"Although it has cost us terribly, we have kept silent to try to clarify the events that led to the cancellation of our concert scheduled for March 6th in the Groove venue (Portugal), and although the information is confusing and we must take into account the great distance that separates us from this city, what we can do in explaining how everything happened and what we know first hand. It is the only thing we have left to do because we fear that this incident has already damaged our image irreversibly. We ask you to be patient and to reach the end of this post.
Last Tuesday, January 14th in the morning, Unai Endemaño, the promoter of the show, called us on the phone. He explained to us that a feminist association had contacted the owner of the Groove venue telling her that, either he was cancelling our performance, or they were going to set up a demonstration that day and boycott the business until they would have caused its economic failure. We did not give credit. The motive, ‘The Last Virgin On The Earth, Sodomized’ (one of the songs written by the band). We told Unai that it was not necessary to go so far, that it seemed like a brutal exaggeration, and that in theory, by speaking, people would have understood. Also, that if there was a feminist demonstration on the day of our show, we would have gladly supported it.
As we were coming from a similar incident in Vitoria related to this song, which by the way we did not play live, it occurred to us that it might be interesting to set up a round table to discuss the separation between work and artist, the limits of freedom of expression or any other topic that they would like to bring to the forum. We explained it through a WhatsApp audio, as well as our different arguments, but the association immediately denied that possibility. It should be noted that communications were always in this order: association-Groove-Unai-BarbarianSwords and vice versa.
At noon that same day we went through the only direct contact we have had since with this group. Von Päx received a call to his mobile, with a hidden number, which lasted for 35 minutes and 30 seconds. Without giving her name or that of the association for which she acted as a spokesperson, the girl was already going ballistic when our vocalist told her that the idea that there was a feminist demonstration just before our concert seemed formidable and that We would have supported it 100%.
Something was out of place, then she explained her version of the facts cordially. According to her point of view, one could not consent a song talking of a violation, that this was a disgusting and inadmissible song. Our singer certified that, indeed, it was, because only a disgusting letter could narrate the vilest and foul act that a human being can perform.
But to look at the title, it is always essential for Barbarian Swords. It is no accident that she is the last virgin in the world and that she is sodomized. Or what is the same, in a devious and despicable world like the one we believe we live in today, Christianity has only one virgin left, a single element of its elementary iconography to save, but finally, it also succumbs to evil for mediation of one of his greatest and theoretical capital sins: sodomization. Von Päx tried to explain repeatedly that any other reading was biased and arbitrary [..]. What if the most sacred object of this religion was to be an apple, that would be the object to attack. Not at all should be taken as an affront to women.
There was no way, they did not understand creative freedom and expression in the same way, and so, our vocalist was dismantling all her arguments, one after another.
‘And why don't you sodomize a‘ nigga ’? That scares you, doesn't it? That they label you as racist. Well, simply, that song does not sodomize a ‘nigga’ because it is not a crucial element in Christianity, it would make no sense within our cosmogony. ‘And why don't you sodomize San José?’ Well, we have already done it, to the entire Holy Trinity, in reality, and the cut is called ‘Totemic Anal Turbofucker’.
At a certain point, Von Päx counterattacked. ‘You only mention‘ The Last Virgin On The Earth, Sodomized ’, but none to the two songs of our recent split, Tetrarchia Ex Beast. In them, a lesbian is destroyed, tortured, vilified, murdered solely for her sexual orientation, and can be a victim of any of the organized religions we have on the planet. But it is resurrected in the form of Goddess of War and Annihilation. That is, this woman is empowered, and her revenge is taken. Here, the girl didn't talk, in total ignorance. ‘And what about our song ‘Fleshy Battering Ram’? It's a brutal singing to free love, to practice like chemsex, and the chorus says openly that we don't discriminate between sexes or races when it comes to copulating. More absolute silence on the part for this spokeswoman. "And by the way, have you read any of our interviews to really know what ideas we project?"
Inadmissibly, this "soldier in a war", as he called himself in an instant of the conversation, admitted not having read one of our interviews with the media, "because he had no time." That is, this lady does have time to boycott a concert, to threaten to ruin a business and forever bust the image of a musical band, but not to really document the formation she is attacking. For us, this is terrible and aberrantly frivolous.
It was shocking to hear some of her arguments, as if he believed herself to be the voice of the “women of Euskal Herria” without having presented herself to any elections, or that “heavy metal is macho, punk is macho, rock is macho, and we will not stop until we reformulate it completely”.
It didn't matter to the girl that Von Päx was so close to her ideas that she sympathized with almost all of her realistic struggles. This stressed that the concert was on March 6th, a date very close to 8th and that they would come "emboldened" because the other side of Bilbao was already organizing for this "action". That they would make a demonstration with paint balloons to leave the facade made a rag, but, hey!, that that were not threats, and that above all who was going to pay it was the Groove, because of the boycott that they were going to carry out that would have ruined the venue. Besides, she "rehearsed there with four other people," how could she look in the face of the owner if that song sounded?
She seemed to enjoy this situation, and among other things, she said that she was a librarian and that she discriminated against books offered under the feminist prism, and that she had studied Fine Arts. It was then that Von Päx finally collapsed all his arguments: ‘Imagine being placed before the Gernika de Picasso, but without any prior contextualization of its meaning or author. For god's sake, you see a terrible warlike image, a lethal bombardment of the Condor Legion, and of course, knowing nothing about Picasso's political inclinations or that it is a criticism of the excesses of war, you accuse him of apology of Nazism'. "Man, that is contextualized quickly," she replied. ‘Exactly, that's what I did when I told you what‘ The Last Virgin On The Earth, Sodomized’ really means, or do you really think you know more about this song than its own author?’
Through another metaphor, Von Päx put it back on the ropes: ‘Do you know? I am a convinced anti-birth. Given the overpopulation we suffer and the ecological cataclysm to which we are engaged, I literally consider it a crime to continue bringing children into the world. Each new western life costs as many in the Third World, but can you imagine that I would join my crew and go to clinics to make demonstrations, trying to stop new births? No, right? I don't do it because I have the right to think like that, and people have a perfect right to procreate, as much as I like it.' "You are leaving the topic ..." was the only thing he could say. No, the truth is that they were not: they were talking about imposing ideas by force, and that when one ideology overlaps another by coercive methods, it loses all validity or legitimacy.
At the end of the phone call, where they even laughed at his contradiction by being an anarchist and would work at the same time, or how Von Päx referred to Barbarian Swords as “a shit band,” he told the singer that the only way that we could do the show was eliminating a song from the internet, and take it out of the disk. Pretend it never existed. Obviously, our singer flatly refused and told her that it was nobody to trample on his civil rights, to win an election and that maybe then he could impose his values on the rest. The bolus was almost lost, of course.
The next day, Wednesday 15th, the owner of the room decided to unilaterally cancel the concert given the threats spilt and the negative aspect the whole situation was going for, and that is when we issued our statement. Our biggest mistake has been not having waited for the association to have spoken before in the networks or through its own statement. Any band that unfortunately can go through the same thing in the future that takes note: do not make a single movement if the association has not gone publicly before, is the advice we give you. Also, that you remain alert and try to record all telephone communication.
People directly linked to this event assured us that, in effect, the association that The Metal Circus unveiled in the update of its news, Ezkerraldeko Mugimendu Feminist, is the one behind this “action”, but of course, by denying it on the web and to the journalist who treated this information in El Correo, we don't blame them for it. What if a girl usurped the name of her collective to threaten us? What if she acted behind the collective leaving it without any knowledge of the whole thing? We did go heavy-hearted, because these are very hard accusations and such constraints can be constitutive for a crime.
We were waiting for a statement from the association behind all this mess, but it never came. Perhaps because they did not expect this matter to go so far between society and the press, or that our post and that of Unai would go viral ... We even knew that they were upset about how relevant this had become, which already is something! The Groove venue was promised that on Saturday 18th the associations involved would meet in assembly to issue a statement on what happened, and apparently, arrived yesterday, Sunday 19th, through the mediation of Portugaleteko Mugimendu Feminist, an entity that until now we did not fully know. It is the following, and it is quite ambiguous, but we understand that it refers to this incident since we were waiting for it to occur. We reproduce it literally (we have screenshots in case they decide to eliminate it):
“Given what happened this week, from the Feminist Movement of Portugalete we are forced to clarify the following:
- All actions carried out by the Movement have always been claimed by it.
- We respect the feminist actions that other groups or people can perform.
- We denounce the use of this fact to attack and attack once again the Feminist Movement of Portugalete.
#LadranLuegoCabalgamos ”
Well, let's review your three points. In the first place, if the journalistic inquiries always pointed towards Ezkerraldeko Mugimendu Feminist, why this organization, which until now had not been named at any time and from which we did not know its existence, appears in its own defence? Second point: they respect feminist actions that can lead an honest, feminist person to unemployment, simply by sheltering a band with a single supposedly misogynist song in their venue. They respect anonymous calls by spreading threats, ignoring the most basic civil rights. And the third point: above, they denounce an alleged defamation campaign. Has the Groove venue published the name of its spokesperson or association? Has Unai Endemaño or Barbarian Swords done it? The answer, as you all know, is a resounding no. Given the ambiguity of the statement to which we referred to above, we would be infinitely grateful that the association concerned confirmed that we are interpreting the statement correctly, since it is difficult to be sure when the event is not mentioned, or the room, or us, which also seems surprising if the statement finally refers to this incident.
How have these groups reached a tiny band like Barbarian Swords and just up to that song? Although we imagine it, we cannot make it public because we have no reliable evidence. These are enigmas that we cannot reveal to you because we do not know the real answers, but the truth is that all this stinks.
Only the Groove venue knows who this girl is and to which associations she belongs. You have been asked not to reveal your identity, and by data protection law, you cannot do so. The site prefers to turn the page and not throwing more gasoline on this matter so that it does not affect the business, so we image it has already been sufficiently damaged.
Unai Endemaño and you all, those who are outraged with this vile run over your freedom of thought and our freedom of expression and creation, you are those who have kept us strong.
We believe that this matter has already been more or less clarified, surely in Portugalete you know well who we are talking about. What we do know for sure is that our name, trajectory, image and work have been severely damaged by this Kafkaan event, and that from now on many venues and festivals will not want to book us, not because they do not believe us, but due to the fear for reprisals.
But you know what? We will continue as usual, and if the price of performing rudimentary, incisive and transgressive art is to tour only in Europe, we accept the condemnation.
What we regret the most is that this fundamentalist and the ultra-conservative sector is also seriously damaging a movement as heterogeneous, legitimate, necessary and just as feminism. Censorship causes immediate pleasure to the person who exercises it, but at the same time, it feeds the discourse of detractors and causes moderate sectors to flee from these postulates given their radicalization.
As a band, this episode has helped us, finally, to lose the little faith we had in humanity, in this sectarian and hysterical society, to reaffirm ourselves in the nihilistic and misanthrope ideology that we adopt from our very formation.
Finally, we leave you with a video of our last show in Barcelona, just on March the 8th, last year. So you can see that we are not bluffing, that we are not trying to drain the bulge when we see ourselves against the sword and the wall, stop a lot of attention at minute 5 and 50 seconds when Von Päx says goodbye to the public.
Oh, well, won't he be making the feminist symbol with respect for International Women's Day? It is clear that yes, and 400 people witnessed it:
Putridas thank you for everything."
