NSBM Record Store on Long Island Shut Down
This is unsettling, especially given how close to home it hits: a group of jackasses recently tried to set up a record store specializing in National Socialist metal, The Heretic’s Crypt, in Patchogue, NY.
According to The Huffington Post, the store attracted attention in late April, when its owners handed out flyers at a local death metal show, proclaiming themselves to be “Long Island’s most extreme brick & mortar record store in over a decade! Specializing in underground metal, and whatever else we feel like!” The promotional bid worked: a pair of metal-lovin’ buddies made their way to the shop, no doubt overjoyed at the prospect of such a business opening in their area.
Then they got there:
“’We start leafing through everything, and about a quarter of the way through the first box, it became really apparent that the only thing they were selling was National Socialist black metal [NSBM],’ said one of the two, who asked that HuffPost withhold their names for fear of harassment. ‘There were scatterings of bands that weren’t associated, but the vast majority was the very sketchy Nazi-related stuff. It was disgusting.’”
These included albums and merch items by National Socialist bands such as Hate Forest, Goatmoon, Grand Belial’s Key, and Heathen Hammer; most disturbingly, they also included a frickin’ baby-sized shirt for the NS group M8L8TH (above, far right).
Although these gentlemen (obviously) hadn’t realized it in advance of their visit, The Heretic’s Crypt was partially set up by a man named Paul Guhring, who is a former member of a National Socialist band called Grafvollut, the owner of a label, WolfTyr productions, that has released two albums by the white supremacist band Wotanorden, and the organizer of a NSBM show in nearby Ronkonkoma, LI (somehow, Guhring still has the gall to deny having any ties to National Socialism, claiming the imagery is meant to represent “esoteric pagan ideologies,” an argument which holds no water if you read these bands’ lyrics).
The two fans then went to James Skidmore, president of the Greater Patchogue Chamber of Commerce, who was understandably disturbed by their discovery. Skidmore subsequently went to visit the store, concerned that it could “get the conversation going with music or whatever else, and then out comes a KKK party or a white nationalist movement.” Luckily, when he arrived, he found that the owner of the space The Heretic’s Crypt was renting had already taken action and sent them packing.
That’s re-assuring to some extent, especially since the incident has allegedly resulted in Guhring getting out of metal for good:
“[Guhring] lamented that he opened up shop in the first place. He and another man who helped set up Heretic’s Crypt, Buddy Zajac Mayoka, deleted their Facebook pages after the outcry last week, and now, Guhring said, his label is offline, and he has no plans for any shows or other commercial enterprises.
“’I really wish we didn’t do it at all, to tell you the truth ― all the anger I’ve caused people,’ he said. ‘Basically my reputation is ruined because of this. Everything is stashed away in boxes and Hefty bags. It’s done. We can’t keep up with this.’”
Oh no! All the NSBM shit is in Hefty bags! WHAT A TRAGEDY!!!
Despite this victory, the article notes the area has an unfortunate history with this crap:
“For Skidmore, the shop scared up memories of Long Island’s history of extremism. In the 1930s, Suffolk County was home to Camp Siegfried, a pro-Nazi summer camp, adjacent to a German colony in Yaphank that named its streets after Hitler and Goebbels. After the war, some of Hitler’s relatives lived on Long Island. The Ku Klux Klan has always been active there.
“Long Island native Chris Cantwell, a white nationalist nicknamed ‘the Crying Nazi‘ for a video in which he teared up at the thought of being arrested for his role in the Charlottesville, Virginia, mayhem, thought the area receptive enough to his views that he considered running for New York’s 1st Congressional District. He failed to get enough signatures in his bid.
“Most recently, Skidmore recalled, an Ecuadorean immigrant was killed in 2008 in nearby Riverhead, where four teens admitted to being part of a gang that targeted Hispanics for hate crimes.”
In other words, someone, be it Guhring or another nitwit, will probably try to pull some shit like this again in the future.
