Heiler fra scenen i Stockholm

Det svenske black metal-band Watains releasekoncert på spillestedet Kraken i Stockholm 5. januar har vakt stor debat.

Under koncerten gjorde bandets liveguitarist, italienske Set Teitan en håndbevægelse, der ganske meget lignede en nazihilsen.

Initiativet blev fanget på film og offentliggjort på nettet, men klippet blev hurtigt fjernet igen. GAFFA har dog fået taget et screendump.

Nogle har forsvaret den Rom-fødte Set Teitan med, at hans håndbevægelse snarere var en klassisk hilsen fra romerriget. Andre er stærkt uenige i denne fortolkning.

Watain heilar från scen och deras nyttiga idioter till fans ursäktar det med: "han e från Rom, det är en romsk hälsning!"

Och swastikan e ba en simpel solsymbol som betyder "alla är välkomna!"

— En ruffig typ (@xkattenx) January 8, 2018

Watain har senere været ude med en kommentar, som de dog har slettet igen fra deres sociale medier. Her kunne man blandt andet læse: "Watains bandmedlemmer har ingen forbindelse med nazistisk ideologi, hverken offentligt eller privat.

Magasinet The PRP har dog gengivet kommentaren i sin helhed, og den lyder som følger:

“It has come to our attention that people have misinterpreted an arm movement of Set at our Kraken show as a “nazi salute”. Fucking hell, come on folks! As everyone should know by now, Watain band members have no ties to nazi ideology neither publically nor personally, and with this statement we want to put an end to further uneccesary speculation in this tiresome subject.

What we give praise to in our songs and in their lyrics could very well be seen as the very anti-thesis to some utopian right wing ideology of the past. “Saluting” one of our many enemies on the sacred ground that is our stage would not make much sense. That is something we are sure our fans and supporters -who we are proud to say are from every possible “race”, gender, nation and cultural background- can testify to.

As would the fact that our line-up and working crew are also of a widely diverse ethnical background. And the list goes ever on, eliminating all possible forms of soiling by political or ideological agendas, allowing the Devil’s fire to burn clear and untainted in the sanctuary that we have created for ourselves.

It is of course highly regrettable that these unwelcome, inconvenient and misplaced accusations are even allowed to arise and we hope we can now put this behind us and focus on the many important tasks at hand.

Thank you for understanding.

Now let us fearlessly and doubtlessly move forward into the raging chaos of metallic deathnoise madness that is Trident Wolf Eclipse.

FTW!”