Oakland Metro Operahouse Cancels Marduk Show “in the Interest of Public Safety”

Marduk are smack dab in the middle of their U.S. tour with Incantation and Svart Crown, which is actually a rescheduled trek from last year, when Marduk had to cancel due to — what else? — visa issues. But one market, at least, won’t be getting its make-up show, through no fault of Marduk’s.

California’s Oakland Metro Operahouse has cancelled tomorrow night’s show over security concerns. The venue made the announcement on Facebook:

“In the last week we have read interview after interview with Marduk spanning over the last 20 years and found no statements indicating the band are white supremacists, nationalists, or anti-immigrant. That being said, we don’t want to subject our security staff, venue staff or the public to violence. Our staff is almost exclusively POC and/or LBGTQ and they have all expressed the desire to work, but as we are getting threats, we just can’t risk it. So, in the interest of safety, and because the Oakland Police Department would have insisted anyway, we have canceled the Marduk performance on Feb 18.

“The Oakland Police Department has decided in the interest of public safety that the Marduk show on Saturday, February 18 at the Oakland Metro Operahouse be cancelled. Refunds at point of purchase. We apologize for the inconvenience.”

They also included this screen cap of an e-mail from the Oakland P.D., I guess in case anyone doubted their word:

The Swedish black metallers have been plagued by accusations of Nazism for some time. These accusations seem to stem from misinterpretations of their work… although it’s easy to see how those misinterpretations come about. As Heavy Blog is Heavy wrote in their review of Marduk’s most recent album, Frontschwein:

“The band has long experimented with the Third Reich, but on this album, they really channeled the evil that came from within it. As stated before, the band, nor this reviewer, are in any capacity Nazis, or neo-Nazis, or whatever. However, when listening to the record, reading the lyrics, and understanding the subject material, it’s hard not to conjure up images of the ultimate definition of evil that was the Third Reich. While it may be difficult for many people to withstand (this reviewer also having a history of family members put to death by Nazis) the record gets its point across: you want evil? Look no further than those that perpetrated the very definition of it by the command of a man possessed by nothing less than evil.”

Regardless of Marduk’s message or intentions, threatening them or their fans physically is a horrible idea. Freedom of speech is a two-way street. Protest the band all you want, but don’t hurt anyone. If you do hurt someone, you’re not making your point, you’re just acting as a recruitment tool for the enemy, who may seem reasonable by contrast. Punching someone can be funny sometimes, but it doesn’t actually solve anything.

Remaining dates on Marduk’s tour are now as follows:

02/19 Portland, OR – Bossanova Ballroom
02/20 Seattle, WA – Studio Seven

Thanks: Scotty