Politics, violence and transgression in Finnish Rock Against Communism music
a cross-genre case study

ABSTRACT

The Finnish far-right music scene has grown and become more ideological during the past ten years. Today there are more Rock Against Communism (RAC) bands whose messages are more political and ideological than those of old-school bands. One peculiarity of the Finnish white power music scene is that bands representing different genres, such as RAC, black metal and power electronics, often perform at the same events. Ideas and forms of expression spread between genres and, as this case analysis of the lyrics of the Finnish RAC band Vapaudenristi shows, genre crossing may result in novel but also paradoxical ideological combinations. In order to contextualize the reading of RAC lyrics, Kotonen’s article traces changes in Finnish white power music culture, and highlights the most important ideological sources of inspiration, among them the growing interest in the writings of Julius Evola.

KEYWORDS: RAC counter-culture, far right, Finland, Julius Evola, music, Rock Against Communism, transgression, Vapaudenristi, violence

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In Finland, there has been relatively little political violence since the Second World War, but far-right rhetoric, which often borrows from Anglo-American literature, has occasionally taken extreme, violent forms, ranging from self-defence justifications to revolutionary violence. These visions are especially prominent on the far-right, particularly its music subculture. In this article, I will study Finnish far-right rhetoric via the musical culture, exploring its visions of violence and revolution specifically. In order to analyse the rhetoric in more detail, I will conduct a case study of one representative of the Finnish far-right cultural milieu, the Rock Against Communism (RAC) band Vapaudenristi. I will read Vapaudenristi’s texts by analysing their tropes and violent rhetoric, highlighting some important developments in Finland from the cultural perspective of music.

This case study focuses on the lyrics of the Finnish RAC band Vapaudenristi, arguably the most influential Finnish RAC band in recent years. Its texts represent the most radical ideas among the current Finnish far right and are therefore worthy of analysis. For other reasons, too, Vapaudenristi is a curious case among Finnish RAC bands: the leader of the band also owns some record labels, runs a record shop and is engaged in several other musical projects ranging from power electronics to black metal.[1] Besides music, he has also produced zines, cartoons and even pornography. How these projects, an eclectic mixture of libertine philosophy and obvious fascist inclinations, intertwine is one question I ask in this article.[2] I also ask how the visions of Vapaudenristi differ from those of other Finnish RAC bands and what political role their lyrics play.

I approach the visions of Vapaudenristi specifically through the writings of Julius Evola.[3] Vapaudenristi occasionally alludes to Evola’s texts, although the band’s front man has denied that Evola has had any particular influence on the lyrics. Also, despite arguing elsewhere that Evola’s work is inspiring, the band departs from it on some key points.[4] However, while commenting on Vapaudenristi’s second album, one prominent Finnish far-right writer, who has also written about the importance of Evola,[5] said that he considered the album to be deeply anchored in European paganism as it was envisioned by Evola.[6] And, as I will show, references to Evola’s ideas are ubiquitous on the Finnish far right. Therefore, and considering the importance of Vapaudenristi as a band, it will be useful to explore the derivation of the lyrics and how they connect with Evolan ideas. These ideological connections and departures may be analysed at the textual level and, as is the case here, through tropological analysis. At a more general level, Evola’s lifelong project has several apparent links to ideas expressed in Vapaudenristi’s lyrics and can be used to open up the philosophy behind the texts, as well as to explore neo-fascist forms of transgression. Even though he is often seen solely as a philosopher, Evola’s radical and violent ideas have also been put into action, which arguably makes him morally responsible for such acts, if not directly or judicially responsible.[7]

Researching RAC

Rock Against Communism is a far-right cultural movement focusing on white power music, that emerged in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The movement itself is closely affiliated with skinhead subculture, celebrating male toughness and working-class identity. In its first phase in the 1960s the skinhead milieu was multicultural by nature, as its members, for example, consumed Jamaican music. However, the revival of skinhead subculture in the 1970s showed itself to be racist, and its members increasingly supportive of far-right parties, among others the National Front (NF). Skinhead subculture also simultaneously developed its own variant of punk rock, called Oi!. Rock Against Communism was launched by NF members as a response to the anti-racist and anti-NF Rock Against Racism concerts in the late 1970s, and for the purpose of recruiting youth to the party.[8] Musically, RAC is based on energetic punk rock, preferring a straightforward approach and avoiding complex melodies or chord progressions. Simple melodies are also generally easy to sing along to. The lyrics are typically presented in an unpolished, harsh style, the standard being the style of the iconic British RAC band Skrewdriver and its singer Ian Stuart Donaldson.

Since the birth of the RAC movement, several other genres have been appropriated to advance far-right ideas and themes as well. These include, in particular, black metal, which has its own variant advocating National Socialism, called National Socialist Black Metal, often abbreviated as NSBM. Different genres, ranging from Neo-Folk and country to black metal, that promote white nationalism are often collectively referred to as ‘white power music’.[9]

RAC landed in Finland in the late 1980s as part of the country’s nascent skinhead movement. Since the 1990s, the Finnish white power music scene has become more openly antisemitic and ideological, and its language more brutal.[10] However, as I will show, there have been peaks and troughs since the 1990s. In that decade, one could find occasional references to ‘ZOG’ (the so-called ‘Zionist Occupation Government’) and ‘Rahowa’ (an acronym for ‘racial holy war’) but, generally speaking, the discursive Finnish version was quite apolitical—or perhaps a better term would be ‘ideologically underdeveloped’—when compared to many of its international counterparts. Its focus was on the music itself and, if any politics were involved, these mainly opposed immigration and the left, with little interest in deeper revolutionary visions. This is not the case with Vapaudenristi: its lyrics have been deeply embedded in certain forms of fascist ideology, far-right mythology and radical counter-culture as types of political transgression. Thus it escapes the norms and expectations of traditional politics and, to some extent, includes deeper currents than traditional fascist ideology. With regard to changes in the Finnish scene, Vapaudenristi reflects ideological developments that have involved not only writing ‘racist lyrics’, but also offerining social commentary. Members of the band have moved from being merely band members to being political and cultural activists creating new modes of behaviour.[11]

This article is the first close academic analysis of the RAC in Finland. This is not the case with NSBM, which has been analysed as part of the black metal scene.[12] The RAC milieu in Finland is also almost entirely connected with radical nationalism and National Socialist organizations, whereas black metal is politically more diverse.

Internationally, some scholarly attention has been paid to RAC music, although mostly as part of far-right youth culture in general. It has been analysed as a movement, rather than via its lyrics.[13] Often the internal discussions of far-right groups are difficult to access. Their public ideological positions tend to differ from how they talk between themselves.[14] In this article, I will use their lyrics and zines, which provide a perspective on their ideology. Lyrics and zines also allow writers more freedom of expression and, in music and other artistic productions, the bar for charges of incitement seems to be higher. The lyrics analysed here might possibly be a police matter if published in social or print media, although this may also partly be due to a lack of public interest in these products: so far, only one distributor of white power music has faced charges in Finland.

RAC makes the ideas of the far right known to broader audiences in an easily accessible form. It may also promote, in an allegedly fictionalized form, ideas that are not yet well known or generally accepted, even within the movement. ‘Racial holy war’ (Rahowa), for example, is typically manifested in a more straightforward manner in music than in other forms of propaganda. Therefore, music may arguably also serve to indicate a turn in ideology or reveal the fantasies of the far right hidden beneath the surface. The lyrics may be fiction but may also be meaningful for the community. As other scholars point out, the lyrics of extreme music alone do not cause violence, but neither is it the case that they are ‘just fiction’ or ‘just words’.[15] As will be shown, far-right songs are an essential part of propaganda work, especially for RAC musicians. What is also noteworthy is that the transgression does not stop at the lyrics, for many Finnish RAC band members have committed and have been convicted of actual acts of political and other types of violence.[16]

My analysis is based on the lyrics of Vapaudenristi albums, with a particular focus on their second album, published in 2016. The analytical method I use, textual analysis, is based on linguistic and rhetorical close reading, stressing the importance of tropes used in the texts. In order to contextualize the textual analysis, I will additionally conduct a short thematic analysis focusing on the violent rhetoric and ideology present in the Finnish RAC scene. For this I will use data from published albums by Finnish white power bands, far-right zines, interviews with Vapaudenristi and the band leader’s other projects in different, mostly underground or alternative media, as well as from interviews with other RAC bands in Finland. As I will discuss in more detail below, RAC is not a new phenomenon in Finland although it has gained more ground during the past ten years or so. This does not mean, however, that it has become commercialized or lost its clandestine nature; in most cases, gigs are still secret and merchandise is sold only by a few, usually ideologically affiliated, shops. Certain mainstreaming is, however, evident, exemplified by the fact that RAC bands play for politically more diverse audiences, such as at Independence Day events aimed at all who consider themselves nationalists, including members of the populist Perussuomalaiset (Finns Party).

To analyse the lyrics of Vapaudenristi, I will focus my attention especially on the tropes used and their connection to certain ideological positions and to violence. According to Roman Jakobson, the two fundamental tropes are metonymy and metaphor,[17] whereas scholars such as Kenneth Burke and Hayden White have added synecdoche and irony to the list of ‘master tropes’.[18] Two of White’s tropes, metaphor and metonymy, are of special interest here, as he connects them to radical and fascist ideologies. One important aspect of tropological analysis is how tropes direct the text. Texts that use metonyms as the main trope proceed on the basis of sequentiality and horizontal movement, whereas metaphorical texts are based on selection and vertical movement. These two forms, the paradigmatic axis and the syntagmatic axis, have their own temporal dimensions as well: a sequential text implies linear movement and progression in time, while metaphors suspend and layer time, and may imply either a revolutionary or a mythical mode of writing.

Reading the tropes used opens up two different axes of interpretation of far-right rhetoric: the sequential or political axis and the selective or fundamental and revolutionary axis. These reflect ‘reformist’ and revolutionary types of discourse and have an impact on their violent inclinations as well: for the former, violence is a symptom of the malaise we need to avoid and, for the latter, it is something one may even welcome. However, these are obviously heuristic models, or ideal types, and in reality different interpretational axes mingle in texts. Therefore, analysing which mode is dominant is more important than finding pure types. This type of reading differs somewhat from, but also overlaps with, the binary classification of violence into expressive and instrumental forms, typically used in criminology, in which the former points to emotional and annoyance-based motivation without a clear external or ideological aim.[19] In Rahowa rhetoric, for example, both aspects are present: violence is an expression of the Aryan spirit and group-belonging as well as of hate, but it also has the more or less clear objective of nationalist and racial revolution.

RAC: a soundtrack for a National Socialist revolution

RAC emerged as a far-right music culture movement in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s when some members of the British National Front (NF) became interested in political influence via punk music. The original punk movement had its roots in subcultural resistance and transgressive politics, and some of these elements were also present in RAC, even though they derived from the opposite ideological position. Testing and crossing political and cultural norms and taboos were also part of this culture, as exemplified by the use of the swastika and other symbols of the Third Reich by both punk and RAC bands.

The best known of these far-right bands was Skrewdriver, which was founded in the late 1970s and was led by the activist Ian Stuart Donaldson. He created the first worldwide skinhead organization, Blood and Honour (B&H), which focused on distributing RAC music and nationalist propaganda. Since the RAC movement was born, it has been connected with right-wing extremist parties and groups in Britain and elsewhere in Europe.[20] In Finland, too, the development of this subculture is closely connected to nationalist political organizations; they have indeed developed somewhat in tandem.

RAC landed in Finland in the late 1980s, but became successful only in the 2010s. As early as the 1990s, several RAC gigs were organized, quite often featuring foreign bands. Finland hosted foreign bands less often in the 2000s, indicating a general decline in activity, but the trend turned upwards at the end of the decade.[21] The first Finnish Blood & Honour division was founded in the mid-1990s;[22] this was an important development for the movement but all activity ceased after some of the key activists were arrested or left the scene. A new Finnish B&H division was established in 2003 and has continued with varying degrees of success.[23] In the 1990s, Finnish skinheads and white power concert organizers were politically affiliated with certain radical nationalist parties, such as the Kansallinen radikaalipuolue (National Radical Party) and the Isänmaallinen oikesto (Patriotic Right) but, in the 2000s, the skinheads and B&H were without a political home.[24] This changed only when the Nordic Resistance Movement (NRM) was established in Finland in 2008.

As has arguably happened in Sweden,[25] the RAC scene has grown in Finland, especially since the early 2010s,[26] after almost a decade of relative decline. Now there are noticeably more concerts and more active bands than ten years ago. In 2005 the Finnish Blood & Honour magazine reported that there were only three active RAC bands in Finland, alongside one NSBM and one hatecore band.[27] In 2010 an anonymous blogger following the scene could name only one new RAC band, and that was Vapaudenristi.[28] Several years earlier, some activists thought that infighting was ruining the movement and did not believe their ‘organizations [would] be able to do much good politically, for many years’.[29]

In both Sweden and Finland, more moderate nationalists have distanced themselves from the music scene. This reflects the relatively sharp division within the movement. At its radical end, the message has become more extreme. Currently, the Finnish RAC scene has especially close ties with the National Socialist NRM, and is an important recruiting source along with the whole National Socialist Black Metal (NSBM) subculture.[30]

What has changed to some extent is that the white power scene has become more political and ideological, being influenced, for example, by the writings of Julius Evola and Savitri Devi, and drawing inspiration from Traditionalism.[31] This ‘political turn’ has also been noted by the older Finnish RAC bands.[32] Vapaudenristi sums it up in this way:

This is clearly a different kind of situation. Nationalist music does not show on the streets in the form of marching skinhead hordes but has developed in a different direction. Most of the Finnish bands no longer write from the perspective of everyday racism but often have quite a strong ideological background.[33]

Nowadays, several leading RAC bands in Finland are quite explicit about their political purpose: ‘The main goal for Genocide Wolves is to be a tool for national socialist propaganda. If we can get even one person awake we have served our purpose.’[34] The RAC group Valkoiset Paholaiset (White Devils) has similar ideas: ‘The way I see it is that music is a tool, not more, not less than in the other artistic fields which could serve the common purpose.’[35] It is also possible to find similar statements by NSBM bands.[36]

According to a member of the RAC band Pagan Skull, ‘radical music should be a more important part of the recruiting. . . . Music should be a tool for a greater cause, not the most important thing in itself.’[37] As is apparent, for these bands, music comes second to the cause and message they want to propagate. This has been consistently the case for years among the most committed skinheads and National Socialists.

In 2009, arguing against idolizing musicians and focusing on bands or subcultural activity, Blood & Honour Finland wrote that only ‘when the streets are cleansed of ZOG mutations and Bolsheviks may our troubadours perform their rhapsodies. Until then, should battle hymns about Lebensraum guide our way, or will we let our race die before its own funeral?’[38] Thus, even though the music scene may help in recruiting new members for the movement, the danger is that it will gain too much importance and the ideological purpose will be blurred.

What is peculiar to the Finnish case is that the radical white power music scene is a relatively closely knit community irrespective of genre differences: RAC, NSBM, Neo-Folk and to some extent power electronics are part of the same milieu. The Ukonvasama zine, for example, promotes all these genres.[39] And, even if there are generic differences, a common ideology joins the groups together in the battle against their enemies, and sometimes bands that represent different styles and genres act like a collective.[40] Quite often the bands perform at the same events, which sometimes bring together a range of genres from Neo-Folk to NSBM.[41] Occasionally they exchange members, too, which reflects the relatively small size of the movement.[42]

Vapaudenristi as part of an artistic project

Vapaudenristi was formed in 2007 but did not release an album until 2012. As the band leader makes clear, Vapaudenristi is an organic part of his larger artistic project, although each project has its own aesthetic starting point and uses different strategies.[43]

Diverse themes that are often regarded as transgressions, such as violence, pornography and filth, have been part of his noise recordings and black metal projects from very early on.[44] In some of his performances as well, transgression can take violent forms, and gigs can become chaotic and aggressive.[45] This is another reason why Vapaudenristi is an interesting case to analyse: it shows that similar ideas may shift between genres, that different forms of transgression may converge in a somewhat surprising manner, and that one may come to RAC from many different directions, not only from the skinhead subculture, although that is, of course, often still the route. The leader of Vapaudenristi started his recording career as a noise artist in the early 1990s, though he was also interested in punk music. At that time, he mentioned some anti-fascist connections. His turning point was, he has argued, when one of his noise projects in the late 1990s, Grunt, was accused of flirting with fascism.[46]

Being a publisher of and contributor to noise or power electronics zines like Degenerate!, the leader of Vapaudenristi has also presented his audience with some radical, revolutionary forms of white power music. For example, in 2005, the zine published an interview with Brethren, a US power electronics band promoting white revolution with references to The Turner Diaries.[47] Playing with and alluding to fascist themes—including such controversial moments as putting Osama bin Laden as the Statue of Liberty on the cover of the 2002 issue—is also a common motif elsewhere in the publication and in noise or industrial music in general, either because of personal beliefs or mere interest in anything bizarre and extreme. Freak Animal Records, one of the record labels owned by the leader of Vapaudenristi, also produced an album by Brethren in 2005.

What all of the leader’s projects seem to have in common is an anti-liberal attitude: liberals are seen as corrupt and weak. In Vapaudenristi, however, the approach is somewhat different: nihilist ideas, perversions and sexual transgression are left aside, as well as the dark visions of torture of the leader’s black metal projects. The music itself is also less experimental. In Vapaudenristi, the elements that disturb the order and are thus commonly rejected—the ‘abjects’, which are often present in extreme music embracing the totality of human experience[48]—are displaced on to the figures of the loathed Other, the masses and the Jews. The message is adapted to the expectations of the far-right audience, with references to classic themes in far-right music. Thus, in some respects, as surprising as it may sound, Vapaudenristi is more conservative than the leader’s other projects, looking towards Tradition instead of transgression. The transgressive metal subculture often stresses radical individualism, which may be at odds with Traditionalism. However, this depends on how one defines individuality and freedom, as the leader of Vapaudenristi explained when discussing his black metal project Clandestine Blaze:

Servitude does not necessarily equal slavery; it could even be perceived as freedom. Mantling the role of a man against time, he who steps beyond and stands against the rigid moral framework of contemporary society, might be destined for failure but is at least bound to serve a higher cause.[49]

If we consider his projects as a whole, then we are dealing here with sub-projects that are compartmentalized. In other words, the elements are not all present simultaneously, but are used according to each genre, and the forms of transgression also differ from one project to another.

In its latest album, Tranquility of Death (2018), the general message of Clandestine Blaze is anti-Christian, celebrating pain and struggle and despising weak and corrupt men. Some have seen elements of NSBM in Clandestine Blaze, which is a point the band leader does not entirely reject.[50] Similar themes are also present in Vapaudenristi but they are presented in a more abstract or personal form without an explicit political enemy or target, whereas in Clandestine Blaze the target is mostly organized religion and humanism. Personal awakening and discarding bonds and boundaries that limit existence are at the centre of the lyrics. If we consider fascist or farright ideology to be concerned with borders, order and hierarchy, this project of individual, personal liberation through chaos is quite far from it:

However, as I will argue later, this personal liberation from the boundaries of the modern world is only a first step towards something not yet defined, part of a warrior attitude, that may not need any external cause. Nihilism and life as a struggle come together in RAC lyrics as a more comprehensive heroic world-view, but they are also alluded to in the black metal project, as in 2006, for example:

Vapaudenristi’s first album in 2012, Ei maata ilman kansaa (No Land without a People), is mostly concerned with themes well known from RAC music. Immigration, loss of national glory, ‘new dawn’, street fights and other such topics fill the lyrics of the album’s tracks. Some of the topics refer more generally to corrupt politics and, occasionally, there are even references to some current sociopolitical issues. Only a handful of tracks go beyond these mundane issues and refer to the mythological or traditional roots of European man. The second album, Ikuinen kuolema (Eternal Death), takes a somewhat different direction, as I will discuss below.

Even though it is possible to consider Vapaudenristi as part of a larger artistic project of breaking taboos, a form of transgression, the band is also committed to promoting far-right ideology in practice. Unlike some of the leader’s other projects that have never involved performances in front of live audiences, Vapaudenristi is probably one of the most actively performing bands of the Finnish RAC scene. However, the leader of the band has apparently not otherwise participated in far-right events, such as demonstrations. In a way, this emphasizes the ‘apolitical’ nature of his larger artistic project and thus distinguishes the band from Finnish RAC bands in general.[53]

Reading the revolution

In order to conduct a closer analysis of the tropes and topics in far-right rhetoric in Finland, in what follows I will explore the lyrics of the latest Vapaudenristi album in more detail and compare them to the texts of two recent Finnish releases, one by the RAC band Genocide Wolves, and one by the power electronics band Straight Arm Salute, both of which explicitly associate with the National Socialist NRM.[54] In the case of Vapaudenristi’s lyrics, I will also trace their connections to the thinking of Julius Evola, who, as already mentioned, has been an inspiration for several Finnish farright bands. Evola’s work was practically unknown in Finland before the establishment of the Traditionalist and nationalist web journal Sarastus in 2012. Since then, his ideas have gained popularity among the far right, trending especially during the past two or three years, with the recent appearance of the first book-length translations.

Vapaudenristi’s second album was entitled Ikuinen kuolema (Eternal Death), and recorded in the summer of 2015. Straight Arm Salute’s record Pelkkää vihaa (Pure Hatred) was released in 2016,[55] and Genocide Wolves’s album No Fucking Tolerance! in 2018.[56] Probably for an international audience, Vapaudenristi’s album has included the lyrics in English, and I will use their own translations here.

As the title of the album suggests, Vapaudenristi’s themes are to some extent philosophical, reaching towards eternity rather than the mundane, even though the perspective is of one who is a pagan who has rejected the community of believers. Track 8, entitled ‘Tunne ja toiminta (‘Emotion and Action’), exemplifies the basic martial and spiritual attitude of the album:

In the spirit of what is perhaps typical of RAC, the song stresses warrior ideals, battle and throwing oneself into combat. But, unlike what is also typical of RAC, the call for action lacks any opponent, and the song moves on a more general, abstract level. The battle is internalized, and it is the enlightened elite only who may answer the call. One may, however, also read the lyrics as a description of transgression: what is of utmost importance is not the cause but rather the frenzy of the battle itself, which will act as a transformative and transgressive moment for those taking part. Certain cultural and legal restraints are abandoned, and the man is no longer the same as before the battle. In skinhead life stories, too, the first battle is often described as a transformative event.[57] For Vapaudenristi, this moment seems to differentiate the pacifist Nietzschean ‘last man’, referred to in the song ‘Liekkimeri’ (‘Sea of Flames’), from those ready for battle.

Throughout the whole album, there are only a few and often veiled references to actual enemies, and the temporal aspect in the lyrics is eternity. Only in the ninth track, ‘Vanhan maaliman demonit’ (‘Demons of the Old World’), are the enemies more explicitly named as ‘bankers and hooknosed plutocrats’ and ‘humanists’, but even here the emphasis is on the eternal battle and eternal values. As in the earlier albums, which otherwise represent more traditional RAC, the sources of philosophical inspiration are also not directly named, but only alluded to.[58]

The idea of crisis, the ‘cleansing power of conflict’, is met with enthusiasm, as in track 5 of the album, ‘Hiipuva loiste’ (‘Fading Radiance’):

Ultimate rising strength cleansing power of conflict . . . Like tidal wave we reach the targets who have driven us to this misery

Crisis is personalized in the metaphoric ‘god of war’, who will awaken the creative, immanent forces of ‘Mother Europe’. Whereas more moderate nationalists may speak metonymically of an invasion or refugee flood in terms of fighting back or turning the tide by political means, and as something one may and should avoid, here the Armageddon is seen as inevitable and welcome. In contrast to a more conservative mindset, crisis is not something one needs to avoid in order to return to the previous order; rather, it is regarded as a creative and positive element, as the first stage of a coming revolution. In Georges Bataille’s words: ‘Transgression is to make order out of what is essentially chaos.’[59] Unlike in the visions of Bataille or Evola, however, the ‘new order’ here may not be a permanent position, as the focus is on overcoming the equalizing tendencies of the current society, awakening the warrior spirit and stressing the importance of struggle as constitutive of politics and society as a whole.

Identitarian ideologue Guillaume Faye has claimed that ‘crisis is the motor of history’, a turning point or caesura, a ‘chaos’ that will ‘overthrow established mentalities’ and bring forth a new order, ‘post-chaos’.[60] Similar ideas of struggle and transgression as forces of history appear in Vapaudenristi’s lyrics, although, there, time is even more condensed, a permanent now. It is the metaphor of battle that dominates the language, and sequentiality— the before or after—seems to be only of secondary importance. Even the more traditional RAC lyrics written by Vapaudenristi exemplify this point: the sixth track called ‘Ilta ulkona’ (‘Night in the City’), a story about skinhead lads spending the night out, is more about having fun in battle than bringing about actual change or moving forward, even though the lads are waiting for some sign that would give ‘substance’to their actions, that would make them transgress beyond an ‘ordinary’ street brawl:

The tropes of blood and spirit express the idea that the battle is its own immanent purpose and the eternal destiny of mankind, as well as being its nature and fate. The album may thus be viewed as a call to battle for the sake of transgression, regardless of the external cause. Semiotically speaking, the ‘battle’ therefore constitutes an empty signifier, being its own purpose and cause, and even a hidden or shifting signified is unnecessary: the battle is an empty centre around which everything else revolves.

Vapaudenristi uses the metaphor of purification to refer to violence, and marching acts as a metonym. Battle may act as both metaphor and metonym for violence. Internal ‘cleansing’ and external expansion are the axes on which the lyrics move. The battle is waged at the European level, and references to Finnish politics are rare. For Vapaudenristi, the concept of Europe is a spiritual and biological entity rather than a territorial one; the vertical metaphor of ‘roots’, understood here in both a biological and a spiritual sense, defines the concept, not borders.[61] Blood is the key biological trope, uniting the ‘old world’ in a battle of survival for the ‘creative race’. The preference is thus for the metaphorical, syntagmatic axis, and metonymical sequentiality is of subordinate relevance. The emphasis is on associative or mythical elements, eternal values, rather than on actual political or historical change.[62]

The lyrics do not explicitly refer to any ideology beyond nationalism, even though, since they stress action and emotion, they could be seen as a prime example of fascism. Just to mention one modern definition, Robert Paxton identifies in fascism an ‘obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood and . . . compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity’ that pursue ‘with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion’.[63] With an emphasis on warrior ethics, a cult of death and eternal values and traditions, the fascism in Vapaudenristi can be associated with one strand of Julius Evola’s ideas, representing an anti-bourgeois, anti-humanist and antidemocratic ‘warrior view of life’.[64]

However, Evola’s thinking goes beyond the ideology of post-war or even pre-war fascisms: his Traditionalism emphasizes transcendental and spiritual elements, and he condemned fascism as too nihilistic and materialistic.[65] To some extent, one can also detect these ideas in Vapaudenristi, while influences of Aryan paganism, immanent ideas and myths of blood and soil are present as well.[66] The almost total absence of racial concepts in Vapaudenristi also emphasizes this point; their references are rather to the ‘alliance of spirit and blood’.[67] The only explicit reference to race in the album, the phrase ‘creative race’ in its title song, also has an element of spiritual awakening:

For Evola, war is ‘pursued as a value in its own right, irrespective of its outcome in victory or defeat, as that sacred path to spiritual fulfillment’.[68] In a similar style, Vapaudenristi’s singer emphasizes ‘destruction [as] . . . a creative force’, adding that ‘one should accept and celebrate the struggle as a driving force behind all of existence’.[69] However, instead of transcendence, he claims to advocate transgression, an idea that may also be found in the esoteric writings of Evola, and in some strands of fascist thought.[70] Transgression itself is, of course, also context-dependent: focusing on ideas that transcend historical time may be seen as a transgression against current norms. For Vapaudenristi, however, testing and crossing the limits seem more important than any eternal idea behind the process, at least according to the statement given above. It is therefore not surprising to hear that the band finds the mundane ‘German’ approach more interesting than the spiritual ‘Italian’ branch of the movement.[71]

As in Evola, there is nevertheless a certain romantic tendency in the lyrics of Vapaudenristi. Considering how stylistic elements connect with ideology, Hayden White has assumed a homology according to which the metaphorical is connected to the Romantic style and anarchism, but also to fascist ideology. The mode of historical representation produced by such a form of writing is formalistic and typological, suggesting a succession of historical forms. As in White’s analysis of Michelet, however, history does not proceed as a metonymical sequence, but in a revolutionary manner, when time is condensed in a cataclysmic moment.[72]

In Vapaudenristi’s lyrics, ‘the fallen comrades’are described in sacral terms as a ‘blood sacrifice’ or as ‘fallen brothers’ of ‘reborn faith’. Moreover, using the figures of ‘demons of the old world’ and ‘beasts of Wotan’ makes it clear that the forces of violence are ancient but also immanent, rising from ‘archaic memory’ and waiting to be ignited by the ‘torchbearers of rising new era’. What is also noteworthy here is that the pagan deities—‘Titans’, ‘god of war’ and ‘Wotan’—are set against the ‘Gods of the desert’, perhaps echoing a growing interest in paganism within the Finnish far-right scene.[73]

Personified deities are not present by accident. The lyrics present a vision in which hierarchies are needed in order to maintain or regain creativity and true personalities. In ‘Vanhan maaliman demonit’ (‘Demons of the Old World’) a vision of a creative elite class of warriors is contrasted with horizontal equality represented by the anonymous masses created by the levelling ‘global monoculture’:

I hear the voice of decay form the mouths of equalized masses . . . Grouphug is getting tighter even if everybody is suffocating

Considering the lyrics of Vapaudenristi from a political perspective, and also keeping in mind Evola’s ‘apoliteia’, the lyrics do not support the idea of an alleged political turn in Finnish RAC, at least if politics is regarded in a limited sense as a discursive struggle for the change or conservation of current societal conditions by means of coalition-building and compromise.[74] It is possible to read the goals of Vapaudenristi as metapolitical, even though a certain fatalism and fundamentalism undermines even this reading. If, however, we take the political turn to mean a stronger ideological position and even fundamentalism, the difference between Vapaudenristi and oldschool RAC bands is remarkable.

Straight Arm Salute (SAS), a pioneer of Finnish power electronics, is to some extent more political in its message.[75] In its album Pelkkää vihaa (Pure Hatred), the enemies are named quite explicitly—most often they are Jews, who are also depicted on the album’s cover alongside Hitler—and the focus is, at least superficially, on current issues. In all songs, the lyrics are shouted over a wall of noise, which creates an aggressive impression without any breathing space. The refugee crisis is mentioned in the lyrics, as in the opening track ‘Neekerin paikka ei ole Suomessa’ (‘Finland is not a place for niggers’). The battle itself also has a cause or a goal:

The Pelkkää vihaa album is probably the most political of SAS’s records. Openly National Socialist lyrics have been an essential element in its other albums as well but they have also stressed eternal elements and the warrior spirit in general. This album starts with a speech by Pekka Siitoin, a legendary Finnish neo-Nazi who was active in the 1970s. Here, too, current events and politics are associated with more permanent values and ideas of the ‘Aryan race’, and the album ‘salutes the new dawn’ for ‘our proud race’. In itself, the album balances between the metaphorical and the metonymical and is thus revealing in its basic emphasis and attitude. Antisemitism is omnipresent in the SAS album and, in an interview, the artist mentioned David Duke’s Jewish Supremacism as his main source of inspiration, while also referring to Evola and the Finnish deep ecologist Pentti Linkola.[76]

Evidently, the album was written in the wake of the refugee crisis of 2015–16. The lyrics point to rape, racial mixing and white genocide as elements of the turmoil caused by the crisis. The album sleeve also depicts anti-refugee demonstrations, among other matters. But antisemitism is present too: ‘white genocide’ is a product of the ‘Jewish masterplan’. Compared to Vapaudenristi, the SAS album depends more heavily on conspiracy theories. Its narrative is, in Hayden White’s words, causal and mechanistic, ‘searching for the causal laws that determine the outcomes of processes discovered in the historical field’.[77] According to White, causal and mechanistic argumentation corresponds to a tragic mode, and ideologically implies a radical attitude.

Even though White’s categorization implies a less revolutionary attitude in SAS, in one respect it goes further than Vapaudenristi. In Vapaudenristi’s lyrics, violence is figurative and metaphysical—spiritual—while in those of SAS, acts of violence are explicit and open, and the process is laid bare:

These lines are from a track entitled ‘Rotupetturien teloitus’ (‘Execution of Race Traitors’). Despite its explicitness, it also includes a sacral element, a purification in a spiritual sense. Biological and organic views also are present such as, for instance, when SAS refers to Jews as ‘rotting gangrene’ that needs to be ‘amputated’ or ‘struck to death’. As SAS emphasizes the processes, the dominant tropological axis is metonymic, although metaphors familiar from classic antisemitism are also present. Somewhat typically for new Aryan movements, SAS also combines elements of radical environmentalism into its texts, referring especially to the aforementioned Pentti Linkola, a Finnish deep ecologist who some subculture members see as an advocate of fascism.[78]

The lyrics of the Finnish RAC band Genocide Wolves are even more explicitly political and make clearer references to current events. Genocide Wolves published its first album, entitled No Fucking Tolerance!, in 2018. Among its members, the band includes NRM activists, and it also thanks the NRM on the album sleeve. National Socialist ideology is made explicit by portraying Hitler and swastikas, as well as in song names such as ‘National Socialist Working Man’ and ‘Puolesta Führerin’ (‘For the Führer’).

The band comments on recent phenomena, such as the refugee crisis, in almost every track. Mythological aspects are few and far between. The style of the band and its lyrics very much represent old-school RAC in that they are filled with typical clichés and slogans, such as ‘Good Night Antifa Scum’, ‘14 Words’ and ‘Hail the New Dawn’. Racism is also often expressed in typically vulgar style. In the songs, Europe is on the brink of a racial war and the ‘hordes’ need to be forced back. The ultimate enemies are the liberals and multiculturalists and, of course, Jews are the puppet masters behind all negative development. The Holocaust is also part of the message: the lyrics claim that it is a hoax, but also that ‘the only hope for a white man is to make the false legend become true’. As well as ‘14 Words’, The Turner Diaries are also alluded to, for example, in the line ‘the day of the rope awaits the race traitors’ on the track ‘Patriootti’ (‘Patriot’). Connecting the band’s current war against invasion to Finnish history, one track is about SS men fighting against the Red Army.

Relying on conspiracy theories and ‘hidden truths’, Genocide Wolves follows a causal mode of narrative. It reduces mythological elements to random phrases such as ‘proud Aryan man’ and ‘glory days of the Aryan race’, and references to ‘blood and purity’. The metaphorical layers are thin, and ‘Aryan myths’do not overcome the basic sequential argumentation.

Both Genocide Wolves and Straight Arm Salute thus emphasize the process aspects more than Vapaudenristi, and they are also more open in their commitment to National Socialist ideology. However, in their lyrics, one may also find allusions and direct references to mythical elements that were mostly lacking in the previous generation of Finnish RAC music. To some extent, one may also say that the battle, the warrior way of life, is internalized, even though external references and impacts may be dominant. It is the ‘Aryan race’ that has to find its inner strength in order for the battle to be successful. What is also noteworthy is that they draw heavily on AngloAmerican iconography and iconic revolutionary texts, such as The Turner Diaries and David Duke’s writings on Jewish supremacy.

Violence and transgression in Finnish RAC music

Since the early 2010s, the Finnish far-right music scene has grown remarkably and has also developed ideologically in a more radical direction. The lyrics I have analysed here show that its language may occasionally be brutal and violent. Considering the limited scope of the article, it is impossible to tell whether this is a sign of a general trend within the movement as a whole, and whether changing rhetoric indicates change in action as well. Nevertheless, when analysing the music scene, one can observe that the justifications for the use of violence have changed and broadened: instead of ‘everyday racism’ and alongside the rhetoric of invasion, more developed revolutionary visions may be found. The bands have also become ideologically more committed, openly expressing that, for them, music is mainly a tool for propagating their ideology, a form of activism.

The case analysis focusing on the lyrics of the Finnish RAC band Vapaudenristi showed that, ideologically, the field has matured, including a growing number of references to fundamental thinkers and ideas. Aryan myths and pagan ideas are also much more present in RAC than a few years ago. Traditional RAC themes are obviously present, but even the less philosophical bands tend to be more open about their commitments both in their lyrics and in their interviews. The presence of Julius Evola’s ideas in Finnish RAC is one example of a deeper ideological commitment, although, as was shown in the analysis of the tropes used, the interpretations tend to stay at a more organic and mundane level: the transcendental aspects are scarcely present. Where this leads is not necessarily the point. The struggle itself and the subsequent chaos produced by the transgressions are a creative force or, to use Guillaume Faye’s phrase, ‘the motor of history’. A quote by Mussolini used by Evola may be quite apt here: ‘In Fascism, the deed has preceded doctrine.’[79]

In the Finnish scene, one peculiarity has been the overlap between RAC and black metal, with band member exchanges and common gigs. It is still an open question whether this coming together also influences their ideology, even though some elements of change may be seen in this analysis. In any case, on the basis of violence research, this is a cause for some concern: older RAC music was closely connected with the skinhead movement, and to some extent still is, which has brought with it a certain cult of violence. The form of violence it represents is often viewed as expressive, in contrast to more strategically oriented, ideology-based instrumental violence.[80] In the mythological vision of Vapaudenristi, the internalized struggle combines these instrumental and expressive aspects together into a spiritual unity: a violent struggle is not only a tool for transgression and transformation, but also a goal in itself.

Vapaudenristi takes the connections between genres even further, since its roots are in noise and grindcore, among other sources. In a recent interview, the band leader was asked about the similarities between Vapaudenristi and his other projects, and possible incompatibilities between them, to which he replied:

I think [the] connection should be obvious? [The] same themes have been used multiple times in different projects. Sometimes [the] language or aesthetics it utilizes, is different—yet the core idea is the same. If moralistic [sic] or conservatives disapprove [of the] revolutionary, esoteric or ascending dark side of human character—this is something one can expect.[81]

Vapaudenristi thus argues that, even if aesthetic forms and aesthetic strategies differ, all projects have the same content and themes, and should also be analysed as such, at least to some extent. Transgression and crossing the boundaries of the commodity culture and liberal order are arguably the key to the whole project. These are indeed general commonalities, even though in a way RAC may seem more conventional and conservative. In Vapaudenristi, transgression may also be interpreted as an intention to break the boundaries of what is politically accepted. The rhetoric of violence, too, may be seen as a transgressive element, and some groups have also put this rhetoric into action. Unlike the radical individualism typically connected with black metal, the visions in RAC aim at collective action. Reading Vapaudenristi’s lyrics and metaphorical language, it is, however, also apparent that the project leads to remythologizing and re-essentializing boundaries, order and hierarchy: a project that will not progress without the use of violence. The use of violence and struggle is an essential part of being transformed into a warrior and of finding one’s own racial instinct.

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Tommi Kotonen is a political scientist at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland, and Research Coordinator for the Academy of Finland project ‘Crises Redefined: Historical Continuity and Societal Change’. His research interests include political language, politics and the arts, politics of crises, far-right networks and subcultures, and white power music. His publications include work on radical nationalist symbols and fashion, political violence, Swedish-speaking Finns and right-wing extremism in Finland, and Finnish radical nationalism in the 1990s. His latest monograph, Politiikan juoksuhaudat (2018), analysed the development of right-wing extremism in Finland during the Cold War. Email: tommi.kotonen@jyu.fi http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2348-2519

[1] The person behind all these projects is well known to those following the scene. However, as he has not identified himself in the recordings, I leave his name unmentioned here. Another reason for this is that this article focuses on his artistic career, not on his person.

[2] One may note here that some of his projects, such as pornogrind music, would no doubt qualify as Entartete Kunst for many of his far-right followers. Pornogrind belongs to the broader genre of grindcore, which, in its extreme realism, may also be interpreted as a force opposing commodity culture. See Liam Dee, ‘The brutal truth: grindcore as the extreme realism of heavy metal’, in Gerd Bayer (ed.), Heavy Metal Music in Britain (Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate 2009), 53–70.

[3] On the importance of Evola’s ideas to modern far-right ‘white noise’ music, see especially Anton Shekhovtsov, ‘Apoliteic music: Neo-Folk, Martial Industrial and “metapolitical fascism”’, Patterns of Prejudice, vol. 43, no. 5, 2009, 431–57. As Shekhovtsov points out, however, Evola would probably have abhorred the musical styles that he influenced. Although the analysis by Shekhovtsov focuses on Neo-Folk and Martial Industrial, not on RAC, it is also a useful study from the perspective of genre crossing. There are elements of Martial Industrial in some projects by the leader of Vapaudenristi, and the thematic connection is obvious in Vapaudenristi itself.

[4] Author’s email correspondence with Vapaudenristi, 15 January 2020. See also the Facebook post by the band leader, ‘Ebola vai Evola?’, 18 August 2014, available online at www.facebook.com/sarvilevyt.kauppa/posts/ebola-vai-evolanyt-kun-maailman-median-kouristelee-ebola-uutisten-kanssa-sarvi-v/749976411726850 (viewed 30 September 2020).

[5] See, for example, Rami Leskinen, ‘Julius Evola—radikaali traditionalisti’, Sarastus (online), 14 May 2013, available at https://sarastuslehti.com/2013/05/14/julius-evolan-radikaali-traditionalisti (viewed 30 September 2020).

[6] Review of Vapaudenristi’s album Ikuinen kuolema (Sakaramiina 2016), formerly available on the Veriyhteys website at http://veriyhteys.com/vapaudenristi-ikuinen-kuolema-sakaramiina-2016 (last viewed 25 February 2020).

[7] Elisabetta Cassina Wolff, ‘Evola’s interpretation of fascism and moral responsibility’, Patterns of Prejudice, vol. 50, no. 4–5, 2016, 478–94.

[8] John M. Cotter, ‘Sounds of hate: white power rock and roll and the neo-nazi skinhead subculture’, Terrorism and Political Violence, vol. 11, no. 2, 1999, 111–40.

[9] Benjamin R. Teitelbaum, Lions of the North: Sounds of the New Nordic Radical Nationalism (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press 2017), 18.

[10] ‘Ideological’ refers here and below to more explicit revolutionary content in contrast with solely emotional and attitude-based expressions. Skinhead groups have typically been seen as less ideological, which shows also in their attitude towards violence: acts of violence are perpetrated as expressive acts, and do not necessarily carry any political or broader message. See Tore Björgo, Racist and Right-Wing Violence in Scandinavia: Patterns, Perpetrators, and Responses (Oslo: Tano Aschehoug 1997).

[11] Author’s email correspondence with Vapaudenristi, 15 January 2020.

[12] Aila Mustamo, ‘Yö, metsä, aika ennen kristinuskoa’: kotimaan ja kansakunnan representaatiot blackmetalissa ja folk metalissa Suomessa ja Norjassa (Oulu: Oulun yliopisto 2016).

[13] See, for example, Ryan Shaffer, Music, Youth and International Links in Post-War British Fascism: The Transformation of Extremism (London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan 2017); John E. Richardson, ‘Recontextualization and fascist music’, in Lyndon C. S. Way and Simon McKerrell (eds), Music as Multimodal Discourse: Semiotics, Power and Protest (London: Bloomsbury Academic 2017), 71–94; Matthew Worley and Nigel Copsey, ‘White youth: the far right, punk and British youth culture, 1977– 87’, in Nigel Copsey and Matthew Worley (eds), ‘Tomorrow Belongs to Us’: The British Far Right since 1967 (London and New York: Routledge 2018), 113–31; Ana Raposo and Roger Sabin, ‘New visual identities for British neo-fascist rock (1982–1987): white noise, “Vikings” and the cult of Skrewdriver’, in Copsey and Worley (eds), ‘Tomorrow Belongs to Us’, 132–49; and Robert Futrell, Pete Simi and Simon Gottschalk, ‘Understanding music in movements: the white power music scene’, Sociological Quarterly, vol. 47, no. 2, 2006, 275–304. For thematic analyses of RAC lyrics, however, see, for example, several articles in Christian Dornbusch and Jan Raabe (eds), RechtsRock: Bestandsaufnahme und Gegenstrategien (Hamburg and Münster: Unrast Verlag 2002); and Heléne Lööw, ‘White noise music: an international affair’, paper presented at the First World Conference on Music and Censorship, Copenhagen 1998, available on the Freemuse website at https://freemuse.org/graphics/Publications/PDF/Whitenoisemusic.pdf (viewed 30 September 2020).

[14] Cf. Ruth Wodak, The Politics of Fear: What Right-Wing Populist Discourses Mean (London: Sage 2015).

[15] Cf., for example, Dee, ‘The brutal truth’; and Michelle Phillipov, ‘Extreme music for extreme people? Norwegian black metal and transcendent violence’, Popular Music History, vol. 6, no. 1–2, 2011, 150–63.

[16] The most notable acts of political violence include the 2013 library stabbing in Jyväskylä and an aggravated assault at Helsinki railway station in 2016. In these cases, several of the convicted persons were members of RAC bands and most of them also belonged to the Nordic Resistance Movement (NRM). These acts were also one of the reasons why the NRM itself was later banned in Finland.

[17] Roman Jakobson, ‘The metaphoric and metonymic poles’, in Roman Jakobson and Moris Halle, Fundamentals of Language (The Hague: Mouton 1956), 76–82. The idea of ‘poles of language’ was further developed, for example, by Roland Barthes whose analysis I follow here; see especially his 1964 essay on ‘The two axes of language’, in Roland Barthes, Elements of Semiology, trans. from the French by Annette Lavers and Colin Smith (New York: Hill & Wang 1999), 58–62.

[18] Kenneth Burke, ‘Four master tropes’, Kenyon Review, vol. 3, no. 4, 1941, 421–38; Hayden White, Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth Century Europe (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press 1973).

[19] On binary classification (including the fact that the division between the two forms is not always clearly defined), see, for example, Pamela J. Taylor (ed.), Violence in Society (London: Royal College of Physicians 1993).

[20] On the origins and cultural history of the RAC movement, see Robert Forbes and Eddie Stampton, The White Nationalist Skinhead Movement: UK & USA, 1979–1993 (Port Townsend, WA: Feral House 2015); Shaffer, Music, Youth and International Links in Post-War British Fascism; and Searchlight, AntifaschistischesInfoblatt and Enough Is Enough (eds), White Noise: Rechts-Rock, Skinhead-Musik, Blood & Honour—Einblicke in die internationale Neonazi-Musik-Szene (Hamburg: Unrast Verlag 2001).

[21] ‘Suomessa esiintyneet ulkomaiset RAC yhtyeet’, 6 July 2017, formerly available on the Veriyhteys website at http://veriyhteys.tumblr.com/post/162660690345/suomessa-esiintyneet-ulkomaalaiset-rac-yhtyeet (last viewed 25 February 2019).

[22] ‘Blood & Honour divisions’, Blood & Honour Magazine, July 1996.

[23] ‘Tampere ja Helsinki 21.3.–22.3.2003’, archived version (originally on the Blood & Honour Finland website) now available at https://web.archive.org/web/20080604203940/http://www.bhsuomifinland.net:80/artikkelit/keikkatrehki.html (viewed 1 October 2020).

[24] Tommi Kotonen, ‘Äärioikeisto Suomessa kylmän sodan päättyessä—Kansallinen radikaalipuolue ja angloamerikkalaiset vaikutteet’, Historiallinen aikakauskirja, vol. 115, no. 3, 2017, 317–31; Väinö Kuisma, ‘Puheenjohtaja Kuisman legendaarinen linja-puhe IO:n 1996 syyskuun puoluekokouksessa’, archived version (originally on the Kansallinen Rintama website) now available at http://web.archive.org/web/20030406112848*/http://www.netti.fi/∼iory/linjapuhe.htm (viewed 1 October 2020).

[25] Heléne Lööw, Nazismen I Sverige 2000–2014 (Stockholm: Ordfront 2015), 122. Lööw refers to a growing number of concerts. However, Benjamin Teitelbaum, in Lions of the North, claims that in general the nationalist scene has turned away from music as it has been seen as politically impotent. This is not necessarily a contradiction, as the fundamental part of the movement does not view politics in its traditional sense as very important.

[26] Dan Koivulaakso, Mikael Brunila and Li Andersson, Äärioikeisto Suomessa (Helsinki: Into 2012).

[27] ‘Suomalaiset WP-bändit’, Blood & Honour Finland, no. 1, 2005, 15–17, available on the Valkoinen Kapinahenki (White Rebels Finland) website at http://whiterebelsfinland.blogspot.com/2010/03/b-suomi-fighters.html (viewed 21 October 2020). This decline was also apparent in that of Blood & Honour Finland itself, which published only a handful of issues in 2005–6 before disappearing from the market.

[28] ‘Suomalaiset WP-bändit’ (blog), 1 March 2010, available on the Valkoinen Kapinahenki website at http://whiterebelsfinland.blogspot.com/2010/03/suomalaiset-wp-bandit.html (viewed 1 October 2020).

[29] John Murdoch and Rami Leskinen, ‘The sons of Finland keep the spirit of 1939 alive: an interview with Pena of EndUpDead’, trans. from the Finnish by Rami Leskinen, Resistance, no. 12, summer 2000, 48–9 (49), available on the Valkoinen Kapinahenki website at http://whiterebelsfinland.blogspot.com/2010/03/interview-with-pena-of-endupdead.html (viewed 21 October 2020). Cf. an interview with Sniper, ‘Haastattelussa Sniper’, in Miekan Päivä, no. 2, 2002, 28–9, available on the Valkoinen Kapinahenki website at http://whiterebelsfinland.blogspot.com/2010/03/haastattelussa-sniper.html (viewed 21 October 2020); and Henrik Holappa, Minä perustin uusnatsijärjestön: Suomen Vastarintaliikkeen ex-johtajan muistelmat (Helsinki: Into 2016), 17–41.

[30] See Daniel Sallamaa, Ulkoparlamentaarinen äärioikeistoliikehdintä ja maahanmuuttovastaisuus 2010-luvun Suomessa, Publications of the Faculty of Social Sciences 97 (Helsinki: University of Helsinki 2018).

[31] Themes drawn from Evola and Devi can be seen, for example, in the track ‘Kali Yugan lapset’ (‘Children of Kali Yuga’) by the band Pagan Skull, and the album Teachings in Traditionalism (Europa Erwache 2018) by SAS. There has also been a far-right noisecore band Kali Yuga Noise, which published its first album in 2016. The Neo-Folk band Musta Enemmistö also leans heavily on Evola in its first album Apoliteia (Europa Erwache 2017). Some NRM members have been interested in Evola, as demonstrated, for example, in the now defunct blog by their member Routahauta (routahauta.blogspot.com).

[32] Interview with Mistreat, Ukonvasama, no. 15, 2018.

[33] ‘Veriyhteys sai käsiinsä Vapaudenristin haastattelun’, original interview (removed from its original site at http://veriyhteys.tumblr.com) posted 11 August 2016 on the Russian social media site https://vk.com/wall-113320280_37 (viewed 21 October 2020). Translations from the Finnish, unless otherwise stated, are by the author.

[34] Interview with Genocide Wolves, Swastikas Rising, no. 1, 2018, 16. These RAC bands also have close personal ties to the National Socialist NRM, as several of the musicians are either active or supporting members of the organization.

[35] Interview with Valkoiset Paholaiset, Swastikas Rising, no. 1, 2018, 18.

[36] See, for example, Tero Ikäheimonen, Pirunkehto: Suomalaisen black metallin tarina (Turku: Svart Publishing 2016), 424. Some critics argue that NSBM has nothing to do with the original black metal, with the latter promoting a spiritual revolution instead of a political one. On political aspects of black metal, see also Aila Mustamo, ‘Black ja folk metal—kulttuurit kapinoivat ja uusintavat perinteitä: Aila Mustamon lectio praecursoria Oulun yliopistossa 23.4.201’, Elore (online), vol. 23, no. 2, 2016, available at https://journal.fi/elore/article/view/79261 (viewed 1 October 2020).

[37] Interview with Pagan Skull, 5 July 2015, formerly available on the Midgård Magazine website at http://midgaard.blogg.se/2015/july/intervju-med-pagan-skull.html (last viewed 25 February 2019).

[38] ‘Älä haaskaa aikaa, haaskaa ZOG’, archived version (originally on the Kansallissosialismi website) now available at http://web.archive.org/web/20090106171732/http://www.kansallissosialismi.org/haaskaa.php (viewed 1 October 2020). Cf. Teitelbaum, Lions of the North, 146. Swedish reformist nationalists no longer see music as an important political tool, but rather as a deviation. Arguably, this has happened in Finland too, as music does not seem to play an important or almost any role in the more moderate nationalist movements, such as Suomen Sisu. Tellingly, a history of the Finnish anti-immigration movement, focusing on Suomen Sisu and written by an insider, does not even mention music: see Milla Hannula, Maassa maan tavalla: Maahanmuuttokritiikin lyhyt historia (Helsinki: Otava 2011).

[39] On Ukonvasama, see Tommi Kotonen, ‘Nostalgia, community and resistance: counter-cultural politics in a Finnish skinzine’, Journal of European Popular Culture, vol. 10, no. 2, 2019, 127–43.

[40] Interview with Straight Arm Salute, Ukonvasama, no. 14, 2017, 11.

[41] Among the most notable of such events are the Apocalyptic Rites festivals, which presents a mix of RAC, NSBM and Neo-Folk bands, and the Independence Day concerts, which are intended for a broader nationalist audience, although the line-up includes also openly National Socialist RAC groups alongside Neo-Folk bands.

[42] For example, the RAC band Vapaudenristi usually performs with Neo-Folk troubadour Pyhä Kuolema on bass; the Neo-Folk band Stormheit’s singer also plays with the NSBM band Goatmoon; and the singer of Vapaudenristi is also known, among other things, as a black metal (Clandestine Blaze) and industrial (Grunt) artist.

[43] Jarno Alander, ‘Mikko Aspan haastattelu’, 28 October 2015, available on the Sarastus website at https://sarastuslehti.com/2015/10/28/mikko-aspan-haastattelu 25 (viewed 2 October 2020); interview with Vapaudenristi in Chthonic Nexus, no. 1, 2018.

[44] ‘Noise’ refers here to a musical practice known for its use of sounds that are typically considered to be unmusical.

[45] For example, Nihilist Commando has used axes connected to loudspeakers in their live performances, thus producing music by swinging axes. The gigs of Vapaudenristi are more ordinary, even though mosh-pit dancing by the audience often adds an aggressive element.

[46] Alander, ‘Mikko Aspan haastattelu’. On fascist tendencies in noise music, see Shekhovtsov, ‘Apoliteic music’.

[47] Degenerate!, no. 5, July 2005. See Andrew Macdonald pseud. (i.e. Willliam Pierce), The Turner Diaries (Hillsboro, WV: National Vanguard 1978).

[48] On transgression and abjection in metal music, see especially Keith Kahn-Harris, Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge (Oxford: Berg 2007). A classic text on transgression from an anthropological perspective is Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul 1966).

[49] Niklas Göransson, ‘Clandestine Blaze/Northern Heritage’, 8 November 2018, available on the Bardo Methodology website at www.bardomethodology.com/articles/2018/11/08/clandestine-blaze-northern-heritage-interview-2 (viewed 2 October 2020). Some, for example Michel Foucault, have argued that transgression, even though aiming beyond boundaries, also confirms their existence.

[50] For Clandestine Blaze’s statements denying NSBM allegations, see Dayal Patterson, Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult (Port Townsend, WA: Feral House 2013), 371. In the early 1990s, the front man of Vapaudenristi was a committed anti-fascist playing at Antifa gigs. See an interview with Noise Waste, in Gore Lunatic, no. 4, 1993, 52–3.

[51] Clandestine Blaze, ‘Blood of the Enlightenment’, on Tranquility of Death (Lahti: Northern Heritage Records 2018), track 3.

[52] Clandestine Blaze, ‘Storm of purification’, on Church of Atrocity (Lahti: Northern Heritage Records 2006), track 3.

[53] This avoidance of open affiliations is apparently quite typical for ‘apoliteic’ far-right artists. See Shekhovtsov, ‘Apoliteic music’. Other Finnish RAC bands tend to be more transparent in this respect.

[54] Interview with Straight Arm Salute, Ukonvasama; interview with Genocide Wolves, Swastikas Rising.

[55] Straight Arm Salute, Pelkkää vihaa (Europa Erwache 2016).

[56] Genocide Wolves, No Fucking Tolerance! (Europa Erwache/Sakaramiina 2018).

[57] See Forbes and Stampton, The White Nationalist Skinhead Movement. On the most radical aspects of transgressive violence, cf. Dan Stone, ‘Genocide as transgression’, European Journal of Social Theory, vol. 7, no. 1, 2004, 45–65.

[58] For example, in their earlier album Ei maata ilman kansaa (No Land without a People), there is a song called ‘Mies aikaa vastaan’ (‘Man against Time’) that may be read as a reference to Savitri Devi. For Devi, the most important ‘man against time’ was Hitler, although Robert Jay Mathews, for example, has also been given the same epithet. The more recent album’s first track, ‘Wotanin Pedot’ (‘Beasts of Wotan’), might also be interpreted as referring to Hitler: according to Carl Jung, Hitler was an incarnation of Wotan.

[59] Quoted in Stone, ‘Genocide as transgression’. It is quite likely that Bataille was also a source of inspiration for Vapaudenristi.

[60] Guillaume Faye, Why We Fight: Manifesto of the European Resistance, trans. from the French by Michael O’Meara (London: Arktos Media 2011), 251, 91.

[61] On the importance of the myth of Europe for far-right music culture, see Shekhovtsov, ‘Apoliteic music’.

[62] For an interesting comparison, see the analysis of historical understanding in Ezra Pound’s The Cantos in Michael North, The Political Aesthetic of Yeats, Eliot, and Pound (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press 1991), 144–54.

[63] Robert O. Paxton, The Anatomy of Fascism (New York: Alfred A. Knopf 2004), 218.

[64] See, for example, Julius Evola, Men among the Ruins: Post-War Reflections of a Radical Traditionalist, trans. from the Italian by Guido Stucco (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions 2002), passim and 193–203.

[65] See also Evola’s critique of National Socialism, stating that ‘race is secondary, spirit and tradition the primary factor’: quoted in H. T. Hansen, ‘Julius Evola’s political endeavours’, in Evola, Men among the Ruins, 1–104 (65).

[66] On Aryan paganism, see Mattias Gardell, Gods of the Blood: The Pagan Revival and White Separatism (Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press 2003). Evola did not consider the immanent and transcendental to be competing ideas, but he criticized neo-paganism for its tendency to politicize the spiritual and to deify nature instead of understanding it symbolically.

[67] In the track ‘Tunne ja toiminta’ (‘Feeling and Action’). Accordingly, Vapaudenristi claims to reject banal racialism, and argues that biological viewpoints should be seen in a broader context. Cf. author’s email correspondence with Vapaudenristi, 15 February 2020.

[68] Julius Evola, Heathen Imperialism, trans. from the German by Rowan Berkeley (Kemper: Thompkins & Cariou 2007), 15.

[69] Göransson, ‘Clandestine Blaze/Northern Heritage’.

[70] On transgression in fascism, see, for example, Federico Finchelstein, Transatlantic Fascism: Ideology, Violence, and the Sacred in Argentina and Italy, 1919–1945 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press 2010), 171. Testing the boundaries of moral norms, and sometimes flirting with fascist aesthetics, is of course a broader popular culture phenomenon as well, seen in fashion, for example. See, for example, Riitta Hänninen and Tommi Kotonen, ‘“It’s not just another symbol”: constructing the meaning of Boy London’s eagle in a Finnish lifestyle blog’, in Francisco Martínez and Pille Runnel (eds), Hopeless Youth! (Tartu: National Museum of Estonia 2015), 377–402.

[71] Author’s email correspondence with Vapaudenristi, 15 February 2020.

[72] White, Metahistory, 135–62, on fascism and anarchism, see also 22–3n11. Revolution is also a romantic mode for Northrop Frye, and its archetypal theme is agon or conflict: Northrup Frye, Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays (Princeton, NJ and Oxford: Princeton University Press 2000), 192.

[73] No religion whatever was present in earlier Finnish RAC. Recently, other RAC bands such as Hate Oath have hailed Odin (Wotan), and the Soldiers of Odin, which originated in Finland, has a National Socialist as a founder. Some Finnish National Socialists have also joined Wotan Jugend, which has links to the international Pagan Front. On Wotan Jugend, see Miroslav Mareš, Martin Laryš and Jan Holzer, Militant Right-Wing Extremism in Putin’s Russia: Legacies, Forms and Threats (London and New York: Routledge 2019).

[74] On Evola and apoliteia, see especially Elisabetta Cassina Wolff, ‘Apolitìa and Tradition in Julius Evola as reaction to nihilism’, European Review, vol. 22, no. 2, 2014, 258–73.

[75] ‘Straight Arm Salute: teaching in Traditionalism’, 14 September 2018, formerly available on the Veriyhteys webpage at http://veriyhteys.com/straight-arm-salute-teaching-in-traditionalism (last viewed 25 February 2019).

[76] Interview with Straight Arm Salute, Ukonvasama. See David Duke, Jewish Supremacism: My Awakening on the Jewish Question (Mandeville, LA: Free Speech Press 2003).

[77] White, Metahistory, 17.

[78] Linkola’s texts have been published in English by the far-right Arktos Media. He is a popular figure, alongside the Unabomber and some eco-fascist and accelerationist groups. On the links between deep ecology and fascism, see, for example, Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, Hitler’s Priestess: Savitri Devi, the Hindu-Aryan Myth, and Neo-Nazism (New York and London: New York University Press 1998). On the links between contemporary fascist groups and ecological subcultures, see also Graham Macklin, ‘Co-opting the counter culture: Troy Southgate and the National Revolutionary Faction’, Patterns of Prejudice, vol. 39, no. 3, 2005, 301–26.

[79] Quoted in Julius Evola, Fascism Viewed from the Right, trans. from the Italian by E. Christian Kopff (London: Arktos Media 2013), 29.

[80] Wilhelm Heitmeyer, ‘Right-wing extremist violence’, in Wilhelm Heitmeyer and John Hagan (eds.), International Handbook of Violence Research (Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers 2003), 399–436 (413).

[81] Interview with Vapaudenristi in Chthonic Nexus.