Intro to Odin Rising (short video)

Odin Rising now available

Packing more than six years of intense research and writing, my first novel, Odin Rising, is now available to order on Amazon. 275 pages full of nihilistic hate and violent misanthropy, this book carries my literary DNA and stylistic matrix. I'm very proud of the final product. This book is to be enjoyed by true horror fans and lucid readers. This blasphemous work will be surpassed in extreme depravity and anti-human sentiment only by my next novel, This Town Must Burn.

Here is the description: "Tudor, Alex, and Edi are Romanian junior high school students in the 1990s when they discover extreme metal and begin to explore the destructive, Satanic ideology behind the music. This shared discovery cements their friendship by forming a unique bond as they delve into depravity. Occasionally aided by their psychopathic friend George, they urge each other to commit increasingly more vandalistic and blasphemous acts: animal cruelty, slashing of tires, smashing windows, and grave desecration. This pattern of anti-social behavior climaxes when the three teens randomly kill an innocent elderly man during an afternoon of alcohol-soaked violence. The murder brings to light an ideological gap between Tudor and Alex. In Alex’s mind, Satanism means total war and the triumph of the Luciferian, Aryan race. Comparatively, Tudor sees Satanism as bleak nihilism and violent misanthropy. Because of the difference in ideals, Alex and Tudor face off in a final confrontation that transcends into a mythological dimension."

Punching Nazis, Black Metal, and the Use of Ideological Symbols

I'm all behind the political trend of punching and scalping Nazis. Once you wear the swastika symbol or do the Nazi salute, then you're fair game, you can be beaten, pissed on, burned and so on, as you, in fact, have shedded your humanity. While this case seems to me pretty clear, I wonder about others that don't appear to clearly warrant a violent response. How about someone wearing the communist hammer and sickle symbol? Is that an endorsement of genocide, given the communist atrocities? I think people are less inclined to react to the communist mark, partly because of ignorance, and partly because the communist threat seems so distant and academic, compared to the Nazi threat, which became hard to ignore especially after the election of Trump. Also, I'm a bit biased so I wouldn't punch a comrade.   

Things can get pretty tricky when, like me, you're a leftist who happens to love black metal. The anxiety about whether the hoodies and band-shirts you wear warrant you getting punched is a real thing, especially when you yourself are itching for some political violence. I'm a fan of Revenge, Marduk, and Peste Noire, bands singled out and boycotted by Antifa as Neo-Nazi. Black metal is an extreme and serious business and the rise of National Socialist Black Metal (NSBM) seems to be a natural development within a genre aimed at smashing all taboos. Peste Noire is easily categorized as NS given, among other things, the frontman's, Famine, happily doing the Nazi salute, a penchant for Third Right memorabilia, and the title of their first demo, Aryan Supremacy. Revenge is a bit harder to categorize, in light of their minimalist style and the fact that they don't publish their lyrics. However, reading through the album and song titles paints a vivid far-right picture. On Scum. Collapse. Eradication. you get songs like "Parasite Gallows (In Line)" or "Burden Eradication (Nailed Down)" Now, if you ask yourself who are the parasites who need to be nailed down and eradicated, you can get a clue from titles like "Sterilisation (Procreation Denied)." Given that Revenge is from Alberta, Canada, where eugenics had been practiced mainly against Aboriginal People up till the '70s, it's not far-fetched to conclude a virulent racism against Natives is at work here, with yet another history of genocide right on its tail. Taking into account the evolution of their style, their changing aesthetics and the variety of themes behind their music, Marduk is yet harder to pigeonhole than the previous two acts. Their early output was straight Anti-Christian Satanic Black Metal. However, the Panzer tanks featured on their EP Here's no Peace and the Panzer Division Marduk  album, as well as the eagle insignia adorning the cover of their Live in Germania album, have raised a few eyebrows and placed them straight on the Antifa black list.

Although NSBM is the more explicitly political sub-genre of black metal, Satanic Black Metal also has some grim political implications. Black metal is closely associated with various forms of Satanism, and it has a cultish, fanatical side to it. And I don't mean the watered-down, compassionate and humanitarian version of Satanism defining the Satanic Temple, but the real deal: ruthless destruction of all creation, savage misanthropy, a celebration of darkness, chaos, and death. This is the ideology behind towering acts like Behemoth, Satyricon, Mayhem, Gorgoroth, Watain, Marduk, Inquisition, and so on. Now, genuine Satanic Black Metal hasn't received as much political attention as NSBM, but it goes without saying that it can be more dangerous. I mean, a real Satanist wants 99% of mankind eradicated or enslaved by the Luciferian elite, not only the Jews or the Slavs or the Blacks. If no satanic black flame of rebellion is burning within them,  Aryans can line up in front of gas chambers the same way as other misbegotten races. So, that's a tad worrisome, I'd say. Erik of Watain eloquently states his views as follows: "For me,

Satan represents something so much bigger than this world, than this universe, than the creator of this universe. It is a force that is constantly counteracting the creation and breaking it down until everything has returned to its totally unlimited state of chaos." And the natural conclusion comes when Erik states that he "totally encourage(s) any kind of terrorist acts committed in the name of Watain."

So then, do I deserve to be beaten up for wearing a Watain hoodie, just as I should be if I were wearing a swastika armband? Should I be burned? After all, one of my hoodies claims "Let the World Burn" and last time I checked I was part of this world. Also, isn't a leftist supposed to destroy only the ruling class while waking the working class out of its exploitative slumber and help it build a bright, majestic, just future? Revenge hoodies have minimalist designs (skull-and-crossbones, knives, gas masks and so on) and pretty vague inscriptions ("Doom Division," "Total Rejection," "Scum Eradication," or "Nihilist Militant")  so I feel pretty safe wearing them but I've decided against buying a Panzer Division Marduk hoodie and settled on buying a flag instead. I thought wearing that hoodie would be in bad taste, especially in the ugly wake of Trump's election. Plus, what adorns the walls of my place is private, my business, behind closed doors. The private/public distinction comes with its own problems. My Facebook account is technically private but social media seems by definition to be public. And what if I decide to throw a party, does my apartment then suddenly become a public space for one night?

Philosopher Richard Rorty has an original understanding of the private/public distinction. In the private sphere, we focus on self-improvement or overcoming ourselves. Or, to put it differently, we focus on becoming who we are, as opposed to who others want us to be. Nietzsche, Rorty argues, is a philosopher of the private sphere. His metaphors regarding war are just meant to highlight the struggles we face on the road to self-discovery, the struggle of the individual trying to distance himself from the herd, the master trying not to drown in the sea of degenerate slaves. For Rorty, privacy also comes with a spiritual and artistic dimension. Following Whitehead's definition of religion, Rorty characterizes it as "what you do with your solitude." The artistic impulse, for Nietzsche, also comes from solitude, and it's aimed at transfiguring the world. This is also the area of madness and perceived deviance from social norms. On the other hand, Rorty argues, in the public domain the focus is on the public good, on social and economic justice, and creating the conditions necessary for everyone's development, including the gradual reduction of cruelty and humiliation, which are harmful to the self in general. One example of cruelty and humiliation is life in totalitarian states where the individual's private sphere is crushed in the name of a collective purpose. By avoiding cruelty and humiliation, the public sphere poses only minimal requirements on the individual, the ones we're familiar with in liberal democracies, while giving the space to the individual to develop in whatever way he sees fit.

Now, I have to admit I've been using Rorty's private/public distinction to defend my infatuation with black metal for a decade now, the idea being that black metal falls mostly in the private sphere. Incidentally, Ash from Nargaroth has a similar understanding of Satanism in black metal, one inspired by Nietzsche and Ash's own studies in psychology. That is the philosophy behind Nargaroth's hit "Black Metal ist krieg!" Marduk's militaristic imagery and glorification of war can be interpreted in the same Nietzschean spirit. In addition to the destructive aspect mentioned above, Satanism also has a more constructive dimension, rooted in its uncompromising individualism. Echoing Nietzsche's distinction between master and slave morality, Satanism emphasizes that we're fully responsible for our own lives, we're the authors of our destiny, not God or our parents or the horde of sheep we happen to live amongst. Satan is, after all, the romantic rebel angel, the accuser and opposer, to quote a Marduk song. So then, to a certain degree, bringing satanic symbols like the inverted pentagram or the inverted cross or the trident into the public domain is justified as a constant reminder of a commitment to individual freedom. For a more detailed discussion of this point see my Satanism Without Gimmicks.  Of course, the madness and cultish character of black metal will also spill into the public sphere some statements that are hard to justify like "Let The World Burn."

Another important line of defense here is that black metal is an art form, just extreme music. Now, if the creators of that music also see it as a medium of communicating a political message, that doesn't imply that the fans of the music automatically agree with the message. The music itself is non-representational, it's not about anything. It can surely give rise to strong emotions but the direction of those emotions is pretty much left open. Like, Revenge definitely has developed one of the rawest, most barbaric and confrontational sounds in black metal and one cannot listen to them without being overwhelmed by burning hatred. But what's that hatred directed toward? Human scum, parasites? And we saw the meaning the band attaches to these notions. But why can't the listener attach his own meaning? Like, imagining beating Trump with a claw hammer and puking down a hole in his skull. Both leftists and fascists feel burning hatred. The fact that it's directed at different things doesn't diminish its intensity. Maybe the song titles and lyrics of black metal bands point to the target of the hatred? Maybe, but a text is open to various interpretations, and the author's intended interpretation is just one of many. The Holy Bible, let's say, is a militant book but not all readers of the Bible agree with its message. Similarly, I find the lyrics of bands like Behemoth, Watain or Marduk very well written and aesthetically pleasing, but that's not gonna turn me into a church-burning Satanic terrorist. In one of their songs, Peste Noire uses a poem by critically-acclaimed writer Charles Baudelaire. Obviously being exposed to such sublime art is not gonna turn one into a raving neo-Nazi.

All in all, I don't think the symbols and statements on black metal merch warrant the automatic violent response that a swastika armband does. Although someone wearing a Revenge tee or hoodie that states "Scum Eradication" is kinda asking for it. These are complicated issues and all I did here was skim the surface. Another layer to the problem is supporting Nazi-bands or militant Satanic acts with money by buying their merch and going to their shows. What if that money is used toward terrorist activities? Then there's blood on your hands? Does that, indirectly, make you a Nazi? Truthfully, I don't yet have an answer to these important questions.

In Defense of Hate

This post is in reaction to the YouTube crackdown on hate speech channels, which is part of a larger pattern of shutting down extreme voices online. The list of attributes of individuals or groups that shouldn't be targeted seems to get longer and longer: age, caste, disability, ethnicity, gender identity, nationality, race, immigration status, religion, sexual orientation, victims of a major violent event and their kin, veteran status.

Now, although I'm not racist or anti-LGBTQ rights, I watch this trend with alarm, skepticism, and distaste. I think if you squint hard enough you can see the neurotic SJW with a sign of "Live, Laugh, Love" hanging in her kitchen who comes up with these idiotic ideas.

So, first, where exactly do we draw the line between people it's ok to hate and the "sensitive" groups? Is it ok to hate my cheating wife or my lazy co-worker? Or maybe is hatred, in general, a bad thing? What if I hate the bourgeoisie and want to eat the rich and save the planet from the ecological catastrophe late capitalism will bring about? Is that wrong because it leads to violence? Well, that's the whole point: a red, violent revolution. So what if I hate religious people? Isn't religion the cause of genocide and various atrocities?  Wouldn't humanity be better off without these slavish freaks?

Second, hatred is a glorious, natural emotion that shouldn't be repressed. I can't think of anything positive that I've achieved in life without my hatred playing a role. I went to university partly because I hated my parents and wanted to move out of their house. I moved to Canada because I hated Romania. All my writing is steeped in bitter misanthropy. The same goes for the fiction of famous classical writers like Dostoyevsky, Kafka or Lovecraft, not to mention more modern writers like Martin Amis and Chuck Palahniuk.       

   

                                                                                           

Which brings me to my next point: you can't do psychology with a hatchet. Chopping off a strong emotion like hatred can only result in a fractured, lobotomized self. Hatred is the same as the sexual instinct: when you try to repress it, as Freud teaches us, it will come back ten times stronger and wreak havoc to the whole psyche. Hate is intimately related to love. Sometimes jealousy can turn the most sublime love into savage hatred, or someone we hate might suddenly appear to us in a beatific light. Also, the term "love-hate relationship" clearly captures the essential connection between these two emotions. In an ironic twist, the absolute divide between love and hate that SJWs assume is a remnant of Christian ideology. Christians have been happily torturing, raping, and killing people for two thousand years now. So, uncritically accepting that absolute dichotomy, that our modern hippies and feminazis find so appealing, didn't go so well in the Christian case. Lastly, the SJWs cry, all the hatred leads to violence. Well, I reply, first, there's physical violence and then there's systemic violence. Trump's decision not to pay taxes is systemic violence. Extreme inequality is systemic violence. Now, physical violence is sometimes used in reaction to systemic violence, like during the French Revolution. My point is that physical violence isn't bad in itself and that there are forms of institutional violence which are more sinister and damaging: the Catholic Church covering sexual-abuse cases, tax-giveaways to the rich, The Church meddling in the affairs of the state, money in politics, and so on. Thus, who's to say that the eradication of Catholics wouldn't be a blessing for humanity? Sometimes violence is the only solution. 

To sum up, I think the crackdown on hate-speech online could potentially create more difficulties than it solves, and it's a poor, ad-hoc solution to a complex problem; a cowardly, weak attempt to sweep complex, important issues under the rug. Who's to say that these hate groups would just disappear as a result of the crackdown? The oppressive censorship move might offer them more legitimacy and vindicate their narrative. We have to accept that hatred exists, try to understand its mechanism, and fight it head-on. 

Review of the movie Lords of Chaos

I really enjoyed the Lords of Chaos movie but was a bit turned off by how it caricatures Varg Vikernes and casts him in the role of the villain. I personally think Varg is a smart and charismatic individual, as well as a brilliant musician, but I'm not gonna let those beliefs affect my judgment of the movie. I think the movie fails on its own terms in the inconsistency with which it portrays Varg. In one early scene, we see Euronymous be mesmerized by the Burzum music (Varg's one-man band) and call it True Norwegian Black Metal. However, not only do we not hear the music (because Varg has denied them the right to use it) but also we get no insight into what inspired Varg to create that original, ground-breaking sound and of the ideology behind his music. Varg is just depicted as a one-dimensional follower who learns from his daddy Euronymous what's what in politics and how Christianity is a plague. But that's really hard to believe. First, Euronymous was a leftist, an admirer of the communist Romanian dictator Ceausescu. Second, Varg had been into collecting Nazi paraphernalia and into paganism before meeting Euronymous, which is suggested by his dungeon-like apartment in Bergen. And this interest, as well as an inclination toward history, Norse Mythology, and RPG games are what inspired the early Burzum music (The word "burzum" means "darkness" in the black speech, a fictional language crafted by Lord of the Rings writer J. R. R. Tolkien.) Thus, it's hard to believe that the danger of the Christian plague was brand new info for Varg at the time he first met Euronymous.

The movie briefly refers to these essential aspects of Varg's personality but in a dismissive way, as a teen trying his best to seem cool, be accepted by his peers and promote his music by taking credit for vandalistic acts like church burnings or grave desecrations. For instance, in the scene when Varg gives an interview to the reporters from Kerrang! in his own apartment adorned with Swastikas and weapons and so on, the interviewers ask him how Nazism and Satanism and Odinism are all connected. And Varg says that there is a connection, which is rendered as a laughable reply. But this was actually a perfect opportunity to offer a glimpse into Varg's complex character. Satanism is obviously connected with his anti-Christian stance and Nazism is inspired by Norse mythology and, as we all know, Vikings hated Christians. Varg is not only an attention-seeking teen, but he also has an outstanding speculative power to connect ideas from different spiritual traditions and weave them into a coherent ideology. If there ever was a philosopher in the Black Circle, it was Varg, not Euronymous.

Toward the end of the movie, Varg and Euronymous talk about the release of Mayhem's De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas and how the band is going to go on tour. To this, Varg, Mayhem's bass player, replies that he doesn't care about touring. This again doesn't fit the movie character. If Varg was desperate for attention, rock-star status, and the groupies that come with it, then why wouldn't he want to go on tour? But this was a widespread attitude in the Black Metal scene at the time, one adopted by other influential acts like Darkthrone, and it signifies their rejection of the commercialization of Black Metal and, more generally, their opposition to the modern world. But again, the movie fails to capture this aspect of Varg's personality.

Overall, Lords of Chaos is an engaging movie that takes a stab (lol) at portraying the main characters and bloody events associated with the birth of Norwegian Black Metal. There's no shortage of gore and brutality in this movie, and the depictions of Dead and Euronymous are very striking, tasteful, and memorable. The only portrait that doesn't ring true is that of Varg. The movie showcases Varg only as an attention-seeking, power-hungry, womanizing thug and completely ignores, although hints at, his spiritual, intellectual side. This is mainly because of the Hollywood formula of hero vs. villain the creators apply to a complex reality that has many grey areas. Why isn't Euronymous the villain? A sellout and a poser who took advantage of Varg and his talents for his own gain? Is he a victim just because he ended up stabbed in the head? Or, better still, why should we look for a hero in this story? Maybe we deal with two anti-heroes who pose complicated challenges to our belief systems. Maybe our story-telling should follow that human complexity rather than forcing it into pre-existing molds.  

Odin Rising cover and some news

I finally got a drawing that will go on the cover of my novel Odin Rising. Kudos to fantastic local artist Britanny Cardinal for her help!! Also, graphic designer and author Konn Lavery will help with the general design of the cover and formatting. The novel will be released in early 2019.

In other news, I now have a Facebook page. I had to go with Axe Barnes as Axl Barnes was taken. Feel free to visit and follow. https://www.facebook.com/AxeBarnes/

In addition, next year I'll publish a collection of short-stories entitled Funeral Portraits. Most of the stories will be accompanied by killer drawings by Brittany Cardinal. Some of the stories I posted here will be rewritten and gathered in that volume, Natasha Suicide, A Playground with Crosses, A Perfect Day, Closing Shift and others. Plus, this collection will feature my first zombie story and tons of other sick and twisted tales. 

Satanism without Gimmicks

I know many metalheads who consider themselves extreme, yet whenever I approach them I gag from the stench of nine-to-five easy meat. They are easy in more ways than one. It's easy to wear metal shirts and piercings and tattoos, it's easy to play guitar and emulate your favorite band, it's easy to go to metal shows, chug a few beers and wallow in a cheap sense of community. But when you take away the appearances, gimmicks, and conditioned behaviour you're left with the wriggling wormy body of the Satanist's arch-enemy: THE SLAVE!!

Besides a mixture of amusement and sadness, my encounter with this new embodiment of the archetypal peasant made me reflect of criteria we can use to tell apart the real Satanist from the multicolored scum. By definition, the Satanist is a rebel, an outsider, a master of his own destiny. He's full of his own will and, depending on his mood, either anti-social or asocial. A lone wolf, he regards others as either inconveniences or useful tools, and befriends only a chosen few. By contrast, the Slave is eager to follow and obey the will of others, he can't bear solitude or any sort of personal responsibility, he's most at home in crowds, and dreams of shaking off his humanity and one day turning into a sex doll.

So, if we are to identify the real Satanists in a society at a given time we first have to ask: What are the most oppressive forces operating in this society? We live in an age of unfettered capitalism and wage slavery. The oppression characteristic of such a system is very dangerous and insidious as it doesn't come from a well-defined center of power, as in more classical totalitarian systems, but it's spread out in a network of tunnels and economic traps hidden by the attractive facade of free market ideology. In this context, language heavy with political import and other means of thought control are also tremendous and sophisticated instruments of coercion. In addition, things like one's family or friends or "tribe" have always been known to try to manipulate the individual by imposing requirements like carrying on the family name, participating in meaningless family events or defending various social traditions or customs the individual has no genuine interest in. 

In a capitalist society, the Satanist should be either grudgingly employed or unemployed and living on welfare. Anyone who willfully sells themselves for a full-time job is NOT A SATANIST, but A LIFE-DENYING SLAVE! The Adversary might work full-time when running out of options but he never does it happily or willfully and he knows he'll have to take his revenge for every second of such humiliation. The Satanist sells his labor while plotting his revenge. He controls his alienation with savage thoughts of bloody payback. Part-time and casual employment or living on welfare are always more seductive for a rebellious spirit. Rather than looking for him in an office building, there's a better chance of finding the authentic Opposer at the public library reading The Communist Manifesto, or down the river valley having sex, writing poetry or exchanging survival tips with the tented homeless.  

The real Satanist doesn't care about family or tribe or nation or any sort of community he contingently finds himself in. He only cares about himself, his will, his life. If you see a happy family man, behold, that is A WRETCHED SLAVE!! For a Satanist having kids is the equivalent of suicide, or even worse, a long-drawn sordid self-torture. The Satanist has a few like-minded friends but is always vigilant about the terms of those friendships. If a friend succumbs to the siren call of slavery he's immediately rejected before he starts spewing his nonsense and poisoning the elite group. The Aristocrat only socializes on his own terms and never wastes his time on worthless, boring people, unless he indulges his cruel desire to mock them and introduce them to their own weakness.

Ash from Nargaroth and a kindred spirit. 

The genuine Master is usually quiet and doesn't enjoy running his mouth and engaging in endless small-talk. Language is a trap, a form of thought control, a great force that constantly saps the powers of the individual. That's why the Satanist strives to be creative in his language use, and tries to resist and dismantle the disciplinary power implicit in the value-laden vocabulary uncritically used by his troglodyte contemporaries. False idols like God, Money, Nation, Love, are but amusing targets for the Rebel's steaming jet of urine. Like a true artist, The Satanist delights in the game of creation and destruction, destruction and creation. Art is the highest expression of freedom, and a good artist is always an original. Originality is a satanic ideal by definition because it involves the highest degree of self-knowledge. The artist is a creator of worlds rather than part of a world created by someone else.

Philosopher Martin Heidegger

The desk at which Martin Heidegger wrote is masterpiece Being and Time, a work that revolutionized western thought and invented a new language to describe the human experience. Martin Heidegger is a poetic hero by definition. 

As you can see, being a Satanist isn't easy. It's not for everyone. It's a life of almost unbearable lucidity, constant struggle with others as well as the shadows of others in one's self, a life of  endless, neurotic vigilance. Yet it is also a life of euphoric delight in one's creative powers, in one's strength to overcome one's self, learn and develop, and in one's capacity to find kindred spirits and imagine new ways of being free. So, if you're ready to go to a metal show, take a good look in the mirror at the symbols you're wearing and decide for yourself if you're worthy of them. What anti-social deed have you done lately? In what interesting ways are you different from the mindless scum that makes up society? Did you create anything of value in your life? Are you a hero or just a follower? If that introspection isn't going well, there's always the option of transcending yourself with a bullet or a knife.