Marduk dismiss bassist after alleged Nazi salute
Joel Lindholm seemed to make the gesture last week during a performance at Incineration Fest
Image: Mick666 via YouTube
Swedish black metal band Marduk has fired bassist Joel Lindholm after he appeared to make a Nazi salute onstage whilst “very drunk”.
The act was caught on video during the band’s performance in London where Lindholm was standing to the right of the stage, slightly behind lead singer Daniel Rostén.
The bassist can be seen deliberately crossing his arm over his chest, before extending it with his palm downwards. It happens around 45:07 in the video below:
In response to the action, Marduk posted a statement to Facebook alerting fans of Lindholm’s departure: “Following a variety of intolerable stage antics by a very drunk Joel at Incineration Fest last week, he has vacated his position in the band.
“Our old friend and bass player Devo has agreed to step in on a temporary basis, so this is unlikely to affect any of [our] upcoming shows.”
Despite the swift dismissal, the group did not appear to fully condemn Nazi ideology or offer up any further explanation.
The controversy follows a previous situation in 2018 when the band’s drummer Fredrik Widigs along with Rostén were accused of purchasing Nazi propaganda from an online store of the Nordic Resistance Movement, a “Pan-Nordic Neo-Nazi Movement.”
The report claimed the items purchased were sent to their home addresses and had been matched with their IPs. However, the members denied all allegations, releasing a statement that read: “No Marduk member has ordered anything from the website in question, or ever had any form of interaction with the organisation operating it.”
This in itself followed a handful of cancelled shows after groups raised issues with the band’s imagery, much of which makes explicit reference to Nazi and SS imagery – including Panzer Division crests.