Arm Yourself with Rampancy's Fiery Anarchist Black Metal
"What gives me hope is knowing that regardless of what happens, there's always seeds of resistance somewhere. Sometimes history just needs a push."
It's truly a golden age for antifascist metal fans. The past few years in particular have seen an explosion of explicitly leftist extreme metal bands, labels, and events, to the point where there truly is something for everyone, whether you crave raw black metal's ravishing grimness, soar within the power metal realm, or nurse a mean need for speed metal. Salvo wouldn't exist without them, and I wouldn't have had nearly as much fun in my former role as Noisey/VICE's heavy metal editor (or been able to piss off as many metal Nazis as I did) by featuring as many bands with queer, trans, anarchist, antifascist, Black, Brown, Indigenous, women, and/or immigrant members as I possibly could.
It wasn't always like this, though, and we obviously still have a long, long way to go towards fully ridding our scene of Nazis, bigots, and oppressive scumbags. Of course anarchists, communists, and anti-authoritarians of all stripes have made a home within the worldwide metal community since its volcanic birth half a century ago, but it hasn't been easy. Reactionary and downright racist attitudes have long been accepted and allowed to proliferate within its borders, too, and that tension has often made it difficult for explicitly leftist bands to carve out space within a subcultural realm that clings to its tradition of "separating the art from the artist." Thrash and punk-infused grindcore have always been bastions of lefty thought, but apart from a handful of outliers, the shadowier corners of death and black metal came up pretty fucking dry for a long time.
Until, finally, the dam broke. This sea change first became noticeable during the first Trump regime, when many formerly unengaged or "apolitical" metalheads became intimately aware of how it feels when authoritarian rule and outright fascism come goosestepping up to their own front doors. All of a sudden, Satan seemed a lot less scary than what we were hearing on the news and seeing in our own neighbors' faces.
Big independent labels like Prosthetic started snapping up antifascist bands and proudly trumpeting their stance; UK anarchists Dawn Ray'd played huge festivals; more regular metal fans started making a concerted effort to make right-wing bands feel unwelcome and uncomfortable, and to pressure labels and festivals to deny platforms to bigots.
I used to have to root around on message boards and blogs (eternal hails to RABM-blogspot.com) to find underground bands with even a hint of antifascist political messaging; now, it throws me off a little when I see a new band being hyped that doesn't make its allegiances clear. Back then, the existence of anarchist black metal bands like Iskra, Rampancy, and Book of Sand felt like a precious secret, and whenever I found another one, I felt a little more at home.
With the ascension of a second Trump regime, I'd wager that a lot of us could use some more of that feeling—and, barring that, some righteous inspiration for the battles to come.
Luckily, long-running Canadian anarchist black metal project Rampancy (one of my early favorites!) just released a new album. While the project is more active in the harsh noise world these days, the album is a real ripper in the windswept epic black metal tradition, and Oculus Tød (a.k.a. Preston Lobzun) was kind enough to tell me all about it. You can read our conversation below. Let the fires burn as a signal.
SALVO: You know, Rampancy was one of the very first explicitly antifascist black metal bands I came across when I started looking for 'em, and I'm genuinely so happy that you're back with a new album! Tell me all about Where the Sun of the Future Rises—it's got your first new material since 2021, and there's been a marked shift in your sound. What was the writing and recording process like? What are you going for with this one?
PRESTON LOBZUN: Where the Sun of the Future Rises is the continuation of the sounds I got off of Above the Tyrants EP. Basically over the pandemic, I had to downsize my recording environment. I had lost access to a studio, no longer able to really practice drums on the regular, and in general just got busier with life. Above the Tyrants was a bit of an experiment to see if I could do something "in the box" which includes a drum machine (HR-16, same one Godflesh used on Streetcleaner) that I programmed. You can tell on that EP that I kept some of the weird noise elements from Coming Insurrection, however this latest release has basically scrapped that idea.
I am definitely now charting a way forward that is going to be embracing more of an epic sound and future tracks I think will sound more like the opening "Rise of Man" track. Additionally to all of this, I no longer have an active band I am practicing with right now so almost all of my efforts go into my solo music including affiliated projects like Apollo's Harp (dungeon synth), Daylight Inferno (drum & bass/ambient), and Shock Doctrine (Vaporwave/Slush) which have all been busy.
So is Rampancy fully its Hammerheart era now? Or maybe it's more of a Likferd situation... either way, where are those epic vibes coming from?
I am glad you noticed this! I have very much been returning to "viking era" Bathory as well as the later releases like Nordland which I think are overlooked. Bathory is a huge inspiration for Rampancy, probably one of the primary sources I am pulling from, so the comparison to Hammerheart is kind of neat! I would say this latest release might fall more in Blood Fire Death as it still includes some of the heavier riffage with epic tracks being more peppered in but the next one for sure is heading into this region. Additionally, I'm a huge fan of Caladan Brood and Summoning so those will definitely be inspirations moving forward. I also really enjoyed Fathomage's 2023 release Autumn's Dawn, Winter's Darkness.
A lot of other things have changed since 2016, too, but making the black metal scene inhospitable for Nazi scum remains just as essential as it did back then. As someone who's been out here since well before the broader metal community began to embrace antifascism in a real way, can you tell me a little bit about what it's been like to see that change happen?
I think it's largely been great to see so many new bands pop up and finally a bit of leg work being put in to organize festivals and events which celebrate these new artists. I didn't think anti-fascism would ever really establish itself in black metal and "RABM" would be some sort of weird niche that stayed off the radar. I think two things happened: one, there was a huge resurgence of interest in black metal I would say maybe 2008-2013 with USBM bands broadly like Xasthur and Leviathan, which led to bands like Deafheaven really taking the key pieces into the mainstream.
Two, I think this resurgence came at a time when American fascism was also ascendent so you have a culture clash of young new artists who were kind of disappointed to learn a good portion of their favourite bands had these leanings. I'm excited always for new bands, particularly young people, but I think we still have some ways to go.
Take me back. What was it like to be one of the few anarchist voices in North American black metal then, particularly in Canada (home of some of the genre's most gleeful boneheads)? What other bands and artists were you in community with? And when did you notice that shift beginning to happen?
I had no real connection to any local black metal efforts as London isn't really home to many of them. Most people here who like that stuff are weird nerds like myself who go to noise shows so it's extremely niche and of no interest to basically anyone. Regionally or nationally I had no connection either however I did write for the RABM blog for a bit around this time (I believe 2013-15?) so I was uploading and receiving a few things that came in. I believe this is how I met David from Gudsfordladt whom I later released a CDR for. In late 2014 I also formed the band Saudade with my roommate at the time and that was basically my live efforts for the next some years though it wasn't very political and had more of a DSBM approach. Overall offline I was mostly embedded in the larger punk/DIY scene as I hosted a variety of noise, folk, hardcore, punk, metal, etc shows in my basement.
I think back to this period as a high point of creativity because I could just go downstairs, rip some drums, mix it, throw it out somewhere. This is where most of the Anti-Freeze material was done out of.In terms of the broader community shift, I think I saw things really turn in about 2016 as I noted above. This is where I think a lot of the new people came along, sort of sputtering off of what the RABM blog had laid the groundwork for and connected to a broader call to action regarding the rising fascist threat. A lot of it felt very "online" in my opinion but it's a work in progress and I think it's much better now than it was when it started to accelerate.
Rampancy
You chose a particularly inauspicious time to release a new album, given the absolute state of both of our respective governments—Trump here, and what seems like a concurrent rise in naked fascism in Canada. Can you give me a quick rundown on the major political and cultural challenges facing antifascists and good folks in general in your neck of the woods? Despite our geographical closeness, most Americans tend to have little to no clue what's going on just a few miles north of the border.
Canada has a very interesting history with the far-right, particularly in who we send south of the border. A lot of prominent figures like Peterson, McInnes, Faith Goldy, Lauren Southern, etc are all Canadian, which has always felt like some weird trend of our trash looking to make their grift go platinum in a more lucrative market. We have this historic liberalism embedded in our institutions and conservative governments have always tended towards being a Tory in the truest sense of the term up until very recently where the political divide is so influenced by the Democrat/Republican binaries. There's a lot of Canadians who barely understand how our systems work and how fundamentally different they operate from the American one.
I think the major turning point was the Freedom Convoy in 2022. This really showed that a semi-organized far-right could quickly disrupt the day to day of even a random city like London, Ontario. I remember trying to go to work and the city bus would be jammed in traffic because a trucker convoy ran through. A lot of this was pent up anger from Covid lockdowns, but a significant chunk of the organizing base to these actions were all connected with the far-right. I think this caught a lot of anti-fascists by surprise too and you can read a few articles from this time off North Shore to get a pulse check. I think what felt a bit demoralizing was the fact that something on that scale, which eventually led to the Emergency Act being used, felt wasted on an otherwise non-issue at the time because at that point, most vaccine requirements had been lifted, masks mandates quickly disappeared, and covid shots became a thing of the past so no one was really being prevented from attending Applebees or whatever.
There was also a clear distinction in this event between how police were chummy with Ottawa protestors while just before the pandemic they were brutalizing Wet'suwet'en land defenders and elders. I think this is what we need to be cautious of moving forward with a new government in tow as that pandoras box is now open.
It's very stupid but I can't resist asking your thoughts on the whole "Trump wants to annex/invade/maybe buy???" Canada thing. Seems like we'd all be better off if Mexico took over both, but I reckon there's only so much imperialism to go around.
I'm not a blind nationalist, however I know that I live here and my community is something I have sworn an oath to. I think a military invasion of Canada would be ridiculous and costly, but if it came down to it, I would have to fight and I would do it without question. I also think Americans would struggle to police the north and it wouldn't be a good time for them as long as there remained a hodgepodge band of angry Anglos, Francos, and Indigenous nations willing to do whatever it takes so I keep that as my hope for deterrence. It has actually been extremely bizarre to see some of my leftist networks somehow in sync with these older Tory/Grit types who put country before party, while the "super patriot" right-wing populists seem pretty serious in wanting to change their colours all of the sudden thinking they would benefit from it. Very weird.
Unfortunately this is actually something I don't think is totally off the table this century. Canada has a tonne of resources including rare earth minerals, uranium, oil, water, and so on that would make the American empire very happy. I think what is more likely is that a weakened Canadian government (especially one that kisses the ring of their Yankee enablers) would probably trade off a sovereign currency in exchange for an open border in the style of the European Union. There's plenty of Canadians who wouldn't think twice about the consequences of this, and I feel that is what makes it more dangerous. It would be effectively the same relationship that the richer EU nations have with their poorer ones and the free flow of capital across borders would probably be of a larger benefit to the wealthy than to any member of the working class.
At the end of the day, this is all Indigenous land, and these resources exist in the heart of treaty territories that we can barely keep our end of the bargain on to begin with. I don't think any of these communities would go quietly into the night and I think Trump vastly underestimates that. We'll see what happens, I take it seriously.
More importantly, I'd love to know more about the lyrics on Where the Sun of the Future Rises. What is your message this time? "Sabotage the Rails" and "Return to the Source" caught my eye in particular, what's happening in there?
The message is a bit more dispersed than previous efforts. I'm always trying to find new ways to approach my lyrics and be less "on the nose" about them. One thing that kind of feels corny to me with a lot of RABM and anarchist music in general is just how much it sometimes misses the mark to use metaphor and storytelling as a means to communicate a message. Maybe this is more appropriate for punk, but in metal, I think people are judging things from a deeper analysis or at least, that's what I'd like to think...
"Sabotage the Rails" was kind of written as a broad resistance song but it is somewhat inspired by the rail war in Russia. I recently read Dmitry Petrov's A Life in Combat, which was a fantastic but unfortunately tragic memoire of an anarchist who spent a solid portion of his life resisting the consolidation of Putin's power through sabotage and finally to war. I think the purpose of this song is that "might makes right" can go both ways and resistance to fascism can take many forms. The final lines go something like,
"Blood for the blood of the war,
Militant action again,
striking wherever it goes
Bury the heads in the sand,
into the darkness like ghosts"
"Return to the Source" is actually a non-political song and reflecting other things I have meditated on. In particular, this song is referencing neoplatonic ideas of "God" or "The Source/One". It is a celebration of ritual, contemplation, and spiritual rebirth inspired by the writings of Iamblichus. I find the topic of late Roman religion very interesting, particularly the shift from paganism to Christianity. When you look at the spread of Christianity and how it dominated Europe by the sword, it sort of laid the theological groundwork for colonization a thousand years later. I think on a personal level we should embrace our pre-Christian traditions and reconnect with old gods or at least a mystic version of what we think is "God".
What artists, writers, and thinkers were you consuming during the creative process for this album? What's fueling your fire, and giving you hope?
I think lately I have really been inspired by going "back to form" so to say, rereading anarchist classics or modern thinkers like David Graeber. I think we are in a very dark place right now and crisis is inevitable with the current systems at play, but what saddens me a bit is that anarchism really appears to be muted. I think part of this is because most people feel extremely powerless and they are, like me, hyperfocused on just keeping a roof over their heads. I think Covid was the gate that opened up this transitory period we are in and it will take another generation, most likely, to maybe start rebuilding some of these foundations.
We're up against devastating climate change, rising fascism, global conflicts, and of course pandemics but what gives me hope is knowing that regardless of what happens, there's always seeds of resistance somewhere. Sometimes history just needs a little push.
If anything, this is what "Where the Sun of the Future Rises" is all about. We struggle because we have to, not because we will always win. I think it's important for us to prioritize duty and strength over millenarianism and weakness. Our ancestors gave their lives for these ideas, we have a moral imperative to continue this work.
Rampancy
Now that antifascist bands are so much more visible and numerous, who have you got your eyes and ears on? Who do you think is doing especially good work, and creating especially compelling music?
In terms of pure anti-fascist bands, I think Trespasser is one of the better ones. They showed a lot of maturity in their last album and I think are a band that can easily just exist without having to explain the lore of RABM beforehand. Old Nick is intentionally kind of silly but great, Gravpel, Gudsforladt, Periodeater, Ancst, and some others come to mind. I think Gudsfordladt, knowing where it started, has made the most impressive growth and I know David put a lot of work into Friendship, Love and War.
Finally: when are you going to play some goddamn shows down here?
Whenever someone will book me! Unfortunately Rampancy playing as a band with this written material feels very slim to none. I just don't have the time, effort, or colleagues to even start a band which could play these songs. Especially with my most recent work, I would need a pretty damn good drummer and in southwestern Ontario they're either all busy or playing in metalcore bands.
I've toyed with the idea of reaching out to a band that might be playing a fest somewhere and seeing if they would learn a few of my tracks so all I would have to do is fly out for some vocals, but that would still take some effort and communication. Rampancy performs harsh noise madness live only for now. Tentative talks at the moment for a quick European run someday but we'll see how that goes.
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Stream 'Where the Sun of the Future Rises' here, and support anarchist black metal art (and anarchist metal publications like Salvo)!