A notoriously "anti-Islamic" band has been nominated for Norway's top metal prize. Taake are one of six nominees for a prestigious Spellemann award, despite a song that declares: "To hell with Muhammad and the Muhammadans!"
"Norway will soon awaken!" read the lyrics to Orkan (Hurricane), on Taake's album Noregs Vaapen. The Spellemanns are Norway's equivalent of the Brits or the Grammys, and Noregs Vaapen is nominated for best metal album. Elsewhere on Orkan, singer Ørjan Stedjeberg refers to Muslims' "unforgivable customs" and calls for a new "kingdom" to "shine through [the] bad years, shame and Christian times".
Despite complaints, Spellemann officials defended the band's nomination. "We enjoy full freedom of expression in Norway and [our] jury is not going to censor content in any way," chairman Marte Thorsb told Aftenposten. But the Norwegian Humanist Association argues the lyrics go too far. Norway is still shaken from last summer's "anti-multiculturalist" attacks by Anders Breivik, which left 69 people dead. "In the aftermath of July 22nd [Taake's lyrics] are completely over the edge," said Didrik Søderlind. "I'd imagine Taake aren't particularly proud of these lyrics after Utøya."
Despite lyrics damning Muslims, Taake "do not encourage either violence or racism", Stedjeberg said. "Our view is that it is shameful to adhere to Christianity or Islam." He also criticised the media for ignoring Taake's (relatively tame) lyrics about Christianity. "Taake has never been a political band," he said.
Stedjeberg's comments come less than four years after he painted a swastika on his chest for a Taake concert in Essen, Germany. In the outcry over that event, he again insisted Taake are "not a political Nazi band". "Our whole concept is built on provocation and anything evil- and death-related," he said.
The Spellemanns will be awarded on Saturday night.
#1
I used to think metal was cool, and I guess it was pretty cool back when it was new.
But now, the metalheads I meet are just total beta male losers. And the music sucks. For whatever reason, this music is incredibly popular in Scandinavia, probably because the men there have no outlet for their feelings.
#2
The rules are very different between the US and Europe. The critical thing is that this band is skirting the very fine line between leftist and rightist extremism, just enough to keep themselves from being prosecuted.
And the reason they are so popular is that, while rejecting Islam and foreigners, they also, to a lesser extent, sneer at Christianity, that in some of the Nordic countries is still technically the state religion.
So they can slam Islam to their hearts' content, despite it making the government cringe.
MADRID: French police acting alongside Spanish counterparts have arrested three men at a railway station in France on suspicion of belonging to Basque separatist group ETA, the Interior Ministry said Sunday.
One of those arrested in Joigny, 150 kilometers southeast of Paris, was identified as 33-year-old Jon Echeverria Oyarbide, for whom there is an international arrest warrant. Police said he was in possession of material used in the manufacture of explosives.
The others were identified as Ruben Rivero Campo, who is wanted for an election offense and Inigo Sancho Marco, who is not on a wanted list, the ministry said in a statement, adding the arrests took place Saturday afternoon.
The statement said officers had spotted Echeverria at Bercy railway station in Paris and tailed him covertly to Joigny, where an apparent rendezvous with the other men took place. The men were armed and police found a car with false license plates in the station car park in Joigny.
The arrests occurred a day after Spains Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez insisted that as long as ETA existed its members would be hunted down.
Spanish state broadcaster TVE said the three were being held at Auxerre police station awaiting transport to Paris.
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Posted by: Steve White ||
01/16/2012 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
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