatmoon and Hate Forest. Toward the end of the song, Gaylord drops the band names and just goes for insults like “Fuck off and die.”

Gaylord is equally merciless toward NSBM fans, alt-right online warriors, and others who support destructive rightwing ideologies. From “Varg Impaled”:

“‘I’m not into politics, I just listen to the riffs’
You’re so full of shit you are bursting at the seams
‘I’m not a racist, I just want a white ethnostate’
Brexiteering asshole, go fuck yourself”

Gaylord is never short on choice words for its enemies. In “Coward Authoritarian Apologist Bootlicking Kvlt,” they call gun fetishists “cocksuckers” and “bootlicking whores” and command them to go “Suck the dick of Trump.” If you dislike the far right, it’s rousing stuff, but it’s also reminiscent of the abuse ruining political discussion today. As such, The Black Metal Scene Needs to Be Destroyed is a symptom of degenerate times, but when bullies stalk the playground, someone has to stand up to them.

Musically, Gaylord delivers black metal with distinguishing touches. There are blast beats that sound programmed, and there’s tremolo picking. But often the guitars clang repetitively, thrumming muddily for an almost drone effect. And the bass is not only audible but frequently attention-grabbing. Nonetheless, there isn’t much instrumentation to drop the jaw here — no blazing solos, no wicked fills. The music is the vessel for a message, and that message is delivered through growl-snarled vocals that pack impressive menace.

The album ends with “All Hail the New Wave,” and more names. This time, the names are of bands and other entities (zines, columnists, etc.) toward which the members of Gaylord grimace approvingly. The only name I recognized at first was Power Trip, an American thrash metal band. I’ve also now given a listen to Neckbeard Deathcamp, a brass-knuckles antifa band along the lines of Gaylord. The names are a riot — Grim Kim, Toilet ov Hell, Necrolytic Goat Converter — with my favorite being Feminazgûl.

Just about every group has its deplorable element, and the heavy metal community is no exception. Humanity has a lot that is bad to offer, and some of the worst is on the rise again in our time. One way to fight it is through art, and with The Black Metal Scene Needs to Be Destroyed, Gaylord adds its voice to those who say, “Resist!”

Rating: 2.5/5 demonic alien skull eyes

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Cultural omnivore and lover of ideas living in Japan. Music, literature and philosophy unite in a thin graphite line against all new barbarisms.

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