Morgan 'Evil' Steinmeyer Hakansson Of Marduk Shrugs Off Nazi Accusations By 'Retards'

Swedish mainstays Marduk are well-entrenched within black metal's pantheon; founder/guitarist Morgan 'Evil' Steinmeyer Hakansson was even allegedly sent a skull fragment from Mayhem's Dead, who committed suicide with a shotgun. "Usually when it comes to extreme metal I always go back to the old shit that you were into when you were younger," Hakansson offers. "The old still has a lot of power to it. I don't really see any new Possesseds, Celtic Frosts or Slayers around."

Hakansson also isn't enamoured by the prospect of events from the early 1990s Norwegian black metal scene becoming big screen fodder via upcoming film Lords Of Chaos (based on the book of the same name), either. "No, absolutely not, I think it's going to be a totally ridiculous thing," he says when asked if he's curious to catch it. "I probably will see it sooner of later, but it's nothing that... It's so ridiculous. I don't even know what to say about it. It's not my cup of tea, if I should say so. I'm not really into gossips and all this stupid shit rumours, and people... It's like an old ladies' magazine the scene of today, it's stupid."

"I'm not really into gossips and all this stupid shit rumours, and people... It's like an old ladies' magazine the scene of today, it's stupid."

Existing within perhaps extreme music's most contentious sub-genre, Marduk have encountered their own controversies. Nazi accusations have previously been levelled at their subject matter, often gleaned from atrocities of World War II and the Third Reich. Their 18 Feb concert in Oakland, California was cancelled following security concerns. The venue issued a statement from local police that "there are groups that believe Marduk profits off glorifying Nazi imagery and songs about Nazi SS officers and anti-Semitism".

"We've been around for 27 years and toured worldwide since '94, and I think it's just ridiculous about a bunch of kids being dissatisfied with the current situation in the States. They want to demonstrate against everything that they don't like," Hakansson rebuts. "It's just a retarded and stupid thing, so nothing that I really put a lot of energy into because I don't want to give these people too much air. It was just that the police decided for security reasons because they didn't know... If they had known a week before about it they could have hired a higher security or whatever, but we're looking forward to getting back there. I think it was blown out of proportion and that's the way these kinds of kids work."

However, The Music poses whether he can comprehend that someone not familiar with extreme metal's nuances may examine Marduk's artwork or album titles and derive certain conclusions? "No, not really. Of course, people can misunderstand whatever they want, but if we had done a movie about certain subjects I don't think people would have misunderstood. People choose to misunderstand because they are idiots, and that's the basic thing - the world is filled with retards who choose to see different things. The same with all kinds of art, even with old paintings. You can see a lot of things in it, but it's up to everybody to take it for what it is."