13 barn owls in a trenchcoatSure. As I mentioned, most of their albums are explicitly "anti-religious" (note that Metatron identifies with pagan subculture but idk his personal beliefs), anti-Christian BM that narrates the dangers of extremism, and while they are overtly anti-racist and anti-fascist, I personally feel that they don't know the meaning of punching down. They fuck with islamophobic imagery, and have had guest vocals by Hoest from Taake.
Former bassist Richard Weeks (yeah, the Gaylord person) called out vocalist Metatron over islamophobia upon leaving, and while they (Richard is nonbinary) have their own issues and I don't really want to enter the orbit of the obvious underlying personal drama vortex here, it's another small weight on the scale of criticism.
Honestly, I would be a lot happier if Metatron would provide explanations and make a clear position statement as he has in his opposition to anti-semitism (see https://metalstorm.net/pub/interview.php?interview_id=724)
I don't hold the band's many, many collaborators responsible for Metatron's apparent islamophobia, but when it comes to The Meads of Asphodel and The Wolves of Avalon, personally, I will find other things to listen to until Metatron actually shows some standards about who he associates with and clarifies where he stands if he's going to claim to have egalitarian beliefs.
They're not NSBM or anything, but I'm just tired of unexamined prejudice, and if it feels that I'm holding the self-proclaimed anti-fascist, anti-nazi, anti-racist band to a higher standard than those who don't even bother expressing an opinion about these things...
Well, I probably am, because those positions come with an onus of responsibility.
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