The Unknown War
On musical grounds alone, this CD should have been essential listening. It was beyond the normal proficiency, with complex overlaid tracks which strayed beyond the usual level of musicianship. While still overtly a Skinhead album, it had the potential to attract a much wider audience. Lyrically, with songs ranging from the considered and intelligent to downright brutal, "The Unseen War" mixed White Nationalism with a healthy American Nationalism, and anti-immigration message. It decried capitalism and communism, consumerism and atheistic hedonistic amorality. Rooted firmly in the Christian Identity anti-government tradition, the CD railed against the modern world. "The Unseen War" was ostensibly made up of three bands, Break the Sword, Day of the Sword and the Philly Bootboys, yet basically both Day of..., and Break the Sword were the same band. With Philadelphia Skinhead Scott Stedeford at the helm of both bands, and clearly the driving force behind them, they transcended the usual level of RAC being produced at the time. As well as breaking with orthodox RAC lyrical content, the bands attacked capitalism, injecting references to Christian Identity and produced the classic "Blood Stained Emerald" which received much flak for being sympathetic to Irish Nationalists. Unfortunately, the CD contained the traditional Skrewdriver cover in the form of "Blood & Honor," yet even this was proficiently played and contained a subtle yet effective lyrical rewrite which transformed the song into a track for a post-Communist world.
On these merits alone, "The Unseen War" should be a classic, yet there is more to the tale. The truth behind this CD is more a key to the radical nature of its members than even the lyrics would suggest. Because the CD was made, produced and released with funds from one of the bank robberies carried out by the Aryan Republican Army (ARA), aka The Midwest bank robbers, a paramilitary group inspired by both the Order and Irish Nationalist guerrillas who carried out 22 bank robberies across the Midwest, between 1994 and 1995, netting an estimated 250 to 500,000 dollars; without injuring or killing a single person. The money was intended for Nationalists across America. Both Stedeford and the drummer on the Break the Sword tracks, Kevin McCarthy, were members of the ARA.
~Chris
In the U.S. and in recent years across Europe, newer forms of Nationalist and pro-White music have taken hold, specifically in the form of Hardcore or ‘Hatecore’. Harder edged distortion and percussion driven bands have mixed old-school hardcore and some metal influences to create broader appeal than was once thought possible. Outside the old limitations of the Skinhead Oi scene kids are being exposed to the message with which they previously would have had no contact. While America has produced some top quality "traditional" Oi bands, this new wave made inroads into the broader hardcore scene. With American Skinheads already established within this scene, the crossover of influences was not a dramatic shift. This scenario was repeated in Europe, though in a different fashion. As homegrown Oi bands gave way to American influenced bands, whose fans embraced this relatively new genre, in the U.K., this new brand of RAC created little or no stir. Up till now even, bands here have retained the traditional Oi sound.
The U.K. scene however, is a complex animal. Rife with a form of zealous pride and a strain of Puritanism, the Oi scene was always music by Skinheads for Skinheads. The backbone, heart and driving force behind the whole movement was Skinheads and the RAC scene was their rallying point. Skins who would spurn the various Nationalist parties would support the bands, show up in force for gigs and in many cases ally themselves with Skinhead-only umbrella groups such as the early White Noise Club or B&H. Through sales of record and merchandise, by actively supporting the bands, individuals did not limit themselves, back then, to one or other of the factions. They supported the broader scene. Bands could then individually support organizations or remain neutral. But in the 90’s the scene changed. After the killing of Stephen Lawrence (a black teenager killed by a group of Whites with no connection whatsoever to the scene) much media attention fell on the Skinhead scene; and in this case, negatively. Skinheads became, in many areas, absolute pariahs and word spread that many were moving across from the overt nature of the Skinhead scene to the football casual and dance scenes. Certainly there was a visible decline in numbers and activity, which has only seemingly been reversed in the last few years. As these old Skins dropped their colours, their brand of nationalism became more parochial and their interest in the Oi music scene declined. While many stayed on board and kept to their roots, the wider RAC scene suffered. It was in this light that the rise of the U.S. scene was regarded.
What was seen from here, initially identical to the U.K. scene, soon deviated from what was seen as "ours." Images of Skinheads following hardcore bands, which appeared to many here like hardcore kids, did not sit well. A somewhat dismissive attitude towards the American scene developed. Though this was not universal, and bands like Brutal Attack and No Remorse definitely benefited from the American audience and influence, it was widespread. As recently as four years ago, on returning from my first visit to the States with a batch of copies of the Project Schoolyard Vol. 1, a sampler with classic U.S. bands such as H8Machine and Bound For Glory, I decided to share the wealth and distributed them amongst the lads. The almost unanimous reaction was "How can you listen to that heavy metal shite?" Since then, while anything from Section 5 to Brutal Attack is welcome, American bands now compose about 90% of my CD collection; which is regarded with something between hostility and suspicion. Given that most modern Oi bands have clear metal roots, Condemned 84 being a prime example, and that most Nationalist Oi has little left of the original garage punk-like spirit of bands like The Diehards, this reaction to metal-influenced American bands seems out of place. The ballads for which many of the larger Nationalist bands became famous show a clear lineage leading to metal. Early streetrock style Oi could not have given birth to tracks like Skullhead’s "Barking of the Dogs" or Brutal Attack’s excellent CD "Keeping the Dream Alive" which is entirely melodic re-workings of old BA classics. Even Oi Godfathers Last Resort included a cover of Agnostic Front’s "Gotta Go" on their 2006 "Resurrection" CD. Some bands on the other side of the Atlantic, whose roots lay firmly within the American hardcore scene, carried with them a sound that was more accessible in the U.K.. Most notable amongst them was Youth Defense League. With a pedigree established within the NYHC scene, YDL nonetheless appeared on two UK Oi compilations. Step 1’s "U.S. of Oi," and Link’s "Oi Glorious Oi." In the latter case, they were featured alongside a slew of the well known U.K. stalwarts and an American Oi band, The Kicker Boys; the inclusion of an American band with universally acknowledged hardcore credentials seemed like a risk. Yet the song "Turncoat" merged seamlessly with the other tracks, an outstanding American contribution which while clearly divergent from what was being produced in the U.K., had an obvious appeal to the exclusively Skinhead Oi fan base here. However, the resistance to any apparent divergence from tradition continues here.
While this template cannot be applied universally across the U.K., it is certainly not unique to us. Many Skinheads in the U.K. would sooner make an appearance at a ska gig than a hardcore show and in fact anecdotal evidence suggests that many of the same faces who turned up for the early RAC gigs were also in attendance at Bad Manners and Prince Buster shows in the 80’s. The ska scene at that time was also almost universally Skinhead-dominated.
While it would not seem to be necessary for hostility toward new or to non-native bands, but for many they simply do not see how new genres can be embraced without diluting the wider scene. And the truth of the matter is that many see no reason to break with the Oi-only nature of the scene. While hardcore is enjoying a wave of interest in the U.K., the commercial success of London band The Gallows being testament to such interest, it has made little impact on and is unlikely to inspire the RAC scene. With Skinheads still at the centre of the musical side of the movements here, attempting to create an entirely new Nationalist scene around hardcore would be a risky move. So without the hard work of the people who made the Oi scene what it was in its prime, without that core, it would be an effort of questionable success. The preference for a small but "pure" or elite scene over a broader "diluted" scene seems likely to continue.
Certain assumptions have to be made in this piece. While, as stated before, there may be variations region to region, in the popularity and influence of newer musical genres in the wider scene, there is little in the way of evidence of widespread acceptance. The U.K. has yet to produce any significant waves in the non-Oi genres with any homegrown bands. An argument has been that Tattooed Mother Fuckers have elements of the newer edgier sound to their music, but at the heart of TMF lies with traditional Oi and many of their tracks would be musically comparable to existing U.K. bands and have not strayed far from the existing roots of RAC music.
So what of the future? No one, to the best of my knowledge, has made a concerted effort through the existing RAC groups to popularize the newer forms of music in any dramatic way. So it is possible that that with their support, or with the creation of an entirely new umbrella grouping of music, an expansion of the musical movement would be possible; but this is really about winning hearts and minds. The bands exist, the labels produce their music and make it accessible to fans here in the U.K., but the interest really needs to be there to warrant such and the scene here would need to embrace the new waves of bands. Which in many cases are far from new in their other countries.
The real question is how long will Oi alone sustain the scene here and if younger generations will even take to it? All the while this is with a seemingly older Skinhead population that seems to have little drive towards any dramatic change. It may transpire that the change comes from without instead of from within, coming from the newer hardcore fan base in the U.K. becoming politicized, in which case we will have been left behind in a cultural shift in the Nationalist music scene; most likely to our detriment.
It's commonly heard and far too easy for today's so-called “scene” to scornfully claim that racialist punks are some kind of new and undesirable bizarre occurrence, considering how whitewashed and biased the history of punk has been thus far. However, the truth, as you will learn, proves to be quite contrary.
The history of the racialist punk movement can arguably be traced back to as early as 1977, with the birth of the punk subculture in England. However, the first verifiable evidence of the racialist punk movement was a youth division of the British National Front that formed in 1978 called the "Punk Front”. It started off as a mere political and music related ‘zine, but due to its rapid success it quickly turned into a organized group and wave of bands with a considerably significant following, particularly in Leeds, England.
In the United States the 1980s saw a large emergence of racial punk crews nationwide, as well as a number of bands. Areas like New York City and Los Angeles were home to some of the largest amounts of racialist punks in the country. They could be found at nearly every show and in various places they were even the majority of the local scenes. It wasn't until the later part of the decade that politically correct/anti-racist “punks" (with aid from SHARPs) started to blacklist Nationalistic beliefs within the scene and thus the numbers of openly racialist punks unfortunately started to steadily decline.
This gradual reduction in the amount of racialist punks internationally carried on throughout the ‘90s and the increase of multiracial and fashion-orientated people within the subculture quickly skyrocketed.
Today we're in the midst of seeing of large reemergence of the racialist punk movement. Bands, crews and individuals are being seen all over the world taking part in this massive revival. This can mainly be attributed to the dissatisfaction of many individuals in the scene today who are just overwhelmingly tired of the irrationally politically correct direction the scene has continued to take. Therefore, we may see the racialist punk movement at the largest point it has ever been in within only a few years
Anti-Communist Punk Bands on Myspace:
A.B.H. formed in 1981 in Lowestoft, England. The first few years in the bands career they remained neutral on the issue of politics and race, although they did acquire a large following among young National Front members (as many apolitical Punk & Oi! bands in England did at the time). However, in 1983 they finally decided to openly display their political beleifs by recording a song which was to be featured on White Noise Records “This Is White Noise” EP along side the White Power bands: Skrewdriver, Brutal Attack, and The Diehards.
It can be argued by some that A.B.H. wasn’t necessarily “National Socialist” politically speaking, but it would be foolish to try to claim that they weren’t White Nationalists. Partaking in a National Front EP alone is proof enough, let alone their song Nerves of Steel, which is clearly a British White Nationalist song.
They released a few EPs and appeared on various Punk & Oi! compilation records during their duration. They broke-up shortly following the release of the “This Is White Noise” EP.Nerves of Steel (from This Is White Noise)
“I look around, what do we see?
A nation once proud & free
Nowadays a yankee state, unable to decide your own fate
(chorus)
We are here for our nation
Victory or damnation
It don’t matter how we win
Even murder is no sin
Kentucky Fried Chicken and Coca Cola
The yanks are coming, they’re taking over
Reagan’s hands around our neck, it’s our nation he wants to wreck
It doesn’t matter which way you turn
There’s always someone trying to pull you down
A student bastard, a communist
Trendy liberal or multiculturalists
