Marduk’s Joel Lindholm Filmed Throwing A Nazi Salute

During their headlining performance at London’s Incineration Fest this past Sunday, the Swedish black metal band Marduk once again did some Nazi shit. Specifically, bassist Joel Lindholm was caught on film straight up doing the Nazi salute right at the very end of a song.

There’s no missing context here; no allegations of Nazi propaganda purchases that the band can try to deny. It’s there to watch at the bottom of this post, courtesy of YouTube user Mick 666, clear as day.

The footage really is irrefutable. You can see it with your own eyes at the 45 minute mark of their roughly hour-long set. Lindholm is standing on the right side of the stage when he pulls his right hand back and up to his shoulder before shooting it out in front of him at an angle, palm down and everything.

It’s one thing to be contrarian and to highlight the evil and fucked up shit Nazis did (without glorifying them, of course), but it’s another to do it for no reason at all. The song they were wrapping up when the salute happened, “Beyond the Grace of God,” has nothing to do with the Nazis or World War II. As such, we can’t even be charitable here and make the case that it’s somehow akin to Slayer’s “Angel of Death” or other metal songs that draw upon actual historical events.

Marduk’s brush with Nazi allegations is nothing new. Back in 2018, a Swedish newspaper found vocalist Daniel Rostén and now ex-drummer Fredrik Widigs on a leaked database of customers that purchased Nazi propaganda from the Nordic Resistance Movement, a “Pan-Nordic Neo-Nazi Movement.” Even though their orders were linked to their own names, addresses, and were matched to their IPs, the band denied the allegations.

This isn’t unlike the situation back in 2016 when Phil Anselmo stood on stage, threw a Nazi salute like Lindholm, and shouted “White Power” to attendees. At that time, we didn’t just call it out with a knee-jerk response — bands and fans alike came together as a metal community, examined the situation, and definitively came out against that sort of behavior.

Let the record show that I’m not necessarily saying the four members of Marduk are Nazis. As one user said in the video’s comment section, “one Nazi salute doesn’t make a man Nazi.” But it’s important to note that this kind of thing can give fuel to and embolden actual fucking Nazis. With the kind of platform Marduk has, they should be more cognizant of that fact.

At best it’s a tasteless act and at worst, it’s downright racist at worst. And this was pretty blatant.