MASS SHOOTER'S FORMER BAND PLAYING SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA NAZI MUSIC FEST

From Resistance Records, a neo-Nazi record label founded in the 90’s, to the bowels of 4/8chan today, hate groups’ media continues to play a role in inspiring young fascists to attack minority communities with seemingly increasing force and frequency. After a 4chan poster-turned-Nazi terrorist murdered ten people in mostly Black neighborhood’s supermarket in Buffalo, New York, he left behind a clumsy manifesto chronicling his radicalization process.

The Buffalo shooter was inspired by the Nazi media he consumed and by other acts of terror. Now, his attack is being celebrated by the showrunners for a neo-Nazi music festival—featuring a band whose former bassist shot up a Sikh temple.

Recently LCRW was given information on an upcoming National Socialist Black Metal(NSBM) festival. While it was first being held in an undisclosed location somewhere “in the woods” of Southern California on June 27th, the organizers announced today they’d found a venue. Like many neo-Nazi-associated shows, the showrunners aren’t publicly saying where it’s being held and are screening potential attendees.

For those who don’t know, National Socialism is English for “Nazism.” NSBM is a sub genre and political movement that branches off of the black metal scene. Lyrical content ranges from goofy Satanist-inspired worship of the third Reich to more topical and explicitly far-right rhetoric. Most credit Varg Vikernes, lone member of the Nazi thrash metal band Burzum, for laying the foundations of the NSBM scene. Resistance Records ended up purchasing Varg’s label “Cymophane records” in 2000.

The festival is called “The Rise of The Black Sun Fest” and it will host a strictly NSBM line-up. The event is sponsored by Neo-Nazi record distributor “Vinlandic Werewolf Distribution” along with “K.E.P. productions” and is being booked through a strictly Nazi production company called “Splendour Solis Productions”(SSP). The flyer for the event is slathered with Nazi imagery, from a black sun to the odal rune—it’s all easy to spot if you know your hate symbols. This flyer was created by one of the fest’s other sponsors, Hipster Black Metal (HBM). More on them later.

Going through the Metal Archives, an extensive wiki for the genre, you can find pretty much every band on the “Rise of The Black Sun” bill. All of them have some form of fascistic ideology printed in the “lyrical themes” section of their about info. They are all pretty open about their Neo-Nazi beliefs in the metal archives profiles, yet for some reason, few of these bands have their own lyrics listed on the site. One band had some of their less overtly Nazi lyrics up, and another had the lyrics up for a song in support of Kyle Rittenhouse, but that’s just about it. Its unclear if the bands keep their explicitly Nazi lyrics off the site, or if the website itself wouldn’t let them post hate speech.

Splendour Solis Productions announced recently that “The Blue Eyed Devils,” an infamous Nazi hardcore or “hatecore” (a term BED coined) group would be joining the lineup. BED make their views incredibly clear with songs like “The Final Solution” about killing Jewish people and “Kill It,” a song urging others who share their beliefs to go out and commit acts of violence in the name of the white race. In 2012 a former bass player for this group, Wade Michael Page, took the song “Kill It” to heart. He opened fire with a 9mm pistol in a Sikh temple, killing, 6 before police shot and killed him.

Splendour Solis Productions is run by Roxy “Petrie” Rodriguez of Torrance, CA. Her husband, Nino Mejia, shares Rodriguez’s Neo Nazi beliefs and runs the YouTube channel “Hipster Black Metal,” which is sponsoring the fest. Sources told LCRW that Rodriguez was “chased out” of Arizona after “crossing the line” with a local anti-racist hardcore crew, though they wouldn’t give further details on the incident or incidents in question. Sources claimed that neither Rodriguez nor Mejia had shown an affinity for Nazism until very recently.

Rodriguez often refers to herself as “half white”. While this doesn’t seem to be a huge problem for everyone in the NSBM scene she inhabits, her skin color does draw her a lot of hate mail from her supposed comrades.

Rodriguez and Mejia seem to occupy a very specific niche of NSBM—one where Latinx people identify with Nazism and/or graft elements of Nazism onto their own subcultures. Such people are at least tolerated by their white counterparts under the assumption that everyone remains in their correct and corresponding “tribes.” LCRW covered a similar such NSBM-linked band called Maquahuitl earlier this year. People in this space, when you press them on their beliefs, make claims that they just think society would function better if all the different races had their own ethnically homogeneous states. That line always intentionally ignores or glosses over the inevitable genocidal violence it would take to both get to a racially pure state and keep it that way should they even succeed. People like Richard Spencer tried to popularize this kind of argument during the heyday of the alt-right. While this view is still entirely racist, Rodriguez and Mejia are far more militant in their racist views.

In response to a pro LGBTQ+ song posted on his Facebook, Mejia commented “Chomo/homo it up” implying that homosexuality is synonymous with pedophilia.

On her Instagram account Rodriguez posted a photo of a text exchange between herself and another POC who she referred to as a “sandperson” she threatens them with murder multiple times.

“you’re gonna get blasted on sight” she says at one point “ you wont get in unless its in a bag” she says at another point.

Mejia trains at the UFC Gym in Torrance California, and does appear to be armed, having posed in multiple pictures with an AR15 and a shotgun. In the wake of the buffalo Nazi terror attack Rodriguez celebrated by re-posting an image of the Nazi shooter’s rifle on her Instagram. Under it, she commented “Sheeeit”—an anti-black 4chan meme—and remarked “funniest false flag in a cool minute.” It is still up as of this writing.

It’s unclear what role, if any, Mejia plays at SSP other than moral support, but in several Facebook posts he does claims to be doing “limited pressings” of various NSBM records, and on his Metal Archives page he is listed as the current operator of the Hipster Black Metal(HBM) channel. Mejia has tried forming bands in the past, but has never played a show.

While there are several sponsors for this neo-Nazi fest, one does stand out: a YouTube channel called Hipster Black Metal, which appears to be run by Mejia himself. The channel claims it’s “bashing the clowns in the black metal industry.” They do so by going after people who try to call out NSBM groups for their racist beliefs and by helping NSBM groups find a platform for their views. They also lend them material support and use their massive platform, 17.2k subscribers on YouTube, to boost NSBM groups and events. HBM supported and signal-boosted SSP and the Rise of the Black Sun festival with fervor.

So what’s the Hipster Black Metal channel even like? To start, their tamest videos have the kind of slurs you’d see spammed by twelve-year-olds in an Xbox Live chat in 2007. The more heinous videos defend and espouse open racism, sexism and homophobia. Those behind HBM seem to posit themselves as experts on the genre and gatekeepers of what does and does not qualify as Black Metal. HBM’s operator seems to consider Black Metal and Nazi beliefs synonymous with one another. They go as far as targeting anyone in the black metal scene who challenges this belief with online harassment.

In one post, HBM named a member of a local band as well as attached a current photo of them and said “Stay mad fence sitting loser” and “imagine congratulating all the bands who dropped the big bad nazi Nokturne fest.” He later removed the photo from the post, only to post a video on the same person later. (photo 17 here)

Another notable sponsor to this Neo Nazi show is K.E.P. Productions, owned by Kyle “KEP” Powell out of New Jersey (though metal archives lists him as a California resident). Powell is well known in the Black Metal world, most notably so for his work as singer and song writer in the mid 90’s Black Metal band “Engorge” as well as bands “Fragmentation” and “Nebula 666,” all of which have songs depicting and glorifying rape and murder, as well as lyrics steeped in hatred for women.

Powell came under fire in 2018 when he booked Nazi groups to play in Clifton, New Jersey, at a bar called “Dingbatz” for his annual “Vengeance Fest”. Owners nearly canceled the show due to backlash, but allowed it to go on when Powell promised them that the specific Nazi groups in question would not play. He lied. They played their sets. Idavox reported that the owners of “Dingbatz” said they “will never work with Powell or K.E.P. Productions again”. He is hosting the same event this year in October, following the same invite only/undisclosed location plan as the Rise of the Black Sun Fest. This one he decided to make unapologetically white supremacist.(photo 18 here)

Most of the players from the “Rise of the Black Sun” fest are involved in a similar show that is happening in late July. A comment from Mejia claimed they are looking for a venue “in the hood” for this show. LCRW will naturally keep you updated on that as well. Right now it is unclear where either show is happening. If you have any tips or leads on where it may be held please message LCRW on Twitter for encrypted comms or at our encrypted email, leftcoastrightwatch@protonmail.com.