Asgardsrei festival (Norwegian: 'The Ride of Asgard') is an annual
National Socialist black metal
National Socialist black metal, also known as NSBM, Aryan black metal, and Neo-Nazi black metal, is a political movement and subgenre within the black metal music scene that promotes neo-Nazism, Fascism, and white supremacist ideologies. NSBM ...
(NSBM) festival in Kyiv, Ukraine.
As a NSBM and
white power music
White power music is music that promotes white nationalism. It encompasses various music styles, including rock, country, experimental music and folk.Messner, Beth A., Art Jipson, Paul J. Becker and Bryan Byers. 2007. "The Hardest Hate: A Soc ...
festival, it is one of the most popular events for
far-right and
neo-Nazi extremists and a meeting ground for white supremacist networks and organizations across Europe and America. Several of the organizers and bands regularly playing at the club Bingo during Asgardsrei festival have been convicted of murders, assaults and other hate crimes, and belong to organizations classified as terrorist groups by several European courts.
It is named after the 1999 album by
Absurd with the same name, which was seen as influential to the National Socialist black metal scene. Such bands that are participating in the festival include
Absurd,
Peste Noire,
Goatmoon,
M8L8TH, and
Nokturnal Mortum
Nokturnal Mortum are a Ukrainian black metal band from Kharkiv. They were one of the founders of the Ukrainian black metal scene and pioneers in the early National Socialist black metal ("NSBM") scene.
The band has claimed to have moved away f ...
.
The festival is strongly connected to Alexey Levkin of М8Л8ТХ, and his "Militant Zone" label, who act as organizers and originally founded the festival in Moscow in 2012. Levkin and the Militant Zone are heavily involved in the
Ukrainian nationalist
Ukrainian nationalism refers to the promotion of the unity of Ukrainians as a people and it also refers to the promotion of the identity of Ukraine as a nation state. The nation building that arose as nationalism grew following the French Revol ...
,
Azov Battalion
The Special Operations Detachment "Azov" (), also known as the Azov Regiment ( uk, Полк «Азов», translit=Polk "Azov") and formerly the Azov Battalion ( uk, батальйон «Азов», translit=Batalion "Azov"), is a unit of the ...
.
References
Alt-right events
Black metal controversies
Neo-Nazism in Ukraine
Obscenity controversies in music
2010s in Europe
Music festivals in Ukraine
National Socialist black metal
Satanism and Nazism
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