Kolovorot, a heavy metal goods store located in Kharkiv, Ukraine, was destroyed following the brutal invasion by Russian forces, in which civilian areas were heavily targeted, although the Russian government claimed otherwise. . The Metal East Nove Kolo boutique and festival, which is largely held in the workplace, is linked to well-known racially biased artists and far-right political extremism, including anti-Semitism, white supremacy and national socialism.

On the morning of February 24, Russia officially invaded areas of Ukraine’s eastern border as President Vladimir Putin claimed his wartime goal was to “denazify” the neighboring country while coming to the aid of its self-declared independent territories that had been formed by separatists.

Putin’s claim has been widely seen as false and insincere, masking a much more tangled and complex list of reasons, but the proliferation of Nazi ideologies by far-right extremists in Ukraine is however legitimate.

The Azov Battalion, an official member militia of the Ukrainian National Guard, was formed by a known white supremacist who openly supported National Socialism. Elsewhere, heavy metal artists with similar ideological affiliations are quite prevalent and occupiers of the worldwide black metal sect dubbed NSBM – national socialist black metal.

Kolovorot’s business dealings involved dozens of metal artists, many of whom are not embroiled in far-right extremists or politics and prejudice of any kind. A group frequently touted by the metal dealer was Nokturnal Mortum, whose past lyrical themes concerned anti-Semitism. Current vocalist Knjaz Varggoth was also a former member of Aryan Terrorism, a live member of Russian National Socialist band Temnozor, and Warhead, who in 2003 released an album titled The Rebirth of the Aryan Nation.

Nokturnal Mortum has also been named by Metal East festival organizers Nove Kolo as one of the artists for the live event scheduled for June later this year. The shop’s name also graced the top of a flyer for a 2019 show featuring Nokturnal Mortum, Graveland (a Polish black metal band with lyrical themes dealing with Aryanism) and Burshtyn (a black metal band Ukrainian metal band formed by former members of the pro-national socialist group Dub Buk).

Varggoth distanced himself from these political affiliations in 2014 stating that he no longer discusses his opinions, however, Nokturnal Mortum continued to engage in activities with other notable NSBM artists, evidenced by the show of 2019 mentioned above.

On Facebook, the festival lamented the destruction of the Kolovorot store in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city and which has been continually bombarded by Russian invaders who remain intent on capturing towns in the ongoing war.

“This is the very small part of the results of the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” reads the post, along with photos of the carnage.

“We are all in Ukraine now. We continue to fight for our land. We ask bands who played at our festival, bands we cooperated with through Musical Hall/Kolovorot, all customers and fans to pass the word and help Stop the war in Ukraine. We will definitely win. And then we’ll see you all at Metal Fest: [Nove Kolo] and in the renewed Kolovorot,” the statement continued.

It is important to note that in this report, Loudwire does not allege that the owners and operators of Kolovorot nor the Metal East Nove Kolo festival explicitly share the same ideological and political views of some of the aforementioned artists.

Nokturnal Mortum also shared evidence of the widespread destruction in Kharkiv, calling for support for Ukraine and calling the bombing of civilian areas “war crimes absolutely expected of these people”. [Russian army] losers.”