#Naer Mataron band

[horrid-phantasm]

Naer Mataron - Discipline Manifesto

[thegrapeandthefig]

Anon, I don’t know if you’re still around but I have news. I also invite others to read this because there’s important information about YSEE and Labrys in what I have to say, that go way beyond the scope of black metal. 

All the following quotes are from “Screaming Ancient Greek Hymns: the case of Kawir and the Greek Black Metal Scene” by Christodoulos Apergis, an article that is the 3rd chapter of “Classical Antiquity in Heavy Metal Music”, edited by K. F. B. Fletcher and Osman Umurhan, 2020. 

“[...] the band is actively connected to the contemporary pagan movement in Greece that attempts to reconstruct ancient Greek religious practices, 3 having close ties to the ΥΣΕΕ—Ύπατο Συμβούλιο των Ελλήνων Εθνικών (The Supreme Council of Ethnikoi Hellenes, “YSEE,” hereafter)—one of the largest pagan organizations promoting the revival of ancient Greek religion in Greece and beyond”

“Through its sister acoustic project ΚΑΒΕΙΡΟΣ , co- founded in 2007 by Therthonax, the band is actively engaged in worship. ΚΑΒΕΙΡΟΣ regularly perform ancient Greek hymns using guitars, bagpipes, and replicas of ancient Greek instruments (psaltery, lyre) in the revival of ancient Greek religious festivals. These have taken place in the last decade or so under the auspices of official religious organizations such as the YSEE and the Religious Community Labrys. Therthonax seems to underline the importance of ΚΑΒΕΙΡΟΣ ’s religious role when he states in an interview that ���all the members of the band are also members in YSEE . . . one of the few organizations that can perform, and the only one that has the authorization to practice ceremonies in open and in archaeological places.”

Now, there is the complex question of the political alignement of Kawir, considering the openly fascist stance of similar Greek black metal bands (namely Naer Mataron, led by Giorgos Germenis, a member of Greek Parliament of Golden Dawn): 

“As a result of the over-generalizing tendency to consider all pagan BM bands fascists or adherents to far-right ideologies, Kawir have also been accused of being NSBM or somehow associated with Golden Dawn. However, there is nothing in the lyrics, interviews, or long career of the band that indicates or implies such a fact, and Therthonax categorically denies these accusations, insisting that “Kawir promotes Greek Polytheism” and “has nothing to do with politics or political parties.” Christos “Pandion” Panopoulos, a member of ΚΑΒΕΙΡΟΣ , live member of Kawir (flutes, bagpipes), and one of the founders of the Religious Community Labrys has stated in a relevant interview that:

Having as a defining characteristic a) religion and b) the Hellenic culture, we find almost all modern political ideologies more or less incompatible with our culture . . . and even more so parties with fascist ideologies that are not only pro-Christian but totalitarian in the deepest and worst monotheistic example, which of course is the exact opposite of our ancestral culture. As such we see the Golden Dawn as a threat and even if we try to publicly abstain from political debates (in order to keep the religious character as our primary guide without further and for the most part objective distinctions) individually we usually raise our voices against such phenomena

While Therthonax’s claim that “Kawir has nothing to do with politics” may sound slightly odd, given the band’s active engagement in a movement that in a sense seeks to recapture a pre-Christian Greek past, it is evident that the founder of Kawir wishes to emphasize the band’s religious (as opposed to political) character as well as its detachment from the contemporary political scene. At any rate, Kawir’s profile stands in stark contrast to the far-right ideology embraced by some bands who have followed its characteristic practice of screaming ancient Greek hymns.”

Those passages raise a ton of questions. While it is possible that Kawir as a band doesn’t fall into the far-right category, the involvement of the band members with YSEE is somewhat concerning. At best, they do not agree with everything YSEE stands for, which would explain their involvment with Labrys as well, which hasn’t shown the same intolerance towards a number of topics. At worst, YSEE and Labrys are two groups with similar ideologies with different levels of subtlety.

I have something else to comment about, which ties in with the previous “discourse” about hellenicgods.org because of course it does. 

Significantly, the Orphic Hymns are one of the main liturgical texts used in these religious festivals. Even if, as West (1983 : 29) suggests, the hymns of the Orphic collection attest to “a cheerful inexpensive dabbling in religion by a literary minded burgher and his friends,” they hold a prominent place in the religious practice of Greek neo-paganism. A second aspect of Kawir’s use of Greek hymns which deserves our attention is that, in some cases, Therthonax attempts a kind of syncretism, combining excerpts from hymns dedicated to different deities to praise a specific god. “Hymn to Zeus,” for instance, contains excerpts from the OH to the Sun (row 3 of the table), and Rhea is praised in the homonymous song with excerpts from the OH to Physis and the OH to the Mother of Gods (row 11). Similarly, Dike, the goddess of Justice, is associated with Nemesis and the Fates in “Nemesis” and “Moirae” respectively (rows 13 and 10), while in “Kouretes” the Cretan “demons” are apparently identified with their Phrygian counterparts Korybantes (row 19). These identifications and associations between gods, however, are not arbitrary; all follow well-known syncretistic tendencies of Greek religion, common in late antiquity, and particularly prevalent in Orphic theological thought. 

I have nothing against syncretism per se, but this caught my attention because of two elements 1) the syncretism used is the same pushed by hellenicgods.org 2) but mostly, hellenicgods.org insists on the fact that he was taught the ways of the “true hellenic faith” by a “Greek teacher”. *puts on tinfoil hat* Coincidence? I think not. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say he has been in contact at some point with YSEE and adopted their theology. 

This is a big can of worms, but I hope it serves the purpose of demonstrating the importance of caution when dealing with modern pagan groups, especially on a worldwide level. The reason this information is now available is because someone wrote this in English. There is a lot we don’t know or don’t see because of the language barrier. 

@michi-izkur-ereshkigal tagging you because I remember you researched Labrys, does this ring any bell?

If you havent heard of them- Kawir. Greek black metal band that makes songs about the gods, imo they're pretty alright! I'm just hoping they dont turn out to be run by racists like many other black metal groups are : / love black metal, hate the racists. Just yeeting this out there though if you hadn't heard of them

I have! I think I’ve made a shoutout to them on this blog a few years back. As for black metal, I know... It’s been a plague for so long and I’m more than done with the black metal community.