Coldwar’s Trevor LcLave Attempts to Reclaim the Swastika from Nazis, Fail

Oh golly gosh gee willikers, this is a sad story! When Coldwar vocalist Trevor LcLave got a bunch of swastikas tattooed on his face and body, he never could have foreseen people misinterpreting it to mean he’s a Nazi. And yet, he has now come under fire for that very reason, poor fella.

Reports The Music:

“The swastika was stolen by the Nazi ,” announces a statement sent out by the band today, ” The symbol is thousands of years old, used by many cultures and has different meanings .

“Trevor is part of a group that is trying to reclaim the swastika symbol. He has many types of swastika symbols on his body.”

Forming in 1999, Coldwar’s drive has been largely political, rejecting church and state institutions and others they believe enforce oppressive, intolerant and absolutist states of mind.  Their statement also clarified this stance: “When the band says they are ‘fuelled by a rejection of Church & State institutions and other oppressive, intolerant and absolutist states of mind’, this includes nazism.”

The thing is, LcLave and his bandmates aren’t technically wrong — the swastika was (mis)appropriated by the Nazis (plural. I dunno why their statement says “the Nazi.” It’s not like one guy in that whole army was using the swastika and everyone else was wearing Betty Boop t-shirts or something.). Shit, there’s a pre-war building in Red Hook, Brooklyn that has a swastika displayed prominently on its facade. And there’s something to be said for attempting to reclaim the symbol, sure.

That being said, you’d have to be a total fucking moron not to anticipate people associating the swastika with the Nazis. Given the impact the Nazis had on world history, to re-educate people about the swastika’s non-Nazi origins is a task which will take many, many, MANY years, if it’s achievable at all. And getting it tattooed all over yourself is a super-extreme measure — I mean, you could start by just putting together a website to try and teach people about the actual history of the swastika or something. There was no need to go from zero to a hundred in ten seconds, y’know? Being covered in swastikas head-to-toe was bound to give the vast majority of the world’s population the wrong idea (and having a shaved head probably ain’t helping his case any).

So my guess is that LcLave either has a brain the size of a guitar pick, or otherwise got the ink as part of a deliberate attempt to be provocative and/or get attention for his band. In which case, mission accomplished.

Coldwar’s new album, Pantheist, comes out April 28 on Candlelight. Here’s the single, “Ether Child.” It’s actually not bad. But I wouldn’t expect the band to be invited to tour Israel anytime soon.

Thanks: Andy