Promoters have abruptly cancelled a planned tour of Australia by the Norwegian black metal band Taake, which has been accused of far-right and anti-Islamic sympathies.
In a brief statement posted on Facebook on Friday, the promoters Southern Extremeties said the tour had been cancelled “for reasons beyond our control”.
The original venue for the Sydney leg of the tour, University of Sydney’s Manning Bar, was the first to pull out of the shows following pushback from students in December.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup
The Southern Funeral tour was also due to take in Brisbane’s Woolly Mammoth, Melbourne’s Max Watts and a replacement venue in Sydney, Metro Social. Shortly before the cancellation of the tour, the scheduled venue in Adelaide, Enigma Bar, announced it would no longer be hosting the band.
The group was billed to be supported by the US-based band Akhlys, whose career has also been marred with allegations of associations with far-right ideology.
In 2018 Taake had to cancel their North American tour after an online campaign highlighting previous incidents, including a 2007 performance in the German city of Essen in which the lead singer, known as Hoest, appeared with a swastika painted on his chest.
Hoest denied he sympathised with nazism, but in a statement labelled the owner of the Essen venue an Untermensch (subhuman), a term deployed by the Nazis in relation to Jews, Slavs and others they considered non-Aryan.
Following the cancellation of the US tour Taake released a statement blaming “McCarthy witch hunts” and “illegal activities of Antifa and its supporters” for applying pressure on venues and promoters.
The statement said: “We have explained on many, many occasions, the history behind what caused the problems … but just for the sake of clarity Taake is not now, has never been, and never will be a Nazi band.”
The antifascist research group White Rose Society noted that Hoest had also performed on a song called Jew Killer by the band the Meads of Asphodel, on their album The Murder of Jesus the Jew. He has also been credited as guitarist on a song titled Sieg Hail Satan by a different band.
The song Orkan on Taake’s own 2011 album Noregs Vaapen (Norway’s Weapon), includes the lyrics “To hell with Muhammad and Muhammadans”. The album was nominated for a Norwegian Grammy in 2012.
In 2013, while performing in Scotland, Hoest donned an Iron Cross above a T-shirt displaying anti-Islamic imagery.
In 2020, the organisers of the Glasgow metal festival Darkness Guides Us opted to host the scheduled performance by Taake at a “secret location” in an attempt to quell any potential protest.
The frontman of Akhlys, Kyle Spanswick, performs under the name Naas Alcameth in a slew of black metal projects, including Nightbringer. He has been accused of promoting far-right views after posting photos on social media alongside others wearing Nazi paraphernalia, as well as discussing in depth his association with the ideology.
Akhlys’s and Taake’s representatives have been contacted for comment.
