Enlarge Two members of the band bought propaganda merchandise from the Nordic Resistance Movement, a neo-Nazi organization.

Members of Marduk Bought Nazi Propaganda Tied to National Socialist Party

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Update, 4:33pm EDT, April 6th: The piece published by the Swedish site Etc we cited in this article has removed reference to the band members’ IP addresses being in the leaked files. It has been noted that the band was on tour when the alleged purchases were made. However, the article kept information regarding Widigs’ and Rostén’s home addresses cited in the leaked files. 

Update, 4:07 ppm EDT: Marduk have denied the allegations. Read their statement here.

Original Post:

The Swedish publication Etc is reporting that two members of Marduk — drummer Fredrik Widigs and vocalist Daniel Rostén — made extensive purchases of Nazi propaganda in an online store in 2016.

The information allegedly comes from leaked files from the server of the Nordic Resistance Movement after a hacker attack last summer. Wikipedia describes The Nordic Resistance Movement as a “Pan-Nordic Neo-Nazi Movement” in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland (although attempts have been made to ban the movement in Finland). The Nordic Resistance Movement is also a political party in Sweden.

The orders were made in Widigs’ and Rostén’s own names, sent to their home addresses and have been matched with their IPs. The files came from Nordfront, a publication aligned with the Nordic Resistance Movement that describes itself as “a news site that stands out and dares to challenge the old, often Jewish owned and / or controlled, mass media empires.”

In May of 2016, Widigs allegedly purchased 100 propaganda stickers from the NMR’s online store as well as the official party program of the Nordic Resistance Movement and the books Basic Radars and Zionism – The Hidden Oppression. That same month, Rostén ordered 100 flyers displaying the message that the “Swedish people” must recover “the power of the global Zionist elite” as well as 100 stickers with similar messages and the books Nationalsocialism and However, Really Six Million? [English translation via Google Translate], the latter of which questions the number of Jews that were murdered during the Holocaust. Both men also purchased other propaganda material.

According to Jonathan Leman, a research for the anti-racism foundation Expo, the flyers and stickers ordered by Marduk members are expressly for distribution and are not collectibles: “If you order such material, it means that you are at least a sympathizer for NMR and belong to the outskirts of the organization. But there may be closer connections.”

This isn’t the first time that Marduk have come under fire for associations with Nazism. The band’s discography is filled with references to National Socialism, but the band has always denied any ties to the ideology by insisting that they were taking a historical approach to storytelling. Marduk founder and guitarist Morgan “Evil” Håkansson runs the band’s business through the company Wolfsschanze, named after Adolf Hitler’s bunker, and their most recent album, Frontschwein, is a concept piece about World War II that traffics heavily in themes of the Third Reich.

Further, the band’s show in Oakland, CA last year was canceled over concerns for public safety surrounding the band’s alleged ties to Nazism. Håkansson’s statement on the cancelation called the issue “blown out of proportion” and referred to “those kind of people” (the ones protesting the show) as “retarded,” but did not specifically address the band’s alleged ties to Nazism.

The Etc report that broke this story notes that they have been making attempts to contact Widigs and Rostén for two weeks but have been unable to receive a response.

MetalSucks has reached out to representatives for Marduk seeking comment but has not heard back as of press time. We will update this post if we receive a response.

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