A few words before we get going to the music (and how I'm running this blog)

I really struggled with how to organize these posts. In the end, I guess I chose to go by how I found the albums. We talked a little about a couple bands starting my journey, we might as well talk about the band that really fueled my passion, and that's Forteresse. But that brings up something else.

Before we get going 

Let's clear something up early. This blog is going to try its best to be open about any issues with bands without judgement. I'll leave it up to the reader how to deal with the facts. I am not into fascism, but I am also not into witch hunts. I will say, I researched Forteresse's statements and politics more than any other band I think I've ever looked into. It's sort of fascinating and touches on a lot of things I'd like to talk to.

So, Forteresse and a lot of these Québécois bands are tied up in varying extents to the Quebec sovereignty movement, which maybe isn't a thing now that the US has gone belly up. But the basic premise was that Quebec has its own heritage, history, and economy, and should be independent from overall Canada govern. From what I've read, it's akin to the Scotland or Ireland situations in Great Britain. Again, I'm not even trying to understand beyond a cursory level.

What gets problematic is this ties it all to nationalism, which is generally a sign of fascism or Naziism in Black Metal. It's maybe the biggest dog whistle in black metal.

But what's interesting here to me is that the Quebec sovereignty movement is also a cultural preservation movement. Much of their grievance is the deletion and English-washing of the indigenous and French cultures, the history around their independence movements, their economic freedom and independence. They use art as a part of the movement for their history. For other marginalized groups, this would be be considered... at least respectable.

I'm not going to weigh in on the politics or even tell anyone what to do. I read so many interviews with Forteresse and related bands. So many Reddit threads. I'm convinced these guys are not fascists. They might be nationalists in the sense they're preserving a national history that's literally being lost, but we can't really talk about history without a viewpoint. We either have the viewpoint of the colonizers or the colonized, and in this case, they're preserving a rallying cry for the colonized. 

My General Philosophy

First off, we don't fuck with fascists, NSBM can get the fuck out. 

That being said, I am not the association police. If I was judged by everyone I've worked with, been at a show with, been friends with, I'd not have a lot of fans either. I think there are bands that knowingly seek out and work with NS bands that you can judge however you want, but there are a lot of bands that have run across them at a show or two, or on a split early in their careers, and I'm not going to judge an band based on that type of association. So many of these associations at this point are X has a split with Y who has a split with Z who has a member in NS Band R. This is what I talk about in my professional associations, I would never get hired if I was judged like that.

Second, I believe there is a certain level of abstraction between the artist and the art, but I refuse to evaluate that in anything but a case-by-case basis. There are times I am not comfortable with an artist because of what's come out about them, there are other times I choose to abstract it. This is really just based on vibes for me. Sorry. For a band too, it gets more complicated, especially if the member is no longer associated with the band. Especially if the band responds well. Example is Neurosis gets a lot of a pass for what Scott Kelly did because of how decisively they dealt with it.

I'll probably have to revisit some of this but let's talk about more fun stuff for now.