A heavy metal band whose concerts in Germany and Austria were canceled earlier this year due to their singer’s history of using Nazi symbolism and making racially charged statements will play three major Australian shows in March.
US band Pantera, which has sold tens of millions of albums, is set to headline Knotfest concerts in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, but there are calls for it to be cancelled.
In 2016, the band’s lead singer, Phil Anselmo, performed a Nazi-style salute onstage at a concert in Los Angeles and shouted “white power.”
The band had shows booked in Germany and Austria last May, but the concerts were canceled due to the public backlash against Anselmo.
“At a time when white supremacist activity is skyrocketing in our country, this is the last thing we need,” Dr Dvir Abramovich, chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission, told Ny Breaking Australia.
Phil Anselmo (pictured left) gave a Nazi-style salute on stage at a concert in Los Angeles and shouted ‘white power’
“It is a kick to the heart of every Holocaust survivor to sell tickets to a band with an artist who has expressed neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic sentiments using the heinous white supremacist gesture.”
After a video of Anselmo’s Nazi salute and commentary circulated online, he initially said he had made a joke about the white wine served to the performers at the event.
“No excuses from me,” he told those who criticized him. “Some of you need to thicken your skin.”
When that failed to stop the backlash, Anselmo apologized and said, “Anyone who knows me and my true nature knows that I don’t believe in that.”
But later in 2016 he told Rolling stone magazine “I think people who look through the lens of race and want to find racism will find it wherever they look.”
It was far from the first time that the singer was accused of racism. Nearly thirty years ago, an MTV interviewer asked him about racist lyrics, and a year later, in 1995, Anselmo told an audience that Pantera concerts were “a white thing.”
Dr. Abramovich pointed out that Anselmo’s lyrics from his other band Superjoint include lines like “no more of the coward Mohammed” and “don’t feel sorry for the Jewish elitists.”
“There can never be any justification for such outrage, and it is difficult to estimate the pain and insult allowing his concert will cause the Jewish and Muslim communities, as well as many Australians.”
Pantera had shows booked in Germany and Austria last May, but the concerts were canceled due to the public backlash against Anselmo
“Such ugly and divisive behavior has no place here, not now or ever, and we call on organizers and venue owners to immediately cancel the scheduled shows,” Dr Abramovich said.
Pantera has been booked to headline heavy metal festivals at Melbourne’s Flemington Racecourse, Sydney’s Centennial Park and Brisbane’s Showgrounds in March.
The Nazi salute is banned in Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania.
Ny Breaking Australia has contacted the band, the promoters of Pantera’s Australian tour, the venues they are playing, the police ministers of Victoria, NSW and Queensland and the federal Immigration Minister for comment.